【正文】 pub far removed from any traditional notions of a British pub. Again, the management were doing their best here to exclude a certain type of man. Men in industrial clothes would have clashed with the pub’s decorative pretensions. It was now , but even here the only customers were men: groups of young men, or men who still fancied themselves as young, well dressed and apparently embarking on a night out. Again there was a strong feeling that this was male territory, and that women would be acceptable only on male terms. The only women in the pub, in fact, were employeesobviously recruited for youth and attractiveness, and dressed up to emphasize a maledefined sexiness. The manager agreed when James put this to him. “Yeah, sure, why not? I don’t tell the girls what to wear but they know how to fit in. around here it’s important to get it right. A lot of the pubs are really scummy…” Later on, he claimed, there would be a mixture of men and women but the men always started their drinking earlier. The London Hospital Tavern is an increasingly mon type of pub, especially in the cities. Not necessarily a pickup joint, it’s the kind of place where any woman could expect ments and some direct approachesnot the place to get away from it all! James’s brief chat with a group of men there revealed that they came because their mates did and because there would be a lot of birds there later on. They were fairly indifferent to the d233。cor but thought it was better than sawdust on the floor and lots of drunken old bastards falling about. James was pointed in the direction of The Grave Maurice as being an odd pub, used by students and nurses, and unusual in the sense that few local residents used it. On entering this pub, there was an immediately obvious difference in atmosphere. It was furnished in a lowkey, unobtrusive and fortably traditional way, the d233。cor not being contrived and pretentious like the two previous pubs. And for the first time there were actually groups of women in the pub and they even seem to be in a majority, overall. If you go into a pub like this it’s easy to forget that it’s the exception that proves the rule. The barmaid, again a student, had some strong views on the problem women face in mixing socially in pubs, both from observation and from direct experience. James asked her about her job and the difficulties of it. Apparently the pub was used a lot by medical students, and although they didn’t make the atmosphere hostile to women customers, a minority did seem to regard the bar staff as fair game for sexist remarks. It was not really very different from the kind of leers you’d get in The London Hospital Tavern. It just takes a different form that’s much more subtle, but it can be very crude as well. And it offends you, obviously? “It offends all women, but most just live with it. I mean, it offends me as a human being because in this particular job men can regard you as just a sexual modity. You give them their beer but they want you to smile and flirt…not all men, and not here so much but it’s still irritating. What’s funny is that in a lot of pubs around here, and everywhere I suppose, it’s somebody’s wife doing the serving and they still expect them to behave that way, they don’t realize, it could be their wives. They don’t make the connection.” And her own experience of pubs, offduty? “I don’t like them much, they’re really boring. It’s not much fun watching men drink all those pints and being more and more obnoxious. You don’t always get obvious harassment but it’s always there, you e to expect it. When you see a crowd of men together it’s worrying, because they egg each other on, they’re like a pack really…” Did she feel that men controlled the atmosphere in pubs to some extent? Yes, obvious really, when you think about it, and how you think twice about going in them on your own, even places that you know. When I’ve done it , even if I’m waiting for friends or whatever, I find myself just making sure I’ve got a newspaper so that it’s like I’m occupied and hidden.” How much freedom do women have to use pubs? “Well, you have to choose where you are going very carefully, where you are going to be OK. I don’t think womenwell, I don’t anywayjust go out and drink for the sake of it. It’s almost as if they’re not allowed to.” What were the alternatives? “Wine bars are good because there’s wine, people don’t go there to drink loads of beer. They’re private as well….In a pub it’s like you’re available, anyone can just walk up to you. I have been to womenonly pubs when it’s the right night, though.” Why was that so different? “Well, men take that situation for granted, don’t they? Drinking together. When women are together like that it does seem perfectly natural: there’s no role to play, like trying to be aloof and that sort of thing. You don’t feel threatened…but they’re a defensive thing really, and that’s a shame. There’s a lot more talking than drinking, and that’s a difference.” None of the women asked said they would feel fortable going in to any pub on their owna monplace taken for granted by most men. And there was a lot of stress on thisexceptionalpub being one where women felt at ease. Two women, both secretaries who had traveled some way to meet in this particular pub, said it was the only pub in a wide area that they’d feel fortable in, just talking. It was also one of the very few pubs they’d feel safe in. One of the women was a Canadian, who pointed out that in Canada it was even worse: bars were intimidating, allmale drinking places, and unacpanied women would simply never dare go ineven with a newspaper! It was quite rare for Canadian women to go independently to bars even in groups. This group also drew attention to a particular problem women face when we go out socially in the evenings: that of traveling home late, which to them was a real worry and something that affected the whole business of