15 July 2015
Groping Women
by Lynda Goetz
A brief item, of only a dozen or so paragraphs in one of the national dailies, caught my eye the other day. It was, a little further research revealed, based on a piece in the Inverness Chronicle several days earlier. The report was about groups of heavy-drinking women behaving badly. The problem, it seemed, was the form of dress adopted for work by the barmen in the Hootenanny Pub in Inverness, who, being good Scotsmen had been in the habit of wearing kilts. Unfortunately this traditional dress seemed to be inciting ‘rowdy’ female customers to act in rather ‘unladylike’ ways. They wanted to find out just how traditional the men’s garb was. Being assaulted (and I use the word advisedly) on one too many occasions had resulted in a change of work attire for the barmen – who now wear trousers.
As the barmen themselves pointed out, the behaviour of the women may seem amusing at first, but when you cannot go around collecting glasses without having hands stuck up your kilt to see if you are ‘a true Scotsman’ you end up feeling rather vulnerable. Well, of course you do. Indeed, it is more than slightly shocking to think that any women feel they can get away with this sort of behaviour. At a time when many women are pursuing an aggressively feminist line in so many areas (viz. the Sir Tim Hunt story), it does seem somewhat paradoxical that others are behaving in a way which, if a man were to do anything remotely similar, would result in his being hauled off to the police station in pretty short order and almost certainly charged. If he were not, there would probably be some sort of feminist outcry. The rights of women to pursue charges against men, even for historical abuse, is a fact of modern life, so how on earth is it that this sort of behaviour against men appears to result in the men having to change their form of dress? Surely if a woman had to resort to wearing trousers to avoid unwanted groping there would be massive complaints?
The owner of the pub, Mr Kit Fraser, pointed out that, “We fellows are very, very aware of sexism. I think the women need to catch up.” To suggest, as does a spokesman for the Scottish Licensed Trade Association that the men have found a ‘pragmatic and common-sense solution to an irritating problem’ after saying that no employee of either sex should have to put up with harassment at work, seems very forgiving of a situation which, if the ‘boot were on the other foot’ might have led to all sorts of charges and recriminations. It does seem to me that if women (rightly) expect respect for themselves, their intellect and their bodies, they should accord that same respect to men. Drink-fuelled behaviour should be no more excusable amongst groups of women than groups of men – North or South of the Border.
