The Bangalore Club is one of the most prestigious private clubs in the city and the opening of the bar raises the question, should clubs designate areas that are gender sensitive in the first place? "I don't think we need to have gender sensitive areas at clubs. I think it is silly. Women don't need to be treated as delicate flowers, we are strong sambhar eating women, aren't we?" asks Rubi, a member of the Bangalore Club, which has been in the news recently for no longer having a male preserve.
"I've gone there since I was a little girl. My children are members of the club and it's unfair that it is being targeted. The Men's bar was a relic of the British Raj.
There was a time when it was considered rude to drink in front of a woman so the men would retire to their quiet corner of the club if they wanted a tipple. The rule was upheld as a sort of preservation of the past, somewhat like the stuffed shikar heads. I used to go there as a kid and it was usually an old gentleman sitting there with a drink. It was okay to be there, really. Now the Men's bar is a multi sex bar, I don't think gender sensitive areas are required at clubs. Not just Bangalore club but any club for that matter. We are amongst people with whom we share similar interests, thoughts and goals. We already have gender sensitive bathrooms, what more? I feel it is taking the gender thing too far. Why create an exclusive, specific space for a certain gender? If we swim separately, we sit separately it creates an atmosphere that is somehow lewd, I think. We must learn to behave with each other and be with each other as a whole and not as separate genders," she says.
"I work in the area of identifying sexual discrimination and tackling it in corporate sectors and I would like to not just focus on women but to include men as well, because most of the time they have no idea what the issue is really about. All I can ask for as a woman would be don't poke me, prod me, molest me or rape me, that is as gender sensitive as it should get. I honestly believe it should be an equal playing field for both genders. Think it through. Men and women must co-inhabit."
