Men’s clubs
The Australian is leading a charge against that bastion of of old conservative ways, men’s clubs.
Melbourne’s Athenaeum Club has been split over the issue of women members, with a high-powered group of 130 business and civic leaders being blocked in their push to have women accepted as members for the first time in the club’s 142-year history.It’s a Men only club. If that’s not your bag, don’t join! To join a club knowing it’s constitution and then agitate to change it suggests an agenda outside of the clubs reason for existence. If you find it objectionable that men gather as a group and talk men’s business then complain to each other at your next mixed-gender function and leave the blokes to have their fun. There are woman’s clubs I can’t join, and don’t want to; and I belong to an ex-infantry officers group that meet regularly. There are no woman as there is yet to be a woman commissioned as an Infantry Officer. What’s wrong with that? For that matter, what woman would want to join? Let the old guys have their fun; nothing to see here, move on
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It’s sort of like the Australian club.
People join it and then want to change it to be like the club they came from.
Heaven only knows why!
Why’d they come from their crappy old club, to change The Aussie Club to be like the shithole they came from club?
What is it with these feministas? Men are bit by bit being emasculated by women’s groups.
Its a wonder that they don’t wany mixed loos.
I have no desire to join A ‘Mens club’ but having been invited to enjoy dinner and lunch on special days such as father’s day and mother’s day at the Melbourne club, I can tell you it was a lovely experience seeing families and grandchildren all enjoying themselves. and a lovely if simple meal to boot.
Men need a place where they can just be themselves the only thing I would like to see dropped is the exclusion of men who happen to be Jews. No place today fror that practice.
I agree, no racial discrimination but otherwise let them have their fun without the sobering influence of wives or partners.
Incidentally, that type of bonhomie also exists in strip joints. Or so I’ve heard…
Not from me you haven’t but someone did once told me that bonhomie does exist in strip joints..or whatever they’re called.
So there is no place today for the practice of discriminating against Jews but it is OK to discriminate against people who have a vagina. Yep that makes sense.
Felix,
One is racial discrimination but the other is reasonable. There are any amount of women’s clubs that don’t accept men as members and no one suggests that’s discrimination. I’m a member of veteran’s clubs and no one has ever suggested it’s discrimination for us not to welcome non veterans as members. Clubs are clubs, have constitutions that state what sort of person can become a member and people outside those parameters aren’t invited in.
As I said in the post if you join a club knowing what the constitution says and then agitate for something outside that constitution then you have an agenda, it’s most probably political and certainly not for the benefit of the club. In which case you should just f**k off and join a club that sits easily with your idea of how life should be.
Why isn’t anyone agitating about the Country Womens Association, and how they aim to overthrow democracy through cake stalls, book fairs and morning teas?
I’m a member of a club that only accepts men as members – it exists as a place for men to meet, chat, eat and drink in private and operates a bit like a mess – it is not a strip club, nor does it refuse entry to women, they just can’t become members.
The club has been around for 150 years and the question of changing the club’s constitution to allow women to be invited to become members has only been raised once.
The entire membership (many hundreds) voted on the proposition at a recent annual general meeting – the proposition was defeated with only 20 or so members out of the hundreds present voting yes.
The most persuasive arguments against the proposition were put forward by dozens of younger members (30ish) – many complaining their lives at work and at most social outlets were governed by an overwhelming political correctness they found stifling.
They said they enjoyed the conservative atmosphere and the club’s insistence on high dress standards, politeness, respect for an individual’s space and responsible behaviour – they explained that they despised the drunken free for alls found in most of the pubs and clubs around town.
We are a private club, membership is by invitation and the members paid for the land, building and facilities out of their own pockets.
However, when the AGM’s agenda became public the ABC and various ‘do-gooders’ attempted to force us to change the nature of our membership to suit their ideology and when the vote was taken were stunned we had the audacity to say no.
Perhaps another vote on women memberships may succeed in the future, it’s our club, we own it and pay substantial fees in order to keep the doors (and bar) open.
It is our right to make that decision, as it is the right of the members of the Melbourne Club to decide who they wish to invite into their club.
As Kev wrote if you don’t like the rules of our club don’t seek to join.