On one of my first visits to the Lesbian Herstory Archives more than a decade ago, I came across an amazing article in the July 1977 issue of Pearl Diver, a long-defunct lesbian-feminist publication out of Portland, Oregon. (Sadly, it was not a Black lesbian magazine, as one online source suggests. Consistently mind-blowing covers, though. The July ‘77 cover showed a naked woman—artistically rendered, and all, but it left nothing to the imagination!)
The story, titled “The Bar Tapes” is an exercise in radical transparency—to such an extent that it’s a good reminder of why business owners aren’t usually so forthcoming.
The genesis of the piece was that parties unknown had plastered a sign reading, “THIS BAR EXPLOITS WOMEN” on the door of Rising Moon, a woman-owned and operated bar that had been in business for a little over a year at the time. The issue was that Rising Moon charged more for beer than the other gay bars in town, and political women concluded that this was because the owners were price-gouging. The piece’s anonymous author explained:
We decided to do something about this problem: we would write an article denouncing the bar for exploiting us. The article was to be totally one-sided. Then we thought perhaps we were making assumptions; maybe we should find out the owners’ side of the issue, and see if they would care to explain things from their viewpoint. To our surprise, the owners were more than willing to talk, and discuss their business with us. … Since this discussion, my feelings about this bar and the owners have changed considerably.
No wonder. Over the course of the 19-page transcript, it becomes clear that running a bar—or, really, running any kind of community business—is a massive headache that robs a potentially fun place of its joy, and isn’t financially remunerative anyway.
The owners, Sallie Bird and Susan Paserow, weren’t exactly happy about having to reveal all, but at least they got to burst a bunch of bubbles.
Why couldn’t they prevent men from coming into the bar—or at least let the customers tell any men who wandered in that they weren’t welcome? Because that would cause the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to close the bar. (Sallie mentioned that “this fag I went to high school with” had warned her that an undercover cop had told him the Rising Moon was being set up for a discrimination suit.)
Why couldn’t women talk politics in the bar? “This is not a political place. This is a bar, a place where women should come to drink, and dance, to meet other women, and have a good time. … I can’t let politics interfere with this business. … The limit is not to get up in front of a microphone (some have) or go up to women and tell them what they should or shouldn’t be doing.”
Why did they charge a 50-cent cover at the door? “Because we now have to make payments on the equipment, and buy records, and pay Tilly for doing the records, and someone on the door. We had to put up my car as collateral and I don’t want to lose it.”
Why was beer more expensive there than in the town’s other bars? The other places had been in business longer and had paid off their loans, but also, “we are dealing with an exclusive segment. If we had all kinds of people coming in here, we could lower the prices, and make some money.”
The owners then made the best possible counter to the charge that they were taking excessive profits: They shared their profit and loss statement, which Pear Diver reproduced.
It’s clear that Bird and Paserow were already burned out a little over a year into the venture, but the hardest thing to read about was the loneliness of the lesbian business-owner. Sallie shared:
I feel that I don’t have a place to go to. Because when I come in here, what do I hear? “We’re out of toilet paper. We’re out of chalk.” Just bullshit! Those things can be taken care of by the bartenders. People don’t have to talk to me about chalk and toilet paper, or if the pool table is fucked up or if the cigarette machine is taking their money. … There are lots of times I would like to come down and just play a game of pool, and I don’t; I just stay home.
RECOMMENDATIONS: I’m 12 years late to this, but I just finished Daniel Okrent’s Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition. What a great book, and what a bananas, totally fascinating slice of American history! Oh, and also the amazing mini-cupcakes my co-workers brought to the bar at my going-away drinks. Can you believe I needed help to get the dental joke?
LISTEN TO ME: April 1 was my last day as a Slate staffer, but I’ll still be co-hosting Working and producing Outward, Slate’s LGBTQ podcast. Because the last few weeks of my Slate tenure were extra-busy, it’s been a month since since my last newsletter, so I’ve got lots of listening for you. On Working I spoke with Julia Cameron (yes, morning pages/The Artist’s Way Julia Cameron—she was great fun to chat with) and children’s book creators Natalia and Lauren O’Hara; and on Working Overtime, Isaac Butler and I talked about the benefits (and otherwise) of creative routines and rituals. I also joined Danny Lavery to offer some advice on Big Mood, LIttle Mood, and I gabbed about Julia (with Sarah Lancashire as Julia Child!), After Yang, and Chris Pine’s gift for playing uxorious heroes on last week’s Culture Gabfest.
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