Patriarchy and pub culture

by Valerie Hey

Patriarchy and Pub Culture contributes to a reading of men as occupying a position of power which can be challenged, and should inspire others to offer some more interpretations of this and other social institutions. Within these texts, and by relating them to contemporary experiences, she highlights several fascinating similarities which all portray power relations between genders as the most salient discourse structuring the domain of this social space. In particular it is an account which owes a great deal to the feminist recognition of the social construction of femininity as threatening and subversive and 'needing' control via the social practices of exclusion or by tokenism. Underpinning this argument is the insistence on seeing male bonding as a fragile and insecure strategy based on intractable instabilities endemic to patriarchal masculinity.

84 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Kirsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Obviously of-its-time (being from the 70s) but I liked how it showed what was considered radical at that time.

[Malcolm · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fabulous brief analysis of the pub as masculine republic, as a central element of British patriarchy, and of the sexual politics and dynamics of the space. I keep coming back to it, and my stuents are often shocked by how much they recognise about the institution from a book published before most of them were born.