In MP, There Will Be Women Friendly Liquor Stores. It’s Supposed To Be Good, But The Reality Is That It Reeks Of Sexism
A couple of years ago, I was on a work trip to Delhi with my colleagues and we decided to buy some alcohol to wash down the exhaustion. Here in Mumbai, I am used to buying my own alcohol from the wine shop and I was intending to do the same there too. But our office manager from Delhi asked us to stay in the car and he went to buy the liquor for us. Apparently, people look down upon women who walk into a wine shop. I was really perplexed at that because I never thought that could be a thing.
The other time I was in Delhi, my female friend and I wanted to buy wine and we went to a slightly fancier shop. That too, didn’t feel women-friendly to me. It felt like a mini, confined representation of our entire male-dominated society where women’s needs are ignored. But alcohol was needed so we went into the testosterone-filled room, trying our best to come out of it not ripped of our dignity.
Once again, I was in Alibagh and we wanted to buy some chilled beer. I went to a wine shop and it seemed like for everyone at that shop – the shopkeeper and the customers – time had come to a standstill. They were so shocked to see two women buying liquor so confidently that they didn’t have time to judge us.
Except some places in India, women are not expected to buy alcohol because men would like to have monopoly over some drunken fun too. How dare an ovary-owning human enjoy a drink? Our society just can’t digest that.
Recently, Madhya Pradesh state Government announced women-friendly liquor shops in a few cities. There will be two wine shops in Indore and Bhopal and one each in Gwalior and Jabalpur. I really want to know how that helps. Women buying liquor already throws men off – we don’t need separate shops, we need the men to be sensitised and understand that if women want to drink, they should be able to. We don’t need your stamp of approval, thank you very much.
Honestly, this just feels like lip service. People don’t travel long-distance just to buy some alcohol, right? Just one or two wine shops in the entire city makes no difference except in the lives of women who live in the vicinity of those thekas. Maybe they will even make the walls pink, because you know….
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It was also announced that these so called women-friendly liquor stores will be stocked with high-end, expensive imported alcohol because you know that’s how we drink. There will also be wine festivals organised. I am so sure that these schemes were made up by a bunch of men because it seems like they have no idea about how women really drink.
In a country where the gender pay gap is huge, how do they think women can afford high-end alcohol? I mean, irrespective of gender, everyone likes to celebrate with some fine bubbly but please don’t expect us to indulge on a regular basis. During normal days, women too chug down cheap beers and bow down to the good ol’ monk like men do. What is this gender-based misconception? So now that our society is trying to come to terms with the fact that men do not have a monopoly over drinking, it is just assumed that women drink in a sophisticated manner. Nope, all of us do not live in mansions and have a bar fully-stocked with Roberto Cavalli vodka.
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Instead of taking mere token measures, it would be helpful if awareness is created so our society stops looking at women who drink as “loose” or “easy”. It would be nice if wine shop owners were taught to not look mortified when a woman walks in. Or encourage more women to take up jobs in wine shops. There’s so much stigma around this that a woman wouldn’t even be comfortable to stand around a theka. This has to change and limiting women to dedicated stores won’t help.
