A woman stands in a bar in the Melbourne CBD, enjoying a night out with friends after a long week. Unexpectedly, a manâa stranger to herâapproaches her from behind and grabs her, pinning himself against her while he gropes her breasts. She manages to break free from his hold and returns to her friends. The woman informs bar staff of the manâs actions. However, he is in the bar as part of a large group that had booked to be in the venue, and the bar staff do not wish to lose these âvaluableâ customers. The bar staff inform the woman that she is making a âdramaâ, and that the man is just a bit drunk. The woman leaves the venue and phones the police. The perpetrator is eventually charged with indecent assault.
The above vignette portrays an incident of sexual violence that occurred in a Melbourne bar as I was nearing the end of my research for this book on young adultsâ perceptions and experiences of unwanted sexual attention in licensed Melbourne venues (see Hollaback, 2013; McColl, 2013 for further information on the incident). It sharply reminded me of my initial reasons for conducting this research, as well as highlighting that in the several years it took to complete this project, sadly, little had changed. Indeed, as I sat down to write this book there were several other high profile incidents of sexual violence in licensed venues around Melbourne, and grass roots campaigns aimed at combatting sexual harassment and violence in pubs and clubs have been introduced recently in other global cities such as LondonThis womanâs experience also encapsulated a number of the key themes and issues raised in my research. Why did the incident occur in this bar? What made the perpetrator engage in his course of action? Was there something within the culture of the bar that encouraged sexual violence? For example, did the dismissive attitudes of the bar staff, and the value placed on profit above patron well-being, facilitate the perpetratorâs actions? How should the bar staff have responded, and what responsibility did they have to respond in any particular way? Did the fact that the victim/survivor was away from her friendship group at the time her perpetrator assaulted her make a difference? Did the manner in which she related to the culture of the bar and the people in it influence how she interpreted her experience and the level of harm she endured? These are all key questions that I will explore throughout this book.
While encounters such as this are anecdotally common (Grazian 2007; Snow et al. 1991), there has been only minimal attention paid, whether in academic, policy, or public discourse, to sexual violence and unwanted sexual attention within licensed venues (although this situation is, of course, continually evolving). This lack of attention sits in contrast to the considerable focus on menâs physical violence in the night-time economy in Australia and in other Western countries such as the UK. Yet this anxiety around menâs âalcohol-fuelledâ violence did not reflect or respond to the types of sexualised harm that I had encountered as a young woman in the Melbourne venue scene, and that so many (if not all) of my female-identified friends had also been exposed to. Indeed, the experiences of anyone other than heterosexual men seemed to be largely excluded from discussions on harm and violence in the night-time economy. In many ways my research on unwanted sexual attention in licensed venues was designed to respond to this knowledge gap by providing a platform to document and give voice to a more diverse range of experiences within the city at night.
Several decades of research on sexual violence, and other forms of sexually unwanted or coerced experiences, have firmly established that it is a heavily gendered experience, with men usually the perpetrators and women usually the victim/survivors. Feminist and other theoretical contributions have identified a broad range of social, structural and political factors that underlie sexual violence. Patriarchal power relations, gender inequality, and social and cultural attitudes have been identified as creating the conditions that allow sexual violence to take place. Such contributions have been highly valuable, yet we still know relatively little regarding how sexual violence comes about in different cultural and social settings such as licensed venues. Intersections between gender identity, sexuality, and sexual violence also remain sorely under-examined. In investigating young adultsâ perceptions and experiences of unwanted sexual attention in licensed venues, this book is concerned with the intersecting themes of gender, sexuality, and space and place.
Setting the Scene: The Research Context
In my research for this book I set out to explore young adultsâ experiences and perceptions of unwanted sexual attention in licensed venues. I wanted to find out what young people were encountering on a night out, as well as how they understood and perceived unwanted sexual attention. In what ways were their experiences and perceptions shaped by the particular venue they occurred in, or by facets of identity such as gender and sexual orientation? In order to examine these questions, I conducted interviews, focus groups and surveys with 252 young Melbournians. The experiences of these young people underpin this book.
As I argue throughout this book, the context in which unwanted sexual attention occurs is vitally important in informing how young people understand and experience it. Melbourne has a large, dynamic licensed venue scene, with around 1000 venues located within the central and inner city and extending out to some suburban regions (Millar 2009). Melbourneâs pubs and clubs vary in terms of their size, culture, and core patron demographics, among many other features. Each of these venues has a distinct physical environment and design. Large commercial nightclubs often sit next to small underground bars and upmarket clubs and restaurants. Melbourneâs intricate laneways form a vast labyrinth, with venues located at every unexpected turn. Often, clubs and pubs are hidden within these dark, graffiti-marked laneways, with access to them dependent on culturally acquired knowledge and word of mouth.
However, as I have already intimated, Melbourneâs night-time entertainment scene has been marred in the past decade or so by (supposedly) increasing levels of drunken violence, with an ensuing moral panic (driven largely by local media and a number of high profile incidents of drunken violence) influencing a significant change in policy and police response (Houston 2007a, b; Johnston and Houston 2008; Millar 2009; Xuereb 2008). As well as being a site of pleasure and a place for people from different cultures and backgrounds in which to socialise, relax, and have fun, the Melbourne night-time venue scene is simultaneously a site of social control, social exclusion, and risk. A similar focus on interpersonal violence has occurred across a number of other large urban centres in Australia, including Newcastle, Sydney, and the Gold Coast (Briscoe and Donnelly 2001; Miller et al. 2012; Palk et al. 2010), and internationally (Winlow and Hall 2006). A range of measures such as increased police presence and the use of lockout tactics (where venues are prohibited from letting in new patrons after a designated time) were introduced across these sites. Much subsequent domestic and international research was concerned with establishing the nature and extent of interpersonal violence in and around clubs and pubs, evaluating these various attempts at social control and at identifying the contextual factors within licensed venues that may be conducive to violence occurring (Fitzgerald et al. 2010; Graham et al. 2006a, b; Graham and Wells 2003; Homel et al. 2004; Palk et al. 2010). However, gender and sexuality have only occasionally featured as areas of concern within this body of research.
While interpersonal violence among men has been considered in some detail in existing literature (see for example Briscoe and Donnelly 2001; Fitzgerald et al. 2010; Graham et al. 2006a, b; Homel et al. 1992; Palk et al. 2010), there has been only minimal accompanying research accounting for the experiences of women or gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and queer (GLBTIQ) young people within Melbourneâs night-time economy. Therefore, it is unclear what forms of interpersonal violence are of concern for these groups when accessing the Melbourne nightlife scene. In many respects, this book is a response to the insistent focus on interpersonal violence between men in the night-time economy. It seeks to present a more diverse picture of the nature of the social, physical, and psychological or emotional harms that young adults may encounter when using pubs and clubs.
What is âUnwanted Sexual Attentionâ? Initial Reflections on the Conceptual and Theoretical Framework of This Book
The second chapter of this book provides an in-depth exploration of what, precisely, unwanted sexual attention is. As this later discussion will elucidate, unwanted sexual attention is a highly complex, fluid, and situated occurrence. It is not necessarily an experience that can be defined easily or neatly. It is useful here, however, to briefly explain why the term âunwanted sexual attentionâ was implemented in this book and to provide the reader with an overview of the conceptual and theoretical approach taken. In many ways, this research challenges and disrupts, but also builds upon, current, dominant accounts of sexualised violence.
A Note on Terminology
It is important to account for why âunwanted sexual attentionâ has been used in this book as opposed to, say, the more familiar terms âsexual assaultâ or âsexual violenceââalthough I do occasionally draw on these terms as well. Language matters when discussing sexual violence (Girschick 2002: 100; Ristock 2002), as it can be used to exclude or deny experiences (Girschick 2002; Kelly 1988; Kelly and Radford 1990; Ristock 2002). It can also provide the means to name and express harms committed against us, to give voice to our experiences (Girschick 2002; Kelly a...