Posted on 06/23/2002 5:36:20 PM PDT by dighton
Working class hen parties strike fear in city’s gays
By Nigel Bunyan
(Filed: 24/06/2002)
The popularity of Manchester’s “gay village” as a venue for hen nights is upsetting the locals, according to researchers.
Members of the gay community say they feel threatened by the behaviour of visiting working class women from the Wythenshawe and Salford areas.
Researchers at Manchester University found that the residents sometimes feel under siege in an area that in recent years they have largely made their own.
Levels of drunkenness and rowdiness have become so high in the heart of the village, around Canal Street - which is the setting for Queer As Folk, the Channel 4 gay drama - that gay people want to see extra police officers on patrol.
The researchers say some people that they have spoken to believe that in order to maintain safety in the area it should be kept as “gay” as possible.
Bev Skeggs, of the university’s sociology department, has spent two years researching Canal Street life. She said: “Within the village itself it is incredibly safe. But the boundaries to the village are very unsafe.
“There are people there who want trouble. The problem is with the hen party syndrome. People have complained about the presence of groups of the wrong type of women, with men following them in.
“Those continually identified as a problem were working class women from Wythenshawe and Salford.”
Ms Skeggs, whose findings are expected to be published in full later this year, added: “Marginalised groups always need an ‘enemy’ and in the gay space it seems it is working class women who are that enemy.”
One local club, Poptastic, had introduced a policy of barring “straight” women “as they simply caused too much trouble”.
John Hamilton, the club’s promoter, confirmed that it operated what he called “a positive door policy”. He added: “It creates a positive atmosphere where clubbers don’t have to worry about altercations with drunk, straight people.”
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
Why? Are they afraid they may have heterosexual tendencies?
Not only am I not at all surprised by fecal hypocrisy, I'm also not surprised that the journalist who noted this didn't see the inconsistency.
Mr. Atomic Vomit
This sentence has the makings of a limerick.
It would make the queers so mad that they could just crush a grape!
But then again, the queers have always hated the working class -- they're not cultured enough to enjoy the freak shows put on by limp wristed, though vicious sodomists.
All in all this could become a fad for straight family night out -- and not just a hen party. I laugh until my guts jiggle.
"Oh Bill, we have such a crime problem here in England. Why, just the other night some drunken working class women from Wythenshawe were causing a ruckus in Salford! They were hooting at the local poofters and making their makeup run and everything! The poofters got so upset, they started mobbing up and the next thing you know a musical broke out! Oh Bill, crime here is just.....awful."
As far as limericks go, you're on your own on that one.
Do I smell.......discrimination?
LOL Yeah, they're looking for normal males.
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