The Maple Bar in Canberra wants to bring ‘a bit of class’ to the capital, raising questions over what sort of measures are needed to protect women

Bar's ban on men chatting up women: is it feminism gone too far, or Don Draper redux?

A bar in Australia’s capital city Canberra has banned men from approaching women.

It sounds like an overstatement intended to outrage. But the Maple Bar’s owner, Mike Kadinski, has stood by his policy and says he’s only trying to “bring a bit of class back to Canberra”.

The bar, which opened last Saturday, is the newly revamped second level of the established Treehouse Bar. Along with dark furnishings and a chandelier, the house rules are a bid to distinguish the Maple as a classier establishment and one less popular with university students, following “feedback from our older, suit-wearing patrons”.

So on closer inspection this was not a straightforward case of feminism having gone too far. In fact it was perhaps the opposite.

At the heart of the so-called ban was less women’s safety than restoring a golden era in which people dressed up for air travel. It was a bid to encourage women to act like “ladies” and men, Don Draper.

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“We have a set of house rules and the one that people have found most interesting is that gentlemen don’t approach ladies,” he told Daily Mail Australia in an interview published on Tuesday. “And the rule is, if a gentleman is lucky enough to be approached by a lady, he speaks to her as if he would speak to his mother.”

A Canberra Times’ online poll showed that 49% of 4,555 respondents thought the ban was “ridiculous”. A man gave the bar a one-star rating on Facebook with the comment: “Maple Bar is for cuckholds” [sic].

But Kadinski told Guardian Australia that the ban had been taken out of context and “a little bit too far”. It was a house rule intended to create an “old school” environment in keeping with the refit of the venue; it was not targeted, specific or political.

He had worked in hospitality for nearly 20 years and also ran a security company. “In my experience, past a certain time of the night, when gentlemen try to approach a lady – they obviously do it with liquid courage, and they don’t always do it on the right foot, and make people uncomfortable.”

The house rules enabled the bar staff, not just the bouncers, to step in in such a situation. But, Kadinski pointed out, “the nightclub’s about six steps downwards” where “you can do whatever you want”.

The coverage was substantial enough, anyway, to force Kadinski to release a statement .

“Don’t let the house rules scare you off! Maple Bar is not taking a stand on feminism, rather we’re about kicking it old school … They should be read and understood with an old school point of view, rather than a 2017 equal rights point of view.”

As such, Kadinski wrote in his statement, entry to the bar was subject to “adherence to the semi-formal dress code”, specified as cocktail dresses for women, smart shirts and dress shoes for men.

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“We really want to bring some class back to Canberra,” the statement continued. “It’s disappointing that so many ladies put so much time and effort into getting dressed up, only to be met by a guy who thinks it’s okay to put a T-shirt on with a pair of thongs [flip-flops]”.

Measures to protect women in bars exist, but they’re not necessarily laid out before the cocktail list. They’re in the bathrooms, where a woman who finds herself in trouble might seek refuge.

“Feeling uncomfortable? Receiving unwanted attention?” a typical poster on the backs of toilet doors read. “Whatever the situation may be, ask the bar staff or security guards for a manager and we will help you out of the situation discreetly and effectively without causing a fuss.” Some suggest a code name to ask for at the bar.

The bars that have adopted this strategy don’t necessarily strive for a classy clientele. But many women would rather this modern “equal rights point of view” over one from the 1960s.

The assistant manager of one Sydney bar to have such signs said they seemed to have made a difference in the likelihood that patrons would ask staff for help.



“We’ve had a couple of occasions here where we’ve removed a patron who was being awkward, or creating an uncomfortable situation. ... We want to make sure that everyone in the venue is treated with respect and feels comfortable in our venue.”



There were signs in the men’s bathrooms as well, he added. “We don’t want there to be any discrimination by gender.”