Reykjavík Grapevine - 12.08.2016, Síða 10

The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2016
10
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When Icelanders talk-
ing about the news call
summer “the cucum-
ber time,” they refer
to the fact that summer is a slow news
season. While this is often the case,
this doesn’t mean things stop happen-
ing. For example, Culture Night is now
right around the corner. Starting on Au-
gust 20, this weekend festival is devoted
to arts and culture and should not be
missed. Whatever you do, though, don’t
try to arrive by car. A good portion of
downtown will be closed to car traffic.
Help keep things running smoothly by
arriving by city bus, walking, cycling,
Segwaying, or whatever.
It’s not often that we get to use the words
“asylum seekers” and “good news” in
the same sentence, but here we are: The
Directorate of Immigration has decided
to properly examine the case of an Iraqi
who is seeking asylum here. The reason
why this is news is because in over 90%
of cases, the Directorate simply deports
people who have applied for asylum
elsewhere before coming here, without
even bothering to examine why they’re
seeking asylum. Whether this decision
has anything to do with the coverage the
Grapevine and others have given to his
case is unknown, but is also not as im-
portant as the chance for the guy to start
a new life here. Cross your fingers!
So the Pirate Party is ruminating on the
idea of using Pokéstops at polling places
to attract young voters. Our sources tell
us they were planning on setting up Poké-
gyms at the polls instead, but were con-
cerned this would lead to people defend-
ing gyms with Pokémons with names
like LeftGreen4VR or SocDemsRule.
NEWS IN
BRIEF
It can be open warfare for many women
who go downtown at the weekend. But
things are now changing, slowly…
“Well, as you probably saw, the annual
Slutwalk (Druslugangan) happened
last week and looked to have been at-
tended by a lot of people; many people
I knew took part. While people can ar-
gue about whether such a big spectacle
that has Friðrik Dór playing can tech-
nically be defined as a form of mass
sadomasochism, for me and many
other bar workers, the much more im-
portant thing has been the Slutwalk’s
accompanying poster campaign in the
pubs of downtown Reykjavík, telling
customers to report to staff any ha-
rassment they receive, sexual or other-
wise, and that we will deal with it. In
our bar, for example, the poster has got
a really positive response from locals
and tourists, with many taking pic-
tures to show their friends back home.
One female tourist from NYC noted in
particular how cool it was that bars were
doing this—‘You’d NEVER get a bar in
NYC doing this at all,’ she mused.”
The Perfect Storm
“And it’s a good thing that it’s getting
better. For a long time, you ask most
bar people or those bouncers that have
a soul about harassment in 101 bars,
and a cloud of doom would gather over
their heads. Because of the legacy that
As Told To
BOB CLUNESS
Illustration
LÓA HLÍN
HJÁLMTÝS-
DÓTTIR
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GPV.IS/BRU12
STRANGE BREW
“Don’t touch
me with what
you can’t afford
to lose, Fuckhead…”
is the general fucking chaos of down-
town nightlife, at some point people
would almost certainly get harassed
by some arsehole with no clue of the
concept of personal space, and who
needed to be drunk/extremely high to
actually talk to another person of the
opposite sex. And despite their having
the power to deal with this problem,
very little was done by bars. This was
often due to three things:
• Poorly trained staff who were
often put in vulnerable situa-
tions with little or no protection.
• Bars managed or owned by semi-
coked-up idiots and borderline
alcoholics who couldn’t organise
their way out of a vodka bottle.
• Door staff who didn’t give a shit and
honestly thought that nothing bad
was happening.
“As you can see, this is a pretty toxic
mix. Many staff have often told stories
about they themselves being groped
and abused by customers while work-
ing. I once spoke about this with a
friend who was both a bartender and
doorman. For him the most depress-
ing part of the job wasn’t the violence,
but having to deal with manchildren
who would lose their shit when their
advances to women were (mostly
politely) rebuffed. He would have to
deal with verbal abuse (‘You bitch!
You fucking whore!’), guys throw-
ing drinks in women’s faces, all
the way up to physical violence.
One guy punched a woman full
square in the face, breaking her
nose. ‘Too many on this fucking is-
land are overgrown scumbags,’ he
grumbled.”
A long ways to go
“So for most bar staff, they’ve had it
up to here with this crap and are now
much more proactive in dealing with
it. There’s still a way to go, though.
Just this morning I got a text from a
friend about her experience in a down-
town bar the evening of the Slutwalk
itself. After chatting to a friend, some
guy sneaks up behind her and lifts up
her clothes to reveal her bra. Cue a bol-
locking from her and off she goes to
get the doorman to kick him out. But
instead of being professional, said
doorman apparently starts wading in
and fighting the guy, causing several
glasses to be broken and my friend
unfortunately getting kicked by the
creep, right in the fud (vagina, to you
and me). But to add insult to injury
was the fact that several people nearby
(who were wearing Slutwalk t-shirts
and had clearly been on the walk it-
self) actually made her feel bad and ef-
fectively slutshamed her for bringing
the doorguys into the situation and
harshing their buzz! Talking the talk,
but not walking the walk it seems…”