‘A woman doesn’t belong in a bar’… Say what?!?!
There was quite a stir in the drinks world last week. Charles Schumann (78) won the 50 Best Bars Industry Icon Award, but not everyone was happy about it. The world-famous bartender has made some rather remarkable statements about women.
“Women should only work the lunch shift, making way for the real (male) bartenders”, “A bar is no place for a woman. The important characters are always men”, and “I say they (women) can come, but they are not wanted. The old journalists who came to my bar would say, ‘Children, don’t talk to us when we’re whisky drinking,” to name just a few.
List of lists
Schumann made the statements in an interview with German Playboy several years ago. In an interview with The Japan Times in 2009, he said: ‘I have the same opinion now’. The subject also came up again in the 2018 film Schumann’s Bar Talks. Nevertheless, 50 Best Bars – the list of lists in the bar industry – honored the bartender with the prestigious award.
#Notmyicon
That caused an uproar. Famous female bartenders such as Ivy Mix, Julie Reiner and ‘our’ cocktail queen Tess Posthumus spoke out against Schumann and 50 Best Bars. ‘Sexism is not iconic, misogyny is not iconic’, ‘Stop giving awards to assholes’, ‘Charles Schumann should be ashamed of being such a tired dinosaur’, ‘This is hateful and harmful’, despise half the world’s population’, they wrote. And the hashtags #shamefulschumann, #womenbehindthebarafter3 and #notmyicon started trending.
Apologies
Successfully: Schumann announced that he wanted to return his award, and 50 Best Bars accepted. On Facebook, Schumann offers his apologies, but also says that his statements were misinterpreted. 50 Best Bars also takes the blame – after remaining silent for a long time, but says that they were unaware of Schumann’s statements.
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