She stands at over 5’8, with platinum blonde hair and tattoos that decorate her built frame from head to toe. Your first thought would likely be, “I better not fuck with her”. I know that’s what I thought. I met Meaghan one night when she was working as a bouncer at The Duke of Wellington and wanted to hear more about her experience as a female in that line of work. Although it did take 2 pints before I was willing to walk over and say something due to her intimidating demeanour. Snap judgement is a shameful thing because my initial impressions were quickly cast aside as I got to know her better.
(Meaghan at the Duke of Wellington)
In the male-dominated field that is the bouncing industry, Meaghan holds her own and currently works as the security manager at The Duke of Wellington pub in Uptown Waterloo. Aside from being a genuinely nice person, Meaghan is a collaborative leader who approaches her job in a meticulous and organized fashion. She confessed to me that it wasn’t always this way, admitting that she identifies as a push-over, but will rise to the occasion when a situation requires more aggressive behaviour.
Her career in security started organically when she was in her 3rd year of Biomedical Science at the University of Guelph. Her significant other at the time was working in a bar that happened to be hiring bouncers. While Meaghan was neither a big drinker, nor a bar dweller, a nighttime job at a bar sounded better than the early mornings that she was pulling at Tim Hortons. The early days of her new role left her feeling apprehensive at first, as she was required to maintain authority over patrons who often doubled as her peers at Guelph. She felt book smart rather than street smart and would take extra time when checking IDs, so as not to make a mistake.
Regardless of her precarious start, she enjoyed the position, spending the next 6 years working at bars such as Trappers, Palace, Frank & Steins, and Phil’s to name a few. It was during these years that her experiences in bouncing helped develop her skills in de-escalation and conflict resolution. She explained to me that 90% of communication is non-verbal, and how important it was to ensure that her body language matched the tone of her voice when communicating with disorderly patrons.
While it is essential for any bouncer to match body language with tone, it is especially important that female bouncers do so. This is important because some patrons do not afford female bouncers the same level of respect as their male counterparts. Meaghan explained this further when she said that working in an environment that serves alcohol occasionally results in patrons who think they can get away with unruly behaviour or unwanted comments because she is female. This problem is aggravated further when paired with Meaghan’s tattooed appearance, unjustly resulting in a plethora of situations that would not happen if she were a man.
Despite the commonality of tattoos in today’s society, some individuals take one look at Meaghan and make comments towards her that would earn a slap from their mothers. My favourite examples of such behaviour were in the form of screenshotted messages that she has received over time and posted on Facebook. Some men assume that her tattoos go hand and hand with sexual promiscuity, which is both incorrect and unfair. While shadowing her one night at The Duke, the comments that I overheard remained relatively tame, with one old man remarking that “she’s a good-looking girl” and another who called her “sexy”.
In defense of The Duke, Meaghan still says that it will be the bar that she retires in, largely due to its relaxed and mature adult-oriented environment, as opposed to the rowdier student bars nearby. The remaining fact is that regardless of the type of bar, female bouncers experience these situations quite often. Meaghan has developed excellent deflection methods as a result of these experiences, most creatively by wearing an engagement style ring that eliminates some of her more observant admirers. While these methods pertain to her ability to handle herself, Meaghan approaches her management of the bar’s security through collaboration with her team.
(Malakai and Meaghan)
As the manager of security, Meaghan is responsible for ensuring the safety of the staff and patrons and does so by carefully choosing each bouncer on her team, based on her set of core values. She looks for objective people who can “leave their bullshit and do their job”, and actively avoids those who seem like they have something to prove. Above all else, she stressed the importance of trust when choosing bouncers for her team, in order to ensure they will have each other’s backs, as well as the bar’s best interest at heart.
The night I shadowed Meaghan, I had the opportunity to speak with two of the bouncers she worked with, Malakai and Dino, who both spoke highly of her leadership skills. They both mentioned her encouragement of constant communication, which I observed frequently over the course of the night as Meaghan walked around the bar. Each bouncer was strategically positioned in order to observe the bar and signal for assistance when necessary. While the night remained relatively tame, Meaghan did have to chase out a couple who left the bar and then proceeded to have sex in the public washroom of the building’s foyer.
(Malakai, Meaghan, Dino)
Although she took away the couple’s happy ending, Meaghan wants people to understand that she acts in the best interest of the customer and the bar and does not kick people out just to be a “Debbie Downer”. She respects the personal safety of others and can easily identify when it is time for someone to go home. Being a female in a position of power has its fair share of difficulties, which is then exacerbated in a field like bouncing. Despite the nuisance of unwanted comments and disrespect, Meaghan has proven that she is more than capable of handling anything that is thrown her way.
I could go on forever in an attempt to capture all of Meaghan’s unique anecdotes, but I will retire to the length of this article. Be sure to visit The Duke for a beer and say hi to Meaghan; just don’t get your ass kicked out.
