The 205 Coffee Bar: Gender Inclusion One Cup at a Time (Monika Gebavi)

Located just outside the heart of downtown Holland, Michigan, and just steps from the Hope College campus, The 205 Coffee Bar serves Holland locals and students alike. This up-and-coming coffee shop is a welcomed addition to the Holland coffee scene. It’s chic style and diverse menu caters to both men and women seven days a week. With blue walls and wood and metal decorations, the space offers a neutral vibe that welcomes either gender. Although blue is seen to have a more masculine reputation in today’s society, the trendy artwork, accent pieces, and yellow lighting create a softer, cozier feminine side that balances out the initial industrial male-oriented appearance. Through my observations, both men and women use the services the shop provides and feel equally comfortable in the space.

Friends are talking as they stand waiting for their order by the counter. Another girl is pictured sitting at a table hard at work.

The benefits of a coffee shop can be found elsewhere, so anyone who chooses to go to The 205 Coffee Bar is willfully submitting to its atmosphere. The products that The 205 Coffee Bar offer are neutral to both genders since coffee, other specialty drinks, and bagels are not gender-specific. Rather, these items can be enjoyed by men and women – no questions asked. The purpose of the coffee shop is to serve food and drinks to its customers as well as provide an inclusive atmosphere where people can sit down and work away from distractions of the outside world or converse with friends in a comfortable environment. I think The 205 Coffee Bar accomplishes these goals with its space because it has tables that are conducive to groups and socializing as well as a counter that could be used for more alone time. These spaces are gender neutral in that the furniture is wooden with modern shapes and finishes.

A large, grey, floral mural covers an entire exterior side of The 205 Coffee Bar.

One aspect of the coffee shop that does draw extra attention, however, is the large floral mural on the outside of the building. This could be seen as more female-oriented since floral prints are gendered toward women; however, the grey color palette that is used brings it back to a more neutral feeling. Especially since it is only the outside of the building, I do not believe it affects the vibes portrayed on the inside of the coffee shop.

Traditionally, I would view coffee shops as a space that is more targeted toward women since conventional gender roles have men working during the day while women are the homemakers with potentially more time to visit a coffee shop to either catch up with friends or get personal work done outside of the house. However, with gender roles in fluctuation nowadays, I think coffee shops in general have a higher chance of either gender using their services. In terms of The 205 Coffee Bar, I did observe more females than males present; however, much of the customer base is Hope students where the male-to-female ratio is already favoring females, which could cause a skew in this observation. I do not believe that the physical space of the coffee shop is deterring males from using it but rather the population surrounding The 205 Coffee Bar is what is affecting the customer base’s gender.

One interesting fact about The 205 Coffee Bar is that it was opened by a husband and wife, and the wife works at the shop daily running the business and creating the brand image. She greets you when you walk in and takes your order in the most friendly, uplifting way. I believe her kindness and genuine care are what set apart this coffee shop and give it its unique edge over other coffee shops. The fact that a woman is running the business goes against the old-school traditional gender roles that have the woman in the home and the man out working. As described in Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, “[Man] observes some points of inferiority – the most important being unfitness for the professions – he attributes these to natural causes” (xxxii). Men did not view women as equals in the public sphere and holding a job as a business owner was not socially acceptable. I think that Simone de Beauvoir would be delighted to see The 205 Coffee Bar run by a woman disproving the male dominance that she wrote about. Additionally, she also wrote about the concept that women need to first identify themselves as a woman before they can go any further into their identity whereas a man “. . . never begins by presenting himself as an individual of a certain sex; it goes without saying that he is man” (xxi). This once again shows the inequality women face right from the start. Distinctly defining the difference between a man and woman in conversation spread the idea of the superiority of man and overall differences between men and women since clarification is needed. Judith Lorber later agrees with this sentiment in her writing of “‘Night to His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender.” Lorber gives the example of men versus women Marines to prove her point that “for society, gender means difference” (26). She talked about how women in the U.S. Marines have to wear makeup even though, “A lot of them have the preconceived idea that going into the military means they can still be a tomboy. They don’t realize that you are a Woman Marine” (27). She emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between men and women when, in reality, why does this distinction need to be made? In applying these thoughts to The 205 Coffee Bar, the fact that the owner and manager of the business is a female who is working hard to make her business succeed is breaking the historical gender norms that are presented in both of these texts. I think the authors would be supportive of this progress and direction that are represented through the coffee shop as the owner is creating an environment that is welcoming to both genders.

 

Discussion Questions:

Based on my description or your own experiences at The 205 Coffee Bar, do you perceive the environment as neutral to either gender, or do you have a differing opinion regarding the feeling of the space? Why?

Do you think that the fact that a woman runs The 205 Coffee Bar plays a role in how the atmosphere is created? If so, in what ways?

Since the floral mural is such a large part of The 205 Coffee Bar’s exterior image, would this aspect attract or deter you based on your gender?

 

Works Cited

Beauvoir, Simone de. “Introduction.” The Second Sex, Vintage Books, 1989.

Lorber, Judith. “‘Night to His Day’: The Social Construction of Gender.” Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader, edited by Rachael Groner and John F. O’Hara, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014, pp. 19-31.