Pool halls now popular with women
Pool halls now popular with women
Slamet Susanto, Yogyakarta
Wearing a cream head scarf, or jilbab, Paramitha, 22, stares
intently at the balls racked in front of her. After a few seconds
of concentration, a loud crack is heard and the spheres roll to
the corners of the billiard table.
"What a pity, none have gone in!" Paramitha, a student of a
private university, exclaims.
Her friend, Palupi, 23, approaches the table, picks up a cue,
and rubs it with chalk. After Palupi plays her turn, Paramitha
plays hers and the two friends continue until all the balls are
sunk.
Such scenes of young Muslim women playing billiards in parlors
are now commonplace in the traditional city of Yogyakarta.
The fact that this no longer raises eyebrows is indicative of
how successfully the game has managed to throw off its negative
image. Up until not long ago, billiards was connected with the
dark and seedy world of prostitution, premanisme (thuggery), and
gambling. Not a place for a student or a professional woman to
let off steam.
"Billiards is now perceived as a recreational sport, good for
relaxation," Palupi told The Jakarta Post one evening.
According to Welli Chandra, Sport Manager of Q Club billiard
center here, negative perceptions of billiards originated from
where the game came from. In America, billiards was often
associated with fighting, gambling, and commercial sex
operations.
Before its recent renaissance, billiards was generally played
in smoky pool halls and bars and the 15-ball version of the game
used to require the presence of scorers, usually women.
"To attract the players' attention, score girls often wore
sexy dresses and behaved provocatively as well. The more sexy a
score girl was, the more she was wanted by players and thus the
more tips she received," Welli said. Many score girls were also
commercial sex workers, which explained why the game had been
connected with prostitution.
Many players used to bet on the result of matches -- a reason
for another of billiards' names, "pool", which refers to the pool
of bets made on the game. Fights often occurred because of bet-
related quarrels, Welli said, which did not enhance the game's or
the players' reputation.
"However since that time, perceptions have turned 180 degrees.
People now see billiards as a clean, recreational sport and more
and more young women are beginning to join the mushrooming
billiard clubs in the city," Welli said.
The negative perception of the game, according to Welli, began
to change in early 2000, when entrepreneurs worldwide began to
establish classier billiard clubs.
In Indonesia, the nine-ball or eight-ball version of the game
has became more popular -- which means the presence of a "score
girl" is completely unnecessary.
"As a result, billiard courses are also mushrooming in the
city," said Welli, adding that televised billiard games had also
changed people's attitudes toward the game.
This change of perception has been followed by an increase in
the number of female billiard players in the city. The Q Club,
quick to eye a business opportunity, encouraged this trend by
offering special training for women players -- the Female Fun
Course -- which began a year ago.
"We are offering free instruction. And the response has been
incredible. We now have some 250 female members in the club,"
Satni 'Negro' Satu, Q Club's Marketing Manager, said.
The club, Negro says, has also opened special hours for women
players every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from noon, complete
with chilled-out pop music.
"Of the 20 tables we are offering, almost all are always
occupied during these special hours for women," Negro said.
During the last six months, five new billiard clubs have begun
to offer a similar service for women.
And it seems that as more women join the game, the tidier the
clubs get. Older billiard clubs -- Galeria Billiard and Perdana
Billiardare -- are now renovating to accommodate the increasing
number of female players.