This article attempts to advance understanding of the interactional survival strategies of women in public places by examining the manner in which they fend off men and parry their advances in singles bars and nightclubs. The strategies employed are conceptualized as variants of the “cooling out” process initially outlined by Goffman (1952). Three sets of strategic practices associated with actual or anticipated cooling-out encounters are identified and elaborated. The data are based on participant observation in nine different nightclubs and drinking establishments, conversational interviews with patrons and employees, and postobservational, semistructured interviews with 33 other individuals. The article concludes with a number of observations regarding both the factors underlying the female-to-male cooling-out process and the relationship between that process, gender role behavior, public order, and the self.
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