Career Women: Profile of a Female Bouncer

It Ain't Easy Being Lizzy

By Sarah Sullivan
QuailBellMagazine.com

Editor's Note: This is one of several stories being included in Quail Bell Magazine's next print 'zine, Issue 6, available soon for preorder. All stories receive an original illustration and type treatment, along with a special edit for print. There are even stories that haven't yet appeared on the website! Check out our other 'zines and books.

Photo: Jay Westcott/TBD

On Saturday nights, the expansive Mad Rose Tavern in Clarendon, Virginia buzzes with the clink and smoke of a busy pub. Boasting two levels, three bars, and a crowded patio lit with heat lamps, Mad Rose Tavern is the place to be if you're a twentysomething Redskins fan working for a large government contractor. Its laid-back atmosphere and $4 whiskey shot specials make it an ideal place to relax with friends on a weekend. But sometimes things get out of hand, which is where Mad Rose Tavern's three huge, muscular male bouncers come in- or Lizzy.

At 31 years old and a fairly average 5'6", Lizzy is Mad Rose Tavern's only female bouncer. It's a profession dominated by recreational bodybuilding men in tight black V-neck shirts or large, bearded, tattooed motorcyclists. But Lizzy's height doesn't fool anyone. A former marathon runner, Lizzy's muscular frame can bench press her own weight at the gym. She is, as her coworker Grayson put it, "strong as hell. I wouldn't mess with her."

Lizzy's main role is to restore order among the girls in tight black dresses and stilettos who bicker with each other on the dance floor or at the bar. It seems that women respond better to a female bouncer than a male; somehow it's "more sympathetic, less degrading," Lizzy says after a busy shift, drinking a vodka tonic. "The male bouncers, they come in, they're big, they're scary. Girls don't like that."

This job came about purely by accident, she explains. She works a regular 9-5 job in human resources for a defense contractor after receiving her bachelor's degree from George Mason in 2008. A year ago, she began frequenting Mad Rose Tavern and befriended the owner, who offered her a part-time job. "I thought it would be interesting," she says with a shrug. "I mean, I'm already here on Saturday nights. I might as well get paid for it."

Her craziest experience? "I caught two girls fighting in the bathroom. One of them was about to hit the other with her high heel."

Not on Lizzy's watch. 

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