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Women only, please
• I WOULD like to respond to Michael Andrew (Deep trouble after going to watch the pond ladies, January 10).
I feel that as a user of the pond I have the right to object to men coming in without an invitation. It is clearly signposted that this is for women only.
I don’t go uninvited to the men’s pond.
Firstly, I don’t see the point of it, but also because I know they value their own space just as much as I value mine.
Please let’s respect each other’s choices.
Valerie Dunn
Weedington Road, NW5
Clear off
• MICHAEL Andrew (Deep trouble after going to watch the pond ladies, January 10), it is never “fine” for men to enter the ladies pond enclosure although countless men ignore the “women only” signs, maybe in disbelief, and walk through, only to be sent back again if they are spotted! As you were!
For men are used to owning and dominating public spaces and take it as a right.
This is why women treasure the few designated spaces which exist for them.
There are also cultural reasons for women needing a place to swim. Muslim and Hasidic Jewish women value the women’s pond for these reasons.
Men can afford to be generous and offer to share their space occasionally: they are not affected by cultural or religious taboos in the same way and women are not normally predatory towards men as men sometimes are to women.
So clear off Mr Andrew!
Read the sign!
Maggi Ray-Jones
Holly Lodge Mansions, N6
Delighted
• AS a member of the Highgate Lifebuoys Swimming Club may I take this opportunity to thank Jane Shallice (Pond politics, January 17) for her excellent attempt to defuse the little silliness at the ladies pond on January 1 and to assure her that we will be delighted to take up her kind offer of a swim and breakfast at their pond in the spring.
Let us be united by a love of swimming and not divided by gender. Thank you Jane Shallice.
John Allen, N7
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