I go to a women’s only gym and I like it that way. However, I have not noticed any gyms just for males in my neighborhood and began to wonder if it was legal for them to exist. I know that there was once an all men’s business club in New York that was ordered to open its doors to women because women were being excluded from business deals. A 1989 NY Times Article stated: “An era has ended and a door has opened. The 10,000-member New York Athletic Club, which for 121 years has been a symbol of masculine exclusivity, has bowed to the forces of change and feminine scorn and agreed to accept women as members. When I searched on line I found a gym franchise called Cuts (Fox News on-line 3/06). It claims to be targeting males 16-64 who don’t feel in shape enough to want to exercise with women. It is similar to Curves for women – a 30 minute workout.
The reason for women’s only gyms has been said to be privacy issues. Harvard University has been shutting down their facilities to men recently for a few hours a week to accommodate women. Because of religious and cultural reasons, Muslim women cannot exercise comfortably in the presence of men and Harvard wishes to accommodate them.(Michigan Journal 3/08). “Coverage of women’s sports frequently focus more on women’s appearance than on their skills” (p.119). Many don’t want to think about their appearance in a gender specific gym and having a gym that is mixed would be difficult not to.
Personally, I don’t think we as a society have to always to be so politically correct. As long as people are comfortable with whichever gym variety they choose, they will get there more often. For those who would rather exercise with the opposite gender, there are always coed gyms.
3 comments:
In Response to Pro. M
Linda said...
Dora sounds like a good role model for girls because she does not seem to be limited by her gender; yet not afraid to like jewelry realizing she can still be feminine if she wishes. When I think of cartoons Disney movies comes to mind and here is where the unfair messages about gender come in. Disney cartoons stick with a formula of masculine, violent, overpowering males who use knives and guns to get their way. Females are generally portrayed as sexy, submissive, and helpless. The non-attractive are usually evil. Youtube.com- what the kids are Watching – Disney Gender – shows Disney movies spliced together to illustrate the above Disney messages. These messages were in Disney movies since all of us were children – helping to shape the way children and adults think about gender in our world.
Linda said... In response to Terry
I think society - through their parents, friends, media, etc., has told males that they are expected to be physically strong. A lot of women do expect their husband/boyfriend to be strong and come to their rescue. I think its important for each gender to have both mental and physical strengths to stand on their own feet but also to know when its okay to look for help.
Response to Linda's Week 6:
You bring up an interesting topic. I don't really know about too many all male gyms. Women have protested against men having exclusive establishments like the NY Athletic's Club in that they should have also be entitled to join as well, that it was wrong for them to be denied access. To some degree I think that men should be entitled to their club? I realize this goes against the grain for which the women's movement has fought against so long, but isn't places like Curves - exclusively for women wrong for denying men. Bally's use to have (I believe still do) separte gyms for men. Yes, as you said, sometimes things should not be so political. It is not always about the "boys club" where women do not want to be excluded from business deals, and career opportunities and decisions that are made at such male exclusive clubs. I undertsand the why, but I don't think it applies to everything.
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