California Club in Former Women-Only Club Space Closes

Submitted by anthony on Wed, 2009-03-11 00:12

Article here. Excerpt:

'SANTA ROSA, CA -- Body Zone Fitness, which took over the space formerly occupied by Body Central, closed its doors last week, according to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Body Central was the women-only club that closed a few months after a judge ruled in a lawsuit that it must admit men as members.
...
In 2003, a Santa Rosa man, Phillip Kottle, filed a complaint that he was denied a membership to Body Central because of his gender. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) said that Body Central violated California’s civil rights law barring businesses from discriminating based on sex, race or religion.

The Body Central owner at the time, Shannon Hartnett, signed a settlement agreement with the DFEH in October 2004 that required her to open the club to men. She agreed to provide at least one hour of anti-discrimination training to the club's staff and agreed to get rid of all advertising that portrayed Body Central as a women-only club. Hartnett also agreed to pay Kottle $500, and the club was required to provide separate shower and locker facilities for men within two years.'

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Comments

The whole place sounds shady. Why would the guy even want to be a member? Unless he wanted to be around sleazy women, thinking it might improve his chances of getting laid.
-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Wed, 2009-03-11 08:51

It seems that the minute something is no longer discriminating against men, it loses all the good ole girls club business. They'll just migrate to the next place down the street that caters to their sexist ways. Why put up with equality when you can go be around your own kind? How else are you going to comfortably bitch about how the patriarchy is keeping you down?

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Submitted by BinaryShadow on Wed, 2009-03-11 13:53

In my experience women aren't shy about bitching about us, whether there are men present or not.

The amount of times I've had to overhear women at work spouting their usual drivel, "oh, they're all the same, you know what they're like, blah blah blah..."

I've even changed jobs just to get away from the screeching harpies. Not that I'm saying all women are that way, far from it, but I do notice men are more reluctant to make sexist comments in the presence of women than the other way round.

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Submitted by sirprince on Wed, 2009-03-11 14:32

"men are more reluctant to make sexist comments in the presence of women than the other way round."

The average man is considerably more polite than the average woman. Just ask anyone in the service industry.

Women have few consequences for their actions, and behave accordingly. Power corrupts, and women have that power in spades.

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Submitted by Ragtime on Wed, 2009-03-11 16:38

Sooner or later there really will be a backlash...a massive dump on women! Watch out!!
-ax

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Submitted by axolotl on Thu, 2009-03-12 04:20

a backlash.

I certainly don't want a "dump on women", just for people to recognise that sexism can go both ways. And as for the difference in men's and women's willingness to talk in an overtly sexist way, well that's more down to political correctness ie men being scared of the consequences of saying what they think rather than any innate difference in politeness or civility.

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Submitted by sirprince on Thu, 2009-03-12 08:55