Women-only gyms are a world away from boys’ clubs such as Muirfield

Submitted by Mastodon on Mon, 2016-05-23 18:54

Article here. Excerpt:

'Muirfield golf club has lost the right to host the prestigious Open championship after taking the stunningly regressive step of voting against reversing its ban on female members. In fairness, Muirfield members seem to have some very real concerns – a letter circulated by those campaigning against the change revealed the terrifying prospect that “lady members” may pose a threat to such noble traditions as “our foursomes play, our match system … our lunch arrangements”. Quelle horreur.

The news has prompted intense debate about male-only spaces and whether or not they should still be allowed, with one major argument cropping up again and again in most of the discussions I have heard. “Why shouldn’t men be allowed their own space, when women have women-only gym and swimming sessions? Isn’t that sexist?”

The answer is that these two things are not the same. In fact, they couldn’t be more different.

You want to know why we have women-only gym and swimming sessions? It’s not some shiny, special privilege bestowed on us lucky women because we just deserve nice things. It is a direct result of the male harassment, sexism and sexual violence that has driven a quarter of women to give up exercising outside altogether and countless others to abandon the gym in frustration.

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Comments

... that mixed gender sporting spaces see women mercilessly harrassed by men to the point they no longer want to pursue anything athletic, then...

... why the hell would any woman WANT to join a club that is centered around a sporting activity when said club is FILLED with these terrible, awful MEN?

This entire article is a good example of good old fashioned feminist hysteria and misandry run amok.

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Submitted by Matt on Tue, 2016-05-24 00:29

When I've gone to gyms I've generally not seen this so-called harassment of women by supposedly horrible undesirable lecherous men. People seem to just mind their own business. The whole tone of this article is insulting.

And men may want their own spaces in order to discuss things without fear of offending an overly sensitive woman. It's not a secret meeting of "The Patriarchy" to discuss how to oppress women for the benefit of men.

Also, notice how the headline uses the words "women" and "boys"? Rather demeaning, isn't it?

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Submitted by mens_issues on Tue, 2016-05-24 00:56

I agree with the comments above.
I have a feminist cousin and you can't win a discussion because she blames everything on men,even though I am quite sure she has never been sexually harassed in her life.

She even blames men for her being overweight (so she can "weed out the shallow guys that are only interested in a body" LOL!)

Anyway, the example in the article about men in the pool putting on goggles to swim underwater to ogle their breast? Give me a break! I doubt it ever happened.

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Submitted by Kris on Tue, 2016-05-24 05:08

Single sex clubs for women are a right.

As Matt says, why would these women want to join an all-male club? The answer used to be "good ole boyism." Now it's to prevent men from sitting around planning to rape women.

Of course, if women can do it but men can't, it's actually a female privilege not a female right.

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Submitted by el cid on Wed, 2016-05-25 12:06