The latest outrageous assault on Men’s Rights? Well, according to more than a thousand upvoters* on Reddit, it’s this: some gym somewhere might be considering women only hours in its weight room to accommodate women who feel uncomfortable lifting amongst men.
A female MRA who goes by the name of stuck_at_starbucks came to the Men’s Rights subreddit with this tale of anti-male injustice from her local gym:
I was on the treadmill and saw two women start walking towards the weight room, then stop at the entrance and one if them said, “oh nooooo, we can’t go in there, there’s men!” They started complaining that it “wasn’t fair” that they “couldn’t use the weight room ” and took it to the front desk. The manager came out and told them that they were considering having girls only hours for the weight room.
Naturally, the Men’s Rightsers responded to this with the calm, reasoned comments for which they have become so famous. Ah, who am I kidding: they posted nearly 300 comments that ran the gamut from screechy outrage to, well, slightly-less screechy outrage.
Bilbuthehobbit won nearly two dozen upvotes by complaining that these “those bitches with 40 IQ should stop hitting the gym and hit the local library to get dem brain juices flowin.”
A number of commenters suggested that women-only hours would be the virtual equivalent of Jim Crow laws. Ghebert001 took it as a great opportunity to pull out the n-word:
![ghebert001 9 points 1 day ago (13|4) Essentially it boils down to "We can't use the weight room with those filthy niggers in there. We need a time that's only for whites". permalink save report give gold reply [–]carniemechanic 5 points 1 day ago (5|0) You've captured the essence of it.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/gher.png?ssl=1)
Others contemplated some kind of civil disobedience to fight this as-yet-nonexistent policy:
![Aaron565 7 points 1 day ago (7|0) Meh, I would just show up during women only hours. It would be great to watch their faces churn. permalink save parent report give gold reply [–]cynwrig 4 points 18 hours ago (4|0) Instead of a sit-in, you can call it a 'lift-in'.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/aaron.png?ssl=1)
Nightforker suggested that the complaining women were probably just lazy fatties anyway:
While Vaker extended a similar analysis to “most women.”
Gosh, I wonder why some women might see themselves as unwelcome in male-dominated gyms?
But my favorite exchange in the whole thread was this one, in which BlueOak9 argued that what the complaining lady needed was some good old-fashioned forced labor:
![blueoak9 14 points 1 day ago (14|0) Drag her out to work on a road crew. She'll get all the anaerobic exercise she could ever need. permalink save report give gold reply [–]Happypants 21 points 1 day ago* (22|1) And pretty much every guy will ignore the fact that she's a woman just like pretty much every guy in that weight room would have. I worked in garages for years. The only women that ever got sexually harassed were the ones up front who used their tits to sell tires. The women who came into the shop, worked, and showed the were worth their weight got the same treatment any of the guys did (probably a little bit better... never saw one get smacked in the vag as she came around a corner).](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/blue.png?ssl=1)
Yep, that’s right, 21 upvotes for a comment suggesting that the only women who get sexually harassed in garages more or less deserve it because they “use their tits to sell tires.”
Remember: the Men’s Rights subreddit by and large represents the more moderate wing of the Men’s Rights movement. This is what moderate MRAs look like.
* The post in question, last I checked, had gotten 1130 upvotes and 305 downvotes for a net 825 upvotes.
“[Women] use their tits to sell tires.” Yeah, I’m pretty sure that it was the 50-ish (as I am) woman cashier’s boobs that made me decide to get my tires done at Walmart. Then again I’m not a man, maybe there are those of you Male-Americans who buy tires based on whether the tire store has attractively-breasted ladies working there or not instead of, you know, needing new tires on their vehicle.
“We need new tires on the truck.”
“Nawp. Holdin’ out until the Goodyear shop hires a girl with good titties. I’m not buyin’ no tires from some guy, they’ll think I’m a queer!”
blueoak9 said “anaerobic exercise.” The word he’s looking for is “aerobic.” “Anaerobic” means “without air/oxygen.” Someone doing “anaerobic exercise” would pass out for lack of oxygen.
It’s really fun how the Misters have pretty much proved the need for “women’s only” hours in the weight room by arguing against it with misogyny, sexual objectification of women and suggesting women are lazy and should be subjected to forced labor. Gee, I wonder why women would be uncomfortable working out around men?
Oh noes, sisterly cameraderie in the weight room! No dudes to snark at and molest ladies who are only looking to improve their muscle mass! The horror! The HORROR!
Say, wasn’t this what George Sodini went postal about? He shot up a women-only fitness centre, as I recall.
*camaraderie. See, I can spell.
It’s OK to sexually harass a woman if you notice her boobs!
This dumbass attitude is probably why I’ve gotten harassed more than friends who are prettier than me. I have big boobs and pretty much have cleavage in any shirt. Assholes like this think I grew them on purpose.
Oh, yeah, I saw this. I really doubt that story actually happened.
And even if it did, I often find that guys dominate the weights and the weight machines in the gym. Then I get looks for trying to use the machines like ‘How dare this woman be in our territory and touch the weights, go back to cardio land!’
Or you get the ‘HEY YOU HAVE TITTIES I WILL STARE AT YOU WHILE YOU ARE TRYING TO TONE.’ weirwoodtreehugger, I get that and I’m about a D cup except for sports bras, so you must get it worse. Maybe this is why we want to go work out without random guys staring. There are men only gyms too, aren’t there? What’s the difference?
Sparky: Actually, Anaerobic is correct.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_exercise
I have been accused, and have seen other girls and women accused, of using my sexuality to sell unrelated things (books, food) at work. The implication that was made, as in Happypants’* comment, was that I was ultimately responsible for any sexual harassment I received, since women who are visibly sexual in some contexts lose the right to have boundaries or to be respected.
First of all, that implication is bullshit. Even if I was, at 16, using the idea of sex to lure unwitting adult men into buying The Game or some shit it does not mean that they are allowed to creep on me or touch me with impunity. People who do sex work or who use sex in their work do not relinquish control of their bodies of their ability to consent as a result.
Second of all, half the time “using my sexuality” means “being visibly female” or “being attractive to the man who is making the accusation” or “wearing a uniform that your employer requires you to wear.”
*who picks out a ‘nym like this?
And by “half the time,” I mean “every time I’ve ever seen or been a part of.”
Not only do I use my tits to sell tires, I use them to harvest kale, to repair wicker furniture, to shoe horses, to start (and put out) fires, to analyze reams of geospatial data, to curate museums and archives, and to churn butter.
In fact, I’m typing with them right now.
My tits are incredibly talented, and if they ever do try to sell you a set of tires, you’d best listen to them. My tits know their tires.
Clean your floors, wash your hair! Get rid of that pesky cough! Are you shy, anxious, unlucky in love? My tits can help with all of these things and more!
Ugh, I know what you mean about guys just assuming because you have big boobs you are trying to get their attention or something. I’m a 36FF and I’ve been miserable since I woke up in 7th grade with a C cup and they just kept getting bigger. Every shirt I ear gives me cleavage. People think I’m a slut for wearing the same shirt as someone with a B cup, like it’s my bigger boobs make the same cut somehow slutty.
leftwingfox: Aah, I see. I have learned something new today. Today is a good day. 🙂
And how do folks get your tits to do all those awesome things? Mine just sit there on my chest, like they were just some part of my anatomy or something.
Cloudiah – absolute top comment!
Possibly ever.
I’m sure the women in Happypants’ shop who “showed they were worth their weight” didn’t have to work twice as hard as the men to demonstrate that fact, nosiree.
Its not anaerobic exercise….it’s aerobic exercise. Humans aren’t anaerobes.
These guys are stupid. That’s probably why they have these opinions about women. They should hit a library and get dem brain juices flowing LOLZ.
So I gather female MRAs are just as likely to make up shitty, unrealistic stories as male MRAs, then? Is that because of equality, or is it something to do with being an MRA that requires you to lie at all times: to yourself, about yourself, to others, about others. Could it be the philosophical underpinnings (and I use that term VEDDY loosely) of MRAness is so fundamentally dishonest that lying becomes part and parcel of every MRA discussion ever?
Also, in other news, my tits cannot harvest kale. But this is just as well, since I’m none too fond of the stuff. However I have sold men all kinds of things with my tits, which allowed me to buy chocolate, puppy vaccinations, and, ironically, new tires for my car. From a guy with unimpressive tits, since I don’t think with my wang.
I went to the store to buy gum, but then mammary tissue clouded my mind and I came home with a set of all-season whitewalls.
The gym I go to has a women’s room, which is very useful. I have very large breasts, and I hate doing things like weight lifting/running around guys.
In the brief time I went to a gym, it was a women’s only one. I wouldn’t have gone to a mixed venue unless they had a women’s-only time.
Lids, seriously, I feel your pain. Mostly in my upper back and shoulders.
I once got told off at work for filling out my uniform. I was 16 and I wasn’t the person who picked out the damn thing.
I completely get why some women prefer not to lift when there are dudes in the weights room. Back before my shoulder went wonky I only lifted if I was with someone else because guys grunting over their lifts while staring at my chest got old really fast.
There was also an ongoing issue at one gym for me because the guys thought it was hysterically funny to leave the weights on the machines if there were women working out. One jerk thought the best joke ever was to do his reps, get up, add more weights and walk off. Ugh.
I got bored with asking politely and just stopped re-setting any machine I used back to neutral. I’m five feet tall. Most of them couldn’t get onto a machine set for me without doing themselves an injury. One of them growled at me about it. I did my best stone face and replied I’d just been falling in line with the rest of the patrons. No one else was re-setting so I’d stopped.
That more or less solved it. There was one guy who never wiped the machines after he used them, but I didn’t have to talk to him. One of the other guys told him it was gross and that no one wanted to sit in his sweat.
For the record, all the women I’ve ever worked with got harassed constantly, both by our boss and our customers. Given that I worked at a hardware store, I have a hard time imagining this somehow doesn’t apply at a garage. On the other hand, I actually, like, listened to their complaints and took them seriously, so maybe I’m just crazy.
I love it when men talk about how they ignore women at the gym because they’re so busy working out. I mean, I’m sure that is true for many of them. But given that virtually every guy I’ve seen online claims it, I’m somewhat skeptical that they all do. And I say that because I’m a woman who has done strength training in gyms and was creeped on extensively to the point that I eventually retreated to the women’s-only hours even though I would have rather not done so. They were inconvenient for me time-wise and there were only a handful of women there, limiting opportunities for learning and finding workout buddies. But I had so many extremely uncomfortable experiences working out with a bunch of guys (and it wasn’t all of them, for sure! but enough…) that I found the trade-off was worth it.
I don’t like working out in women-only gyms or during women-only hours. But I like being sexually harassed even less.
The only thing my bazongas seem to be able to do is keep right on growing, even after the age of 40. And while I love them and wouldn’t trade them for anything, they also have a huge talent for embarrassing the shit out of me by landing in my food a lot, by entering rooms ahead of the rest of me, by making clothes-buying difficult, and by acting as some kind of weird dude-eye magnet (which they did even when they were nowhere near the size they are now). If not for my equally big ol’ hips and butt, I’d be mistaken for the prow of a ship. Fitted clothes are out of the question; aside from being unable to find any that I could afford, I’d cause traffic jams if I ever wore them. I habitually wear loose fitting jackets zipped up to the neck even on the hottest days of summer because I don’t want to be gawped at like I’m some kind of porn star when all I’m doing is leaning on the handlebars of my bike, trying to get from Point A to Point B. And because I don’t want to be accused by some asinine random dude of “using them” to get Goddess-knows-what-all out of hapless, boob-addicted men. So far, I’ve managed to refrain from saying “Hey bud, my eyes are up here,” but damn, I’ve come close on a number of occasions. And shorter men are now out of the question, because I might accidentally lose one in my cleavage, and I’d never live that down.
Well, they could be useful that way. “Hey, while you’re down there, could you look for my car keys? I can’t find them.”