In gyms up and down the UK, you’ll find evidence of a joyous culture shift in the relationship women have with their own bodies.
Whilst in the 1990s “heroin chic” was aspirational, and the waif-like Kate Moss displayed the stick-thin figure many went hungry for in a doomed effort to attain, many young women in the modern world dream differently and instead choose to consume protein-rich diets whilst lifting weights to build muscle.
Strong bodies are the aim rather than thin ones, and you’ll find women lifting alongside huge body-building men, who have moved over to make room for them. Some of the harmful stereotypes of femininity are being smashed to pieces in this redefined gym culture.
Unfortunately, as in every other area of women’s public lives, where there is such progress for women, the misogynistic finger of the trans movement has poked its way into a tiny crack in policy, so that men pretending to be women can demand that women accommodate their incessant need for validation.
If women want to change and shower at the gym, their safety, privacy and dignity is compromised
Most commercial gyms have separate changing rooms for men and women but when anything has the label “woman” placed upon it, it becomes an object of intense desire for the men who pretend to be women.
A female changing room in a gym is irresistible for these men, and most of the major UK gyms have come under pressure to implement policy which allows men into women’s changing rooms. Much of this pressure appears to have come from one specific company.
The group “UK ACTIVE” have produced trans inclusive guidelines which encourage front line staff in gyms and leisure centres to “assist trans people to access leisure centres”, but which actually deny women’s right to single-sex changing space and “assist” men in getting naked in front of women and children.
Fearful of censure, or complicit with the group’s aims, gyms and leisure centres have complied almost universally with these guidelines. Now if women want to change and shower at the gym, their safety, privacy and dignity is compromised. The cruel advice from UK Active is, “a trans person should be permitted to use whichever single-sex area they choose”.
Women’s needs are obliterated by the guidance of this affluent, and seemingly influential, private company, which claims its mission is “improving the health of the nation” with a “five-year funded partnership with Sport England”.
Wondering how far UK Active have succeeded in influencing commercial gym chains against the interest of women, I asked this question of the major gym chains recently:
“Do you let men in your changing rooms for women? For clarity men are the following: Men. Men who say they are “transwomen” women. Men who say they are “non-binary”. Men who say they are “female”. Men who dress up in women’s clothes.”
The gym owners, or their representatives, were silent all but for one man. That man is Duncan Bannatyne. He wrote a simple reply to my question, saying just, “No.”
When asked if women should be undressing in front of male strangers as a matter of policy, the only answer of any sensible gym owner should be “NO”.
Women often need to wriggle their bodies out of close-fitting gym wear and remove sweaty underwear to shower. Their space must be free of men, for whilst a woman may be happy squatting a heavy bar alongside a man, when she is fully clothed, she will probably be less happy coming out of the shower to find one waving his genitals about outside her locker, even if he does make his voice squeaky and climbs into a skirt afterwards.
Most women don’t want to be naked next to male strangers, and the ones who say they don’t mind don’t have the right to choose for the rest of us who do.
If women object, according to UK Active, they might need re-education to make them tolerate men in their changing rooms. The Orwellian direction to gyms from UK Active is that:
You should adopt a zero-tolerance policy on any transphobic behaviour from staff or facility users … be prepared to challenge transphobic language, attitudes and behaviours. Explain your and their requirements within the law to the person objecting and affirm that you will be supporting your trans facility users. In terms of education other facility users direct them to literature online, link them with a local LGBT association or perhaps even consider running workshops.
The idea that women will be policed, bullied and silenced if they don’t comply with accepting men in their changing rooms is nothing short of horrifying. The official policy available online regarding single-sex facilities at the gym refers only to boys under the age of eight.
Recently the GB News presenter Michelle Dewberry announced that she had cancelled her gym membership with Virgin Active because they had allowed a man into the changing room with her. When Dewberry contacted Virgin, they told her “for female changing rooms this would cover females of all ages, boys up to the age of 8 years old, transgender females and non-binary people”.
According to this policy, any man can walk into a Virgin Active changing room if he says he is a woman, or he says he is non-binary. It is clearly ridiculous to say that a boy of eight is definitely too male to be in a changing room with women, but a man of 55 saying he is a woman is accepted by Virgin as “not at all male” because he says he isn’t.
I booked a visit last week with Virgin Active in Sheffield to observe first hand how the staff implement such a ridiculous policy. I asked to be shown the female changing room first. It was marked with a large red “F”. The first area is “adult-only”, and one woman was completely naked whilst two others were in just their underwear. They would have had no chance of covering themselves if I had been a man entering. I was shown the area where children could change with parents, and then the showers which had glass screens but were not completely enclosed.
The sex of people isn’t up for debate
I waited until we left the changing room to ask what the policy was on single-sex changing. The staff member said that she wasn’t comfortable discussing the changing room policy, that it was on the website and she would rather fetch the manager to explain. I agreed but when she returned, she informed me the manager was busy and that I would have to speak to the Virgin Head of Customer Relations instead.
I asked if the policy allowed men to enter the women’s changing rooms if they said they were women, and she confirmed that they would be allowed. A large man was entering, and I gestured towards him and asked if he would be stopped if he tried to enter the female changing room. She looked uncomfortable but had to confirm that if he said he was a woman he could access the female changing room. I gave her my phone number and left.
On Monday I received a call from Virgin’s Head of Customer Relations. I asked the same questions of their single-sex changing policy, and he informed me that men saying they are women would be allowed in the female changing room according to “UK Law and UK Active who are the industry standard”.
I challenged this and attempted to point out the protections for women in the Equality Act, but he said, “I’m not getting into a debate about what male and female are.” I stressed that the sex of people isn’t up for debate. I told him what I’d observed at Virgin Sheffield and asked what would be required of the man I had seen entering the gym in order for him to be determined by the gym as “female” and gain access to the female changing room. He said:
“It would depend upon the circumstances, and we would have a private conversation with the individual to understand why they’d given that answer.”
The Virgin representatives referred many times to “private conversations”. Very little is explicit, including their policy. He informed me that the policy that Virgin “[respects] the choice of our members to use the changing room facilities based on the gender they identify with” must be assessed on a “case by case” basis. Each individual member must ask what the policy is. This does not sound like a policy that they are proud of and I pointed out that frontline staff were uncomfortable discussing it.
I asked the Head of Customer Relations how the policy works when someone says they are non-binary (and therefore according to them they have no sex at all), and he replied that they couldn’t flip between one or the other because they have a main gender they identify with. He seems rather confused about the laughable term “non-binary” — but, then, who isn’t? However, according to Virgin Active policy (dictated by UK Active) they will use the facility they most often decide they are or look like or choose.
I continued to push the man on the safety of women and how he felt they would be protected, and he told me, “If you’re concerned about our policy or usage then … I… well … there’s.. there are other health clubs with different policies. We always appreciate and respect people’s opinions so … ” I was surprised and asked him to clarify whether he was telling me that women should go elsewhere if I didn’t want men in their changing rooms. He continued:
“Yeah, all health clubs have policies and all sorts of different things and club rules and if people are uncomfortable with the club rules or policies of anywhere and any facility then they can not use that facility.”
I was taken aback at the attitude of the Head of Customer Relations towards women wanting safety and dignity, away from the eyes of men, when naked or changing, yet as he kept reminding me, Virgin following the policy of UK Active and that policy is indeed aimed at policing women and affirming the choices of men.
It is deeply concerning that UK Active, which describes its mission as wanting to “improve the health of the nation by getting more people, more active, more often”, are willing to enforce as “ industry standard” a hugely influential policy across the entire gym landscape. This “trans-inclusive” policy, which actively undermines the safety and privacy needs of women wanting to be active, will achieve the exact opposite of encouraging women to be more active.
Women who have found strength and new confidence in being alongside men on the gym floor will be driven back to their homes by unsafe changing spaces, accessed by men who pretend to be women.
Some of these men want to see you naked, and some of them also want to be you naked. No gym should be opening the door to it. Gym owners need to Be More Bannatyne.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, a devout weightlifter, said, “If something stands between you and your success, move it. Never be denied.” Women need to move the men out of their single-sex spaces. We will not be denied our safety.
