Posters have presented several conceivable justifications for women-only hours at the gym. However, it would be helpful if we knew that the university’s reason or reasons were.
december, the only explanation offered was in the circulated E-mail Mrs. RickJay received, which I quote:
even sven, I think most people will agree with you that it might be comfortable for many women to work out without men around. I can certainly understand that. However, since this is a public institution and men are paying for it (in fact, most are forced to - students cannot opt out of this fee) the policy is sexually discriminatory, is it not? Do you feel sexual discrimination is sometimes okay for the sake of comfort?
So, Sven, seeing how sympathetic you are to the plight of uncomfortable straight males, I’m SURE you support the right of gymnasiums to set aside certain hours when gay men aren’t allowed to work out.
Right?
So, are you saying you don’t think reasonable straight-only hours are too much to ask also?
I’m not sure what the school’s intermural schedule is like, but my college set aside “women’s only hours” in order to balance out the more heavily male-oriented intermural schedule. It reminded me a lot of the political “equal air-time” policies.
Not having equal amounts of access to facilities could have lost the school some of it’s government funding.