I’m in dire need of a nice inexpensive workout. My cheap yoga classes done through the county were cancelled yesterday. There’s a Curves about four blocks from my house–easy walking distance. I’ve heard good things about the workout–that you can make it as hard as you want, and it’s a nice whole-body circuit training workout, which is what I really like to do more than anything else.
My one problem with it is how the founder donates 10% of his profits to pro-life causes. I’m obviously not into that. Should I join anyway? I was thinking about joining, and then donating an equivalent amount to Planned Parenthood annually on my own to counteract it. But then I’d need to calculate how much that would be–how much profit does that dude make on one membership?
I wouldn’t do it simply because I don’t give money to causes I don’t support. I am willing to bet with a bit of research you could find a way to create a full body workout for free at home or you could find a bunch of cheap classes through your local rec center.
Well, not all Pro-Life causes are bad. Some actually help expecting or new mothers with donations of food and clothing or help with other expenses.
Of course which Pro-Life causes you don’t know.
I’m pretty firmly in the camp of if joining Curves will give you a good, inexpensive workout, go for it, and deal with the pro-choice bit later. (Then again, I’m not particularly pro-choice or picky on this type of issues. But pragmatism beats idealism for me most of the time).
Although, I’d go for the pay a month at a time payment method, rather than pay for a year in the hope that having already paid buckets of money to Curves will motivate you to continue to show up.
How much do you need to donate to counteract that donation? Well, start with the price you pay, and divide by 10. That’s probably higher than what the actual donation from the Curves people is–given that that is the amount you are paying, not profit–which I define as income minus expenses.
If nothing is being added to the membership costs for you, who cares what the owner does with their profits? But you might want to think of all the people you will be working out with. I don’t know you but you might not be comfortable in the environment. maybe?
So, let me get this straight. You believe that a woman has the right to make her own decisions regarding her body, without interference from the moral beliefs of others. And now there’s a change you want to make in regards to your body, but you are letting the business owner’s moral beliefs interfere with your decision?
According to the actual facts, the statement on record from one of the founders, Gary Heavin, is that he donates some of **HIS money ** to “pro-life pregnancy care centres.” The statement that Curves, the company, donates 10% of its profits to pro-life causes is false, a fairly significant and erroneous misreporting of something Heavin said.
>So, let me get this straight. You believe that a woman has the right to make her own decisions regarding her body, without interference from the moral beliefs of others. And now there’s a change you want to make in regards to your body, but you are letting the business owner’s moral beliefs interfere with your decision?
Sanity, it sounds like you got the facts mostly right, though you worded it oddly. And I applaud Drain Bead for thinking about this. I think she has the right to make decisions about everything she does, including workouts, and including who she’s giving money to. Drain Bead’s decision making isn’t being limited by the moral beliefs of others. However, it must take account of the likely actions of others, especially if she is in effect helping them do something harmful by enriching them. As all of our decision making should. I hear she wishes to do some work on her body and also wants to place her money ethically, which two goals are somewhat at odds with each other through no fault of her own. It is up to this founder what to do with the money he has earned, but it is up to Drain Bead whether to add some fraction of hers to the pile.
Bravo, Drain Bead. I’m a large hairy 50 year old man, and if I started showing up at Curves the authorities would haul me away. So I’m not faced with your decision. But in a similar situation, I’ve avoided spending any money at WalMart for at least 15 years now, and to this day enjoy the feeling of driving by on my way to KMart or Target.
It’s hard to do no harm with your spending, and if you want to adopt some practical compromise like countering the founder’s actions with your own donations, it seems like a sound plan to me. Finding alternatives seems better - but then there’s always the question of how hard to try on each little victory. If it takes you three hours a week to take some alternative path, you’d have to wonder what other good you might accomplish with that 156 hours a year.
You can only work out on a machine for thirty seconds? (From the snopes link.) Now that sounds like a reason for not joining (IMHO). Though, I think I’m one of the twenty something fit creatures setting land records on treadmills (well…trying) that the gym is railing against, so maybe I’m not the target audience here.
Let’s say there’s a gym whose owner supports the Taliban. You may believe he has every right to support that group, but would you want your dollars going there?
The snopes link shows that the anti-abortion group is trying to make it look like everyone who joins Curves is contributing to their cause, which is simply not true.
If it makes you feel better, go ahead and join Curves then also donate the equivalent of 10% of your membership fee to Planned Parenthood or a similar group.
Pro-life pregnancy care centers definitely go against the ethical values of most of the pro-choice individuals that I know. I personally detest the methods they use in pressuring women to keep children they don’t want and/or can’t afford, and wouldn’t want to support them, even in this situation.
Also, someone mentioned that the circuit workout creates a “30 seconds per machine” atmosphere. For women that are completely out of shape, this could be a good thing. I’m not in great shape, but I definitely would not get a proper workout from their routine; not only did I play enough sports in the past that it takes a bit more these days, but I find that I’m often too tall to find many things made for women to be comfortable. You’ve been doing yoga for a while, so it’s entirely possible that this may not be a good enough workout for you to maintain your level of fitness.
Not everything, but I try to do my best to avoid places that I know donate to causes I don’t believe in. I don’t eat at Dominoes or Chick Fil’A for the same reason.
I just wanted to say that I once almost joined Curves (before I heard anything regarding the abortion controversy), but the thing that turned me off is you get very little guidance. It’s really like a gym membership–you pay them to show you how to use their equipment and then go in on your own time and work out all by yourself. That doesn’t appeal to me, because there is no accountability, really.
It’s sort of OT but I didn’t know if you’d already been to their office and talked to them about how they work… if I were the OP, knowing the very little guidance and supervision I’d receive would solve the dilemma for me then and there.
p.s. If it were true that Curves supported pro-life movements I wouldn’t want my money going there and I don’t think I could morally justify the decision to myself. If it was just the founder doing his own thing with his own money, that’d be a different story. I guess your take on this depends on how strongly you feel about the issue.