Simon Jones
I completely agree with you that NOT all men leer and of course not all men are potential rapists; most are not and I know it.
I still felt very comfortable going to a female gym all the same. Can't explain why, just did. Maybe it's partly because in mixed gyms many of the females become just as flirty-chatty and it seems more like a social club than for working out. It was the best equipped gym in my area at the time but to me the all female offer of it was one of the attractions.
Mind you, I admit to being a bit self-conscious about having very... um, big knockers and when they knock, mate, they knock and they don't stop knocking when the treadmill slows to a walk no matter how firm a sports bra I cage them into. And it's a wonder I don't get black eyes from a step clbutt. Maybe guys in the gym wouln't look - even the non-leering types. Do you think they would?? Even if they weren't noticing I feel I'd moderate my workouts with guys there.
There are lots of those heavy duty gyms that are very body building oriented and whilst they don't exclude women, women on the whole (oops!) don't seem to go to them. Those types seem cavernous, stark, have bare factory-like accoustics, loud and sweaty like footy change rooms or boxing gyms. I could understand if men wanted strictly their own gyms. I'd say go for it.
I liked the Fernwood one because it was more um... "feminine" I guess. Still had good quality equipment but there were modern floral arrangements or nice painted finishes adorning the walls instead of armpit sweat trickling down them and they smell nice! I'm not absolutely against going to mixed gyms but I know that I don't like the same facilities and lack of ambience many men like. And some women don't like the femininity and gentleness of a Fernwood either but they can always go to a mixed centre if that's what they like. By the number of members throughout the chain, it certainly must be appealing to a lot of ladies and a lot of those ladies I saw at my gym were over retirement age. They don't want the big clanky blokey gyms.
Seeing as we're so far away now we have built our own gym in our garage and that's more like a blokey one. I might even shock my old man and shzoozsh the joint up! It's the only "mixed gym" I've used where I don't have to strap the pups into the pram.
Depends on the area I 'spose. I think some of the city fringe pools have a women only day aimed at religions & customs that want it.
L.
