keryx | curves, a creepy article you should read

Also in the Bitch this month is an interesting semi-article [let's call it an articlet, shall we?] about the guy behind Curves gym that made me all shivery. Gary Heavin seems to think that God wants him to save fat women from death. And he's apparently a big financial supporter of anti-choice causes like abstinence-only sex education (doesn't work! much like dieting!) and those eerie crisis pregnancy centers.

If you go to Curves, you should read the Bitch articlet and maybe do a bit of your own research. I mean, I know some of my money gets used in ways I don't like, but he unsettles me. In a bad way.

The articlet brought up for me some of the issues I have with the way fitness is sold to women. And I can't help but thinking, if we go to Curves, aren't we also encouraging people to sell us fitness as weightloss? To think that a woman can "find herself" by finding a smaller size or repeating the same exercises over and over again (that's another thing that has bugged me about Curves vs. regular gym, that progression and greater strength are very much de-emphasized)? But more on that later.

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Ya know, Curves has always creeped me out anyway. It seems to me to put off an air of women being helpless in a regular gym. (Purely my own take on it!)

Having attended Curves for I dunno, over two months now, that is not the atmosphere at all. It is positive and the air is of women working together to help each other and feel better. And regular gyms can bite me - I have gotten nothing but grief there.

I am 100% with you on the regular gyms's general suckage for me personally. But the Bitch thing made me think, where Curves is concerned, that the overall business is selling this very narrow definition of feminine power. An individual Curves franchise may be empowering, but they're as a company still selling weightloss as the path to self-actualization. If I buy from one empowering franchise, I am still basically sending money to Weight Watchers or Dr. Phil. I am supporting the weightloss industry, and I will not do that. They are evil, evil liars. [Er, yeah, if you can't tell, this is definitely one of my personal hot buttons.]

There are other women-only gyms (Victory Lady, I think, is a chain like this) that are more truly girl-powerful and don't hawk weightloss. I feel better about those.

I've never heard of Victory Lady. Is it just in Richmond?

Oh, yeah, apparently it is. I didn't realize that until I looked it up. But I'm guessing there's something similar in most major areas.

There is a Curves 3 blocks away from me, but I refuse to patronize businesses that have "weight loss" in their names. Also, the strict rules about how to exercise would not work for me.

I joined a local size-friendly club instead: Every Woman Health Club in Redwood City, CA.

Actually Curves always creeped me out because it seemed so touchy feely, and I just want to go to a gym to lift weights and such. not get a hug. It also seems like the whole routine there is a little too uniform which is just stupid. Different people want different things out of a gym, and different body types need different workouts. Honestly I want a gym (that can be for men and women or just women or whatever) where cranky people can go in their boxers or whatever crap they found on the floor, and workout without having to see well dressed idiots hit on each other.

On the other hand women or men that are seeking weightloss should absolutly be working out, so I think it is good for that goal to be one of the listed ones at any gym as well as stregnth health etc.

When the gym you describe exists, please let me know so I can sign up! Until then, I actually like touchy feely hugs.

The cranky one? I have a feeling I'll have to build it myself. But how awesome would it be? :)

Well if I ever buy a house with a finished basement, I'll just have to build one there. You can come over, smelly and with morning breath, in your boxers, and work out your anger by lifting heavy things. :)

And not in the presence of a) obnoxious perky gym instructors or b) gym patrons with patronizing glances and words when you don't know how to use the NAUTILUS 2000 UBER MACHINE.

Ergh. People at gyms are so not helpful. I'd like to see a "beginner's" gym, where there were lots of QUALIFIED personal trainer type people available to get you started and show you how to use things at whatever pace you wanted.

I've kinda turned my house into the cranky person's gym. It's filled with fun stuff you could exercise with (not the usual machines). That started cause I didn't want to be nice to people at a gym, or smell stinky stuff, or even half-watch bad TV.

Even if they have unhealthy lifestyles, exercising and eating better/less doesn't result in weightloss for a lot of people. So making "you must lose weight" the stated purpose of going to a gym sets people up for failure, which might mean they don't stick with the gym and so don't get the health benefits. Making weightloss part of the message, to me, takes the focus away from the good you get out of going to the gym whether you lose any weight or not.

I've always gotten a creepy feeling about Curves. Though I like the idea of going to a gym and being surrounded by other fat women.

Me too (re going to a gym filled with other fat women - or heck, not even fat, just normal-looking)! The closest I've come to that is bellydance class.

I like Curves and promise to read the article but I doubt I will stop going. I see nothing but positivity going on there and it's not like this jackass is doing the rounds.

I thought that article was really interesting... since then, I've noticed that I see Curves in the oddest of places. (Like this very tiny town the next town over from mine, there was a Curves & it was next door to a church.)

Also -- I'm glad to see that you've got a LJ! Thanks for adding me; I've added you back. :)

curves, a creepy article you should read

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