Julia Maren from Tennessee went to the gym as usual last week, wearing a black crop top and high-waisted workout leggings.
To her surprise, a member of staff approached her asking to leave the gym unless she put on a different t-shirt, leaving her baffled and upset.
Julia posted the experience on Instagram, claiming that it highlighted ‘double standards and sexism’ given many men in the same gym were wearing loose vests that showed nipple.
She wrote: ‘Today I was told I’d have to leave the gym if I didn’t put a shirt on with no explanation
‘My workout was interrupted and I was told to take out my headphones for someone to tell me they could “get me a shirt if I need one” and that if I wanted to continue my workout I had to put one on…. WHAT?!
‘So you’re telling me that because three inches of my waist is exposed that I’m not welcome in the gym but meanwhile f**king Chad is over there with a cutout that shows his whole nipple? Got it.
‘Thank you for taking time out of your day to let me know that double standards and sexism still exists. If the problem is that I will be a distraction, why isn’t the accountability on the one who is distracted?’
Julia added that a recent study by Fitness Magazine found that 65% of women try to avoid the gym over fear of being judged while only 36% of men felt this way.
Although she didn’t mention the name of the gym in question, support from others who had been treated similarly elsewhere poured in.
One commenter wrote: ‘Feel this so much and thank you so much for speaking out as it is so sexist that men can wear no shirts even but god forbid a female show any skin as we are so sexualised and it’s so unfair! ‘
Another said: ‘So true this has happened with me and my friend as well.’
As Julia highlighted in her post, restrictive dress codes for women often start at school age and continue into the teen years and then into workplaces.
Earlier this year a woman in Australia was told she was ‘showing too much skin’ while exercising and asked to cover up in the gym.
Similarly, a young girl was asked to leave class in the US for being too ‘busty’ and a five-year-old was asked to ‘cover her body’ while wearing a spaghetti strap dress to nursery.
As Julia concluded, there’s no easy solution to a situation like this unless attitudes change.
‘All I’m saying is that I’m showing up in a bro tank with my nipple out next time,’ she quipped.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/23/woman-hits-back-at-gym-that-asked-her-to-leave-for-wearing-crop-top-13308177/
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