A Quokka Dreeds its Weird

The YMCA did, as promised, move the Gravitron (assisted pull-up machine) out of the men's locker room and into the basement, where everyone can use it. Well, I'm not sure how accessible the basement is... where all people who can manage stairs can use it, anyway. Though it might be a somewhat difficult piece of equipment to use if you have lower-body issues, as you have to climb into it.

Since I have been away from the gym for the last month, having been occupied with holidays and personal matters, I didn't get very adventurous and used a 50 lb offset, same as last time. Next time I go in I'll see if I can lower that.

I left a message on the voice mail of the YMCA's executive director, throwing about the phrases "gender discrimination," "totally unacceptable," and "valuable piece of equipment which needs to be made available to ALL members regardless of gender."

I got a call back! He claimed (very unconvincingly) that they had always planned to move the pull-up machine to where it would be accessible to all. He says they require a special crew to take it apart and reassemble it, so it can't be done till January. But come January, it will be in the basement (with other machines) rather than the men's locker room.

The whole affair strikes me as emblematic of how a lot of discrimination, not limited to gender, works: unless you're already in the priveleged group, you have no way of knowing what sort of perks that group is getting, and so don't even have the knowledge that they're getting stuff that your group isn't.

Conversely, sympathetic members of the priveleged group may not know either, and so would have no reason to tip you off: Adrian's first assumption was that I was not aware that the other assisted pull-up machine was in the women's locker room! And he only mentioned it to me at all because we'd had a whole conversation about how I had to use his because my gym didn't have one.

Salary inequities often function exactly like that, abetted by the social taboo against revealing one's salary.

ETA: Mistressing the pull-up

I found out yesterday that my YMCA does have an assisted pull-up machine... in the men's locker room! I would never have known if Adrian, whom I had gotten in on a visitor's pass, hadn't tipped me off!

I complained. They said it was the only place in the entire building where they had room for it. I suggested the roof (where the rest of the big machines are, and where there is definitely room.) They said no one uses it anyway. I pointed out that in the men's locker room, none of the female members have any opportunity to use it, and would not even know that it exists. They repeated that there is no room anywhere else. I asked them what their procedure was for filing a gender-discrimination complaint.

They said I needed to talk to the supervisor, who wouldn't be back till Tuesday. GRRRRR. I plan to keep complaining up through the ranks until they move the damn machine to where BOTH GENDERS can use it.

Used assisted pull-up machine for first time yesterday. (In Adrian's gym, mine doesn't have one.) Set assist to 50 lb (ie, am pulling remainder of my weight-- 115 - 50 = me lifting 65 lb pull-up style, if I understand it correctly.)

I feel bad-ass (and also waiting to see if tomorrow I will feel like I was hit by a truck.)