Interesting enough, according to Britainica.com, feminism has been around since the 3rd century BC in the Roman Empire. There is evidence that there were organized protest by women against laws which limited the women’s use of expensive goods. The Roman women blocked every entrance of the Forum. In response to the protest, it is written that consul, Marcus Porcius Cato cried, “If they’re successful now, what will they not attempt? As soon as they begin to be your equals, they will have become your superiors.”
Feminism is defined as the advocacy of right of women based on the equality of the sexes. Although feminism originally started as that, changes have been seen through the different waves of feminism. The fourth wave claims to have started around 2012 with a focus on sexual harassment which was coupled with the “Me Too movement”. The feminism movement now is not only advocating for the women but also the LGBQT+ community as well. The new feminist movement stands with the LGBQT+ community making their voices heard. The question is “Has it gone too far?” We started seeing the issues with transgender men competing in women’s sports.
Although, I am not trying to be controversial, I know these topics are for some people. The swing in the advocacy has moved way past women and moved towards the LGBQT+ community where women’s comfort and safety has been threatened. Every day we see articles about how transgender women are taking over women’s sports, women’s fashion, being representatives for women’s products and women’s spaces particularly women bathroom and locker rooms. Women across the country are fed up with it and are fighting back.
In Fairbanks, Alaska, a woman, Patricia Silva, was in the locker room at a Planet Fitness gym when she realized that there was also a transgender woman shaving over a sink. Concerned for the fact that there was a biological man in the women’s locker room, she decided to pull out her phone and take a picture of this person. There was also a young girl wrapped in a towel to the transgender woman’s left. She also approached the transgender woman and told him he should not be in the women’s bathroom. She posted on her social media, the picture along with a video, under the @libsoftiktok, describing this experience and her concerns. She expressed that she understood and understand his position about not liking his gender and how he wants to be a woman, but she was uncomfortable with him being in the woman’s locker room. Of course, her video went viral.
Patricia didn’t just post the video but expressed her concerns to the staff at Planet Fitness. She showed them the photo, explaining what had happened. The response from Planet Fitness was disheartening because they immediately revoked her membership to the gym because she violated a policy for taking a picture of someone in the locker room. They also told her that she had no right to complain because Planet Fitness values diversity and do not discriminate against the genders. It makes you wonder exactly “Who is the protected class of people?”
This incident not only has led to other people speaking out and posting on their social media about the Fairbanks, Alaska Planet Fitness, but cause a boycott of Planet Fitness @BoycottPlanetFitness. Of course, this started trending immediately. This resulted in people canceling their memberships to Planet Fitness and posting on social media that they just canceled their memberships for not protecting women’s spaces and prioritizing men. There have been individuals’ posts that when Planet Fitness asked them why they were canceling, they informed them that they cannot list the reason for the cancelation. It seems that Planet Fitness is covering up the reason for the mass cancelation of gym memberships, instead of admitting they were wrong.
It should also be noted that the minimum age for a Planet Fitness membership is thirteen years of age. This, in itself, is a very disturbing concept when considering the incident.
As a result of this, the Planet Fitness one week market cap plummeted from $5.5 Billion to $4.9 billion. It also resulted in a drop of their stock price by 11.37% ($66.92 to $56.46) in just a week. Yahoo News reported that Planet Fitness allegedly lost 350,000 gym members following the news of the incident. Oddly enough, this was not the only incident for Planet Fitness. Apparently, there was previous incident happening in 2015 resulting in a lawsuit because of their transgender friendly policies. In Georgia in 2023, a man was arrested after exposing himself to a 15-year-old girl in the Planet Fitness locker room. The man claimed to identify as a woman.
I believe that as this trend of advocating for the rights of the transgender community over the rights of women continues, we are going to see more of the same results.
Dude I just read your blog and I feel that so much. I’m not political at all but we have to ser boundaries.