Harvard bans men from gym for certain hours.

[WilliamTell]

This would be enough to piss me off if I went there. Especially if I'm paying that much to go to Harvard, I'd expect to go to the gym whenever I want.

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_on_...d_women_s_hours

 

Someone want to change "gyn" to "gym", sorry about that.

Edited March 5, 2008 by WilliamTell

[EvilMonkey]

This would be enough to piss me off if I went there. Especially if I'm paying that much to go to Harvard, I'd expect to go to the gym whenever I want.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080304/ap_on_...d_women_s_hours

I am sure there are several people here expecting me to make some comment about this to escalate things, but, for now, I will just say that I agree with you.

[Rex Kickass]

So you think that it's offensive that Harvard has set aside its least used gym facility for women who don't want to work out in front of other men. For six hours out of the 70 hours a week that particular gym is used. And during those six hours, every other gym facility is open to men and women. And this is offensive, how?

[WilliamTell]

What if a bunch of men and I didn't want to work out infront of women. Should they take away certain hours for the women? I doubt that would happen.

[EvilMonkey]

So you think that it's offensive that Harvard has set aside its least used gym facility for women who don't want to work out in front of other men. For six hours out of the 70 hours a week that particular gym is used. And during those six hours, every other gym facility is open to men and women. And this is offensive, how?

to accommodate Muslim women

If they had just said 'women', you would have a point. This is nothing but a religious accomodation and you know it. A group of 6 women asked to be treated special, and they got their wish because in the PC atmosphere you don't dare even appear to offend Muslims, that would just be bad.

[santo=dorf]

Now I know Alpha Dog grades Muslims on a strict curve, but I'm betting if the KKK wanted separate bathrooms for colors and whites because it goes against their religious beliefs, they would be laughed out of this county and be labeled as racists (as they are.) Harvard is a private school so they can do whatever they want. Would Harvard accomodate a group of skinheads' request if they wished for no jews in the gym while they working out? Doubt it.

[Rex Kickass]

So by your logic, all bathrooms should now be unisex everywhere? That we should make no accommodation whatsoever for religion or sex anywhere?

 

My gym has a separate women's only studio, by the way. For them it is a selling point. There are plenty of women who want to work out in that kind of environment, and I doubt that that many of them are Muslim.

 

So do you feel outraged that men aren't allowed to be nuns too? Because that is clearly reverse sexism.

[santo=dorf]

That's a good point on bathrooms, but I imagine one strong reason for them to be separated is because it will reduce the number of Larry Craig incidents.

 

I couldn't care less about how the church says men can't be nuns and women can't be priests. That's a private organization not funded by the public's tax dollars.

[StrangeSox]

So by your logic, all bathrooms should now be unisex everywhere? That we should make no accommodation whatsoever for religion or sex anywhere?

 

I wasn't aware of anyone who works out with their underwear around their ankles. Little different, don't you think?

[StrangeSox]

I couldn't care less about how the church says men can't be nuns and women can't be priests. That's a private organization not funded by the public's tax dollars.

 

So is Harvard.

[EvilMonkey]

I wonder if all that money they got from the Saudi Prince had anything to do with their willingness to submit to their Muslim overlords?

[EvilMonkey]

So by your logic, all bathrooms should now be unisex everywhere? That we should make no accommodation whatsoever for religion or sex anywhere?

 

My gym has a separate women's only studio, by the way. For them it is a selling point. There are plenty of women who want to work out in that kind of environment, and I doubt that that many of them are Muslim.

 

So do you feel outraged that men aren't allowed to be nuns too? Because that is clearly reverse sexism.

That is a bulls***, Tex-like analogy, going for the most extreme you can find. Take it to the other extreme. Why not just block all the gyms into time blocks so that each and every group that wants to can have their own little private time in the gym. Fat people who are afraid people will make fun of them can have from 2 to 4 on Tuesdays and every other Friday. Ugly people can have from 6 to 8 Pm nightly. White supremacists can have it limited to whites-only 4-6 daily. Militant lesbian feminists can have 9 Am to 11 Am every weekday. Yeah, that would work. If Harvard thinks that it is such a good idea, maybe they should put that in their brochures. You know, a good marketing point.

[Steve9347]

I don't see why they didn't just set aside a room near the women's locker rooms for these women. Banning men is a bit odd.

[Controlled Chaos]

An exercise in discrimination at Harvard

 

By Michael Graham | Tuesday, March 4, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Op-Ed

 

Photo by AP

What can a 19-year-old guy in jogging shorts do at Harvard that a rich Saudi sheik who sponsors terrorism can’t?

 

Get banned from the building.

 

Six times a week, Harvard kicks all the guys out of the Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center at the request of the Harvard Islamic Society. This is to accommodate those female Muslim students whose faith won’t let them work out in front of men.

 

In the old days, Harvard would have laughed if some Catholic or evangelical mother urged “girls-only” campus workouts in the name of modesty. Today, Harvard happily implements Sharia swim times in the name of Mohammed.

 

At Harvard, that’s called progress.

 

When I asked Harvard spokesman Bob Mitchell about this new Sharia-friendly policy, he denied that they were banning anyone. “No, no,” he told me, “we’re permitting women to work out in an environment that accommodates their religion.”

 

By banning all men from the facility, right?

 

“It’s not ‘banning,’ ” he insisted. “We’re allowing, we’re accommodating people.”

 

The Harvard story, broken by the intrepid staff at Boston University’s Daily Free Press, is sadly par for the liberal campus course. U-Cal Berkeley is working on a joint program with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, which practices religious and sexual discrimination. The Archbishop (and arch-liberal) of Canterbury has called for Britain to accommodate Sharia law.

 

But despite stiff competition, when it comes to “allowing” anti-Semitism and the promotion of terrorist violence, the over-achievers at Harvard still stand out.

 

When John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt were looking for a place to publish their “beware the Jewish lobby” propaganda, they found willing partners at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

 

And who invited former Iranian president Mohammed Khatemi to speak on the eve of the fifth anniversary of 9/11? Who else? Not only is he a lifelong member of the murderous Khomeini regime, but Khatemi helped create and develop Hezbollah.

 

There are institutes of over-the-road trucking and schools of straight chiropractic that wouldn’t have allowed him on campus. But at Harvard, he’s an honored guest.

 

And then there’s that ultimate FOH (Friend of Harvard) Sheik Al Waleed bin Talal.

 

This Saudi sheik stroked a check for $20 million to promote the study of Islam. Harvard took the check, no questions asked.

 

They didn’t ask, for example, about bin Talal’s gift of nearly $30 million to a fund for the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Knowing their kin will benefit financially is an inducement to young people planning to blow themselves up in Tel Aviv pizza parlors, and Sheik bin Talal made sure the money was there.

 

Nor did they ask about the TV company bin Talal owns, where the watchdog group MEMRI has tracked broadcasts of everything from open calls for martyrdom by children to lessons on the proper methods of wife-beating.

 

For a campus with a Sharia-friendly record like Harvard’s, mandating single-sex pilates is no big deal.

 

It would be nice to think that there were still a few liberals or feminists with the good sense - or sense of decency - to be embarrassed by all this. This is, after all, the same college that sued to keep military recruiters off campus over the issue of gay rights.

 

Perhaps someone in the bin Talal Islamic Studies Program could let Harvard know what the sheik’s pals in Saudi Arabia actually do to gay people. It’s worse than just banning them from the weight room.

 

 

[Rex Kickass]

The problem with this article is that in the old days, Harvard would have banned women from the gym completely. In the old days, Harvard didn't admit women.

[Rex Kickass]

That's a good point on bathrooms, but I imagine one strong reason for them to be separated is because it will reduce the number of Larry Craig incidents.

 

That didn't work so well for the Minneapolis airport.

 

[Rex Kickass]

That is a bulls***, Tex-like analogy, going for the most extreme you can find. Take it to the other extreme. Why not just block all the gyms into time blocks so that each and every group that wants to can have their own little private time in the gym. Fat people who are afraid people will make fun of them can have from 2 to 4 on Tuesdays and every other Friday. Ugly people can have from 6 to 8 Pm nightly. White supremacists can have it limited to whites-only 4-6 daily. Militant lesbian feminists can have 9 Am to 11 Am every weekday. Yeah, that would work. If Harvard thinks that it is such a good idea, maybe they should put that in their brochures. You know, a good marketing point.

 

Are you serious? You compare women wanting to work out without men around to white supremacists and you tell me that my example of separating bathrooms by sex is extreme? Seriously?

[EvilMonkey]

Are you serious? You compare women wanting to work out without men around to white supremacists and you tell me that my example of separating bathrooms by sex is extreme? Seriously?

Yes. That's why I took it to the other extreme. Kinda silly, eh? Now, back to the issue at hand, once they asked for the private time because they were MUSLIM women, it became wrong, just as it would be had they asked for it because they were WHITE women, or JEWISH women. I understand the general feeling of alot of women not wanting to work out around men. Curves is making money off that very feeling. So take some of your Saudi blood money and build a gym for ALL women, not just those of the chosen Muslim faith. Problem solved.

[StrangeSox]

Are you serious? You compare women wanting to work out without men around to white supremacists and you tell me that my example of separating bathrooms by sex is extreme? Seriously?

 

Can we all just agree that they're both poor analogies?

[EvilMonkey]

Can we all just agree that they're both poor analogies?

I think I just did.

[StrangeSox]

I think I just did.

 

We posted at the same time

[Rex Kickass]

Yes. That's why I took it to the other extreme. Kinda silly, eh? Now, back to the issue at hand, once they asked for the private time because they were MUSLIM women, it became wrong, just as it would be had they asked for it because they were WHITE women, or JEWISH women. I understand the general feeling of alot of women not wanting to work out around men. Curves is making money off that very feeling. So take some of your Saudi blood money and build a gym for ALL women, not just those of the chosen Muslim faith. Problem solved.

 

Well, why don't you read the article again before you spew your fake outrage over this. Again, this is one gym, the least used in the university. That is available to women only for 6 out of 70 hours a week. You don't have to be a muslim woman to work out during those hours. You just have to be a woman. So why would a University spend thousands, if not millions of dollars to build a new gym for women to work out by themselves when they could just change the operating hours for a gym that isn't used very often in their system?

[StrangeSox]

Well, why don't you read the article again before you spew your fake outrage over this. Again, this is one gym, the least used in the university. That is available to women only for 6 out of 70 hours a week. You don't have to be a muslim woman to work out during those hours. You just have to be a woman. So why would a University spend thousands, if not millions of dollars to build a new gym for women to work out by themselves when they could just change the operating hours for a gym that isn't used very often in their system?

 

Why should I not be allowed to use a gym I'm paying for equally because of someone else's religious beliefs?

[EvilMonkey]

Well, why don't you read the article again before you spew your fake outrage over this. Again, this is one gym, the least used in the university. That is available to women only for 6 out of 70 hours a week. You don't have to be a muslim woman to work out during those hours. You just have to be a woman. So why would a University spend thousands, if not millions of dollars to build a new gym for women to work out by themselves when they could just change the operating hours for a gym that isn't used very often in their system?

So because it is ONLY 6 hours, thats ok? How many hours would it take to not be ok?

[Rex Kickass]

So because it is ONLY 6 hours, thats ok? How many hours would it take to not be ok?

 

This isn't the only gym in their system. So, lets ask this question, if its ok to build a new facility to accomodate these people's needs, why is it not ok to accomodate their needs by adjusting the rules and schedule of an otherwise existing, underutilized space in the system?