Lifestyle

Gym dismisses woman’s complaint about harasser because ‘testosterone levels are high during workouts’


The staff member told the woman it ‘could have happened anywhere’ (Pictures: Twitter/Getty)

A woman was appalled after complaining to her gym about a male harasser, only to be told that his aggressive behaviour could be excused because of his ‘testosterone levels’.

Elena Bunbury tweeted about her experience, saying that on her first visit to the Gymbox branch in Stratford, she was angrily confronted by a man who implied that she was taking too long to do her sets and not working hard enough.

After laughing about Elena and her friend for being too slow, Elena asked her friend what his problem was. The man heard her and turned on the pair of them aggressively.

‘To which he responded with whilst glaring at us, “if you’re laughing and smiling while you’re doing legs, you’re not doing legs. Pathetic,”‘ she wrote in her complaint in the original email.

‘He then proceeded to throw weights on the floor dramatically and huff and puff while staring at us and linger around us around the gym,’ she continued.

But, to her dismay, she received an unsatisfactory response from a member of staff at the Gymbox.

‘It is unfortunate that you had such an experience in our gym,’ read the email.

‘I have never had similar issues with members. I understand that what was said was inappropriate and rude. I have been working in this gym for three years and I haven’t had any complaint about [the man in question].’

The staff member did say that they would bring up the complaint with their manager for ‘discussion’. But then they continued:

‘From my personal point of view, it is an unfortunate situation where a guy was rude to you, but it could have happened anywhere.

‘We are in a gym where testosterone levels are high especially during workouts. This means that reactions to situations can be a bit extreme especially for men.’ Wow.

The dismissive response is particularly worrying when you look at the scale of the problem.

A study last year found that 71% of women are being harassed at the gym on a regular basis – and if staff aren’t equipped to acknowledge and respond to allegations, this is unlikely to improve.

Unsurprisingly, Elena was not happy with that response and sent a follow-up email.

‘Your response has done nothing but make me even less inclined to come back,’ she wrote. ‘Your personal view is really concerning.

‘The fact you are justifying the behaviour based on testosterone is giving men an out for all inappropriate and aggressive behaviour.

‘It is not up to you to excuse men’s poor behaviour, or to work around it. It’s up to men to be held accountable for their actions.’

Elena’s tweet about the email exchange has now received hundreds of comments with (mostly) women condemning the gym’s response and sharing their own stories of harassment.

‘This is so shocking I don’t even know where to start. The pseudoscience of the testosterone bit is actually a joke,’ commented one woman.

‘This is terrible,’ said another. ‘Undermining your experience by saying it has never happened before, suggesting it can happen anywhere (so it’s not our fault) and the idea that men are just robots lead by testosterone, so by coming to a gym, you deserve it.’

Next time I’m about to lose my temper I must remember it’s fine because of my testosterone levels, instead of realising I need to calm down because otherwise I might become a complete d*ck,’ added a male Twitter user.

‘Thanks for the ridiculous and damaging stereotyping @GYMBOXofficial.’

We reached out to Gymbox for their response on the matter and a spokesperson said they were taking the complaint very seriously and will be speaking to the member of staff.

‘We expect all members and guests to conduct themselves in a respectful manner and we will fully investigate this incident,’ said a spokesperson.

‘We have also addressed with our team member involved her response to the complaint and we will be retraining all our team members on how they handle a situation like this should it occur again.’

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