Given the Metoo movement and all the things that have happened since then, I still can’t get over this one thing that I saw years ago.
There was a time that I was at the gym and I went into the male locker room to change. Inside there I saw a woman who was working and cleaning the locker room. This was happening while the men were in there changing, and I’m talking butt naked dudes, sweaty and disgusting after working out, butt naked with a woman in the locker room.
Mind you, I am a male and even I feel uncomfortable when I’m naked around dudes who are changing and so on. When I think back to this and how this lady must have felt it really bothers me.
I don’t know what the employer and the company were thinking in doing this. I asked her if she was okay, and she said, “Hay que hacer lo que hay que hacer.” That translates to “You gotta do what you gotta do.” I went to the front and asked them about it. I asked, “Is this legally okay? That there is a woman in there while these men are naked and changing? Are you guys that strapped for cash that you’d do that and risk her safety? Because that just doesn’t seem right to me.”
The front desk person didn’t know what to say, and in their defense, this is not their decision, they are pawns like the rest of us. So I asked them to work it up the chain, I said to please use my exact words and that they could mention my name. After that, I don’t think I ever saw her in there again.
It just seemed wrong to me that they did this. It’s not like this was some rinky dink gym either, this was a huge corporation with lots of money. Of course the scared employee would not say anything at the time, they didn’t want to lose their job. But I didn’t like that one bit and complained on their behalf.
In any case, the absurdity of this situation kind of came back to me a few days ago. I don’t recall exactly why I remembered this, but I thought it was worth mentioning. I would admit that since I mentioned it to the front desk all those years ago it appeared to have stopped, but to ever put someone in that uncomfortable situation just seemed really wrong to me.
Just a life long New Yorker sharing the journey through my lens. Please take note of a post’s date. The views I express here are subject to change and evolving as I grow and learn.