Peter Lloyd: 'On a Thursday evening everyone’s getting on well and there’s suddenly this tannoy announcement that tells all men to leave the room'

Published: 25 April, 2013
by PAVAN AMARA

A WRITER is suing Kentish Town Sports Centre on grounds of sexism because he cannot use “women-only” sessions at the Grafton Road gym.

Peter Lloyd, 32, joined the gym, part of the refurbished Victorian baths building in Prince of Wales Road, four months ago, and one month later complained about paying the same membership rate as female members.

His grievance stems from not being able to use the gym for 90 minutes during Thursday evening women-only sessions.

Mr Lloyd, who has lived in Kentish Town for four years and works as a freelance journalist, said: “I’m not against single-gender gym sessions, they can be effective, and I’m sympathetic if people require them. But you can’t reduce the hours men can train when they pay the same price as women, because it’s not our fault if women feel that way.”

He said: “On a Thursday evening everyone’s getting on well and there’s suddenly this tannoy announcement that tells all men to leave the room.

"It’s like a walk of shame because men must flock as if they’re dangerous by default, the guilt hangs in the air like smoke, and we haven’t even done anything.”

Mr Lloyd added: “The baseline of this notion is similar to racial segregation in the United States before the Civil Rights Movement. It’s definitely comparable, although it would be absurd to say the discrimination is happening on the same scale.

"We’re not being asked to leave because of our behaviour, but because we are born with the male trait. It feels like they’re taking natural and innocent masculinity and making it sinister.”

Mr Lloyd is now being represented by a legal firm after asking the gym to start running ‘men-only’ sessions which he says they refused, to allow men to pay a reduced rate, or scrap all single-gender sessions.

He said: “It’s lazy to assume men don’t have body issues in an age where they are also objectified in the media. I know some women may not want to exercise with men because they have experienced harassment or assault at some point in their lives, but men have also experienced that.

“There are cases of women abusing men, of female teachers taking advantage of minors, of girls catcalling boys. I have three sisters, I don’t want women uncomfortable, I just want equality.”

He says mention of women-only sessions were excluded from his contract and he was not informed before joining.

Mr Lloyd has written on men’s issues and says “a lack of research means people think they don’t exist”.

He added: “By no means do I believe women’s issues are not relevant; they are, and so are men’s.

"Men are dismissed from family law courts and the school system doesn’t do them justice. For all the talk on women’s pay gaps compared to men, no one talks about the life expectancy gap between men and women.

"Men live shorter lives because there is less money devoted to men’s health care and research into it, suicide is the biggest killer among young men, and Home Office figures show that 40 per cent of domestic violence victims are men.”

He adds that any money he received from the legal case would be donated to CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), a charity dedicated to cutting the suicide rate among men.

But council leader Sarah Hayward said council-funded gyms target sessions for women, disabled, and elderly people.

She said: “We know there are many reasons why these groups feel excluded from sport, and we do run health checks specifically for men because we’ve found there’s a need for that. 

"None of the women-only sessions clash across the borough, so if he wants to use the gym Mr Lloyd can just walk 100 yards down the road to the Talacre Sports Centre, or a mile down the road to Swiss Cottage Sports Centre. His membership allows him to use any council-funded gym in the borough.”

She added: “There is research proving that girls become self-conscious about their bodies in their early teens because they are constantly bombarded with airbrushed images, in some cases this timidity about their bodies persists throughout life.

"The sessions provide a safe space for them to be in sports clothing, with their legs out, a bit of flab bouncing around and not having to feel they might be judged. This is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”