The life of an editor-in-whatever it is I am includes the email equivalent of what would make any Italian mama happy. It’s full, but that doesn’t stop it from asking for more—no asking required. As Skip likes to say, we get stuff, which is a good thing, and among the digital mounds is a piece on a serious problem facing women worldwide—gendered weights.
I know, how did you miss this grotesque injustice?
A CrossFit coach shared that a female who attended his class freaked out after he mentioned that the gym had both men’s and women’s barbells and suggested the latter might be a better fit for her. The woman got angry, accused him of discrimination, and went to the gym owner to complain about said discrimination.
For those unfamiliar with barbells, “men’s” bars weigh 20 kg in the U.S. and have a greater diameter than the 15-kg “women’s” version. There’s no rule that women can’t use men’s barbels or vice versa, but most women, even the really strong ones, prefer the bar with the narrow grip to accommodate their smaller hands for “pulling” lifts, especially those requiring a hook grip.
We could add this to the very long list of non-problems (the science of weightlifting competition and the difference in bars creates equity), but why bother? Just fix it. Make everyone use the same bar, and if a woman gets hurt, send the bill to “Gabrielle Kassel [who] wrote an article at Morning Chalk Up (a CrossFit-themed site) titled “The Case for Moving Away from ‘Gendered’ Weights.” She cites Alyssa Royse, a CrossFit gym owner and radical social-justice activist.”
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While we’re at it, women shouldn’t have their own gyms (they don’t get their own bathrooms, dressing rooms, locker rooms, showers, or prisons, after all). There is no such thing as a woman, so that single-sex yoga class is a bigoted affectation of past injustice and has to go.
Stop making things for women or modifying the world for them. This might be an impairment for short men, but f*** ’em all in the name of sameness.
Of course, no man in his right mind who loves women would ever agree to any of this, nor any woman, so we find ourselves face-to-face with the real problem—pandering to the culturally insane. It needs to stop.
There were several variables involved in developing the Women’s Division equipment. If the weight of the bar was left at 20kg, a skinnier bar would have to be longer, and therefore more whippy. Whippiness is an advantage to a lifter who knows how to use a springy bar, and this would have given the Women’s Division an equipment advantage. Adjustments had to be made so that the barbells in the two divisions performed in an equivalent manner.
A group of very bright guys got together and decided that if they cut the total length of the bar down a little, and reduced the length of the sleeves (since lighter weights and fewer plates would be used by the ladies), they could make a bar that would accommodate a smaller hand at 25mm, whip like the regular 20kg bar which is 28.5mm diameter and 220cm (about 7’3″) in length, while still accepting standard diameter Olympic plates. Maintaining the same plate inventory was important, since nobody could afford to buy a bunch of new plates for the ladies. In contrast, the new special purpose deadlift bar is 230cm/7’6½” long at 27mm, because it is designed to flex quite a bit before the plates leave the floor.
If we are living in a free society (we’re not, but play along), then women are free to choose whatever bar their social justice cred requires. If you own, run, or advise women in physical fitness and this rustles your jimmies, tell them we use a genderless bar and see if they like it (and it had better not be the women’s bar, you hypocrite).
Real women will let you know if they agree to use or not use your services.
Feel free to leave the rest of us out of it.
