A gym in South Korea bans the entry of “mature women” – MonitorExpresso.com

Incheon, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean gym located within the city of Incheon has been criticized for recent actions banning certain types of people, in this case age-related, claiming that older women can engage in inappropriate behavior. The noise began when the establishment published a poster stating that “older” women are not admitted to the establishment, in addition to the fact that the establishment is “out of the reach of the ajummas (middle-aged lady)” and that only “cultured and elegant” women were allowed. The owner of the facility argued that this measure is due to the fact that the company has suffered damage caused by these women and their behavior, “they spent one or two hours in the locker room to wash clothes, steal items such as towels, soaps or hair dryers. They would sit in a row and comment and judge other people’s bodies,” she said in an interview adding that even other young women had left the gym because of the comments these women made. This has been interpreted as a lack of tolerance towards certain age groups and that inappropriate behavior has been pigeonholed to this age group. The gym has defended itself by arguing that the term ajummas refers to women who tend to “like things for free, regardless of their age” in addition to being “stingy with their own money but not with other people’s”. She shared that other establishments share her position but that they have not been encouraged to do so publicly: “It is not that I have tried to make a hateful comment against older women or women in general (…) I think the people who are enraged, are in fact, the ones who have a problem,” he said of his customers’ reaction to the ad. Opinion was mixed, although the balance tipped more to those who disagreed. Some people argued that these behaviors were not specific to women and that they could also be performed by older men, psychology professor Park Sang-hee said: “Older men behave the same (…) They also become obsessed with free stuff and repeat themselves over and over again. Rude behaviors are not exclusive to older women.”

Original source in Spanish