Hampstead Heath Women's Pond

[Gacapa]

Hampstead Heath ladies say swimming pond is not gender fluid

dailym.ai/2El0eLA

Here we go...

[mirialis]

The male-only saunas, bars etc. I'm aware of are largely for gay men. My friend who uses the men's pond is gay; however, he actually goes there for purely for swimming.

[UpABitLate]

Oh try googling cruise Hampstead men's pond. Many straight men feel uncomfortable being in spaces that are mainly frequented by gay men, kudos to your husband obviously for not being like that!

Most men I know would choose the mixed over the men only, for that reason, and also because you know it's quietly a space for gay men to do their thing in peace so why not let them get on with it. Same as how is nice when women are allowed to quietly get in with it oh no hold on wait a minute

[CertainHalfDesertedStreets]

Oh right, no it wouldn't even occur to dh to be bothered by that.

And the men's pond is definitely the best of the three which is why I am looking forward to going

[UpABitLate]

Thing is women have no real desire to impinge on spaces like this. We know it's a shitty thing to do.

[MajesticWhine]

DH goes to the men's pond. He's never had a problem with the behaviour there.

[Oliversmumsarmy]

They've had the training!! So the City of London corporation have been told (by the pressure groups) that they can ignore laws that allow for sex segregated spaces

So no more single sex schools, no more ladies only swim sessions at the local leisure centre.

Or is it because Hampstead ladies pond is an easy target as opposed to the leisure centres female only swimming facility?

[UpABitLate]

I can't remember anyone saying that men had problems at the men's pond, have I missed something? Seems a bit of a tangent and not sure where it's come from.

[guardianfree]

Oliversmumsarmy
An easy target yes, but I believe that all women only places will be targeted, no matter what they are or how vulnerable the women are who use them.

[Ereshkigal]

Thing is women have no real desire to impinge on spaces like this. We know it's a shitty thing to do.

That's the thing. I agree. But most men don't get why we're so angry as it doesn't affect them. So maybe we do need to show them a taste of it.

[UpABitLate]

Do we need to be weird at them though? And they won't feel any physical threat. Not sure it will work, the dynamics are all wonky.

[Ereshkigal]

I know what you mean. But most men are so complacent. So many posters saying their husbands think they're "bigoted".

[AgonyBeetle]

Outside of high summer the men’s pond is mainly frequented by hardcore year-round swimmers, most of whom seem to be middle-aged or older blokes, plus a contingent of charedi Jews. Pretty similar to the Ladies Pond, although far fewer orthodox Jewish women than st the men’s.

But in high summer the lawn outside the Men’s Pond becomes gay hangout central. It’s quite funny to observe when you walk past, but perhaps a little weird for straight men.

My then teenage son went with a group of his mates on a really hot day a few days ago, and came back a bit weirded out by the experience of being so openly checked out. As he was describing his experience his two sisters were giving him the ‘welcome to our world’ slow head shake.

Most straight blokes are blissfully unaware that ‘The Male Gaze’ is in fact a thing. And when they do encounter it, unsurprisingly, they don’t like it. Women are surrounded by it all the bloody time, and what makes the Ladies Pond so special is precisely that absence of the male gaze.

[Hidingtonothing]

Great post Agony

[Xenophile]

I was speaking to my DH about this earlier and he laughed and said it was women's karma for taking away male only spaces such as the scouts and working men's clubs.

I know this post has already been answered, but it's utter bollocks, so I'm going to answer it again.

The Scouts was dying. They simply didn't have enough boys interested in joining to be able to sustain the number of packs and troops they were running. They were also struggling to find enough volunteers to run the ones that were sustainable, so they opened it up to girls. This meant that they got an influx of new members, because Brownies and Guides were and are massively over subscribed and a new pool of volunteers and survived.

So "women's Karma" there would have been to let the bloody thing die, is this what your DH would prefer?

And others have written about the way women stepped in to run soup kitchens, clothes banks, food banks, jumble sales and charity drives during the industrial unrest in the 80's in places where working men's clubs were the social centre of the area, and it was men who decided to allow women full membership of them afterwards. It had to be men who did that by pure dint of the membership committees being all male. The only thing that changed was that women were allowed to be members, women had always been welcome to go to WMCs and they still run most of the fundraising.

Facts are a bastard, aren't they?

[CertainHalfDesertedStreets]

Not derailing re behaviour at the men's pond. Responding to -

The majority of men probably do not go to men only saunas and indeed the men's pool at Hampstead, because of the behaviour or possible behaviour of some men

[TammySwansonTwo]

Oh god, why did I read the comments?! So many people who simply cannot read.

[UpABitLate]

Thanks certain had missed that!

[pisacake]

The local rag has something from the Ladies Pond Committee saying basically, we want trans-identified men to come here:

www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/transgender-women-are-welcome-in-the-ladies-pond-say-hampstead-heath-swimmers-1-5339359

[PositivelyPERF]

Pisa I can guarantee they aren't taking the needs of all the femail members into consideration. The handmaidens will be good little women because they don't want to hurt the poor mens' feelings, while telling those women that have genuine concerns, that they're bigots. Isn't it funny that so many women are conditioned to be nice to the poor men, while treating real women like crap?

[KittyPerry77]

pisacake Thanks for the article. From reading it seems like the only way to stop this is for there to be a change in the law recognising tw as legal women. They quite clearly state that of course to not allow a legally recognised woman in is of course discrimination.

[Snowdrop18]

with all due respect to the ladies supporting the trans use of the pond - they refer to the "difficult process" of transition and it makes me wonder if they are thinking as per the Helen Bidd way - that the old fashioned transsexual stuff applies, not thinking that it's really just men wanting to use the women's pond.

[Ereshkigal]

Or stop this nonsense that no one is allowed to know if someone has a GRC or not.

[pisacake]

"From reading it seems like the only way to stop this is for there to be a change in the law recognising tw as legal women. They quite clearly state that of course to not allow a legally recognised woman in is of course discrimination."

This is not quite accurate. The Equality Act says that anyone merely THINKING about becoming trans is trans. So a 25-stone hairy fat bloke with a beard is as much trans as someone who has had ops, puberty blockers, etc.

That said, the Equality Act does allow you to make exceptions, but it's for you to prove they are justified - IMO single sex swimming would be justified since many (religious, etc.) women would not otherwise be able to swim. But the default position is that blokes can do what they like, women have to rebutt that and spend money on lawyers, or just roll over meekly and let the perves and paedos have their way.

[pisacake]

Here's another case where the Equalities Act has shut down women's spaces:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-40887393