Girls Spot Gym under attack for being women only

[fromorbit]

A black woman Natalee Bennett who is setting up a woman only gym in SE London is being targeted because she has said the gym will not include men which legally she can do under the equality act. She had said 4 years ago "trans" males would be allowed to enter, but she has now changed her mind.

The Girls Spot operates as a female-only gym for biological women, tackling harassment, sexual assault & violence that women face inside the gym.

The tweet circling was made 4 years ago and I was in the very early stages of creating a concept.
https://x.com/nataleebfitness/status/1898805670339899593

She is now facing a massive swarm of misogynist and racist abuse against her including multiple death threats. The post about the gym being for women only now has 51 million views.

See some examples of the abuse:
x.com/babybeginner/status/1899060758664896691

I suspect the abuse will peak a lot of people and prove the need for the gym to exist. Interestingly I suspect a lot of it derives from the US.

If you are in South East London you can register your interest in the gym here
https://thegirlspotgym.com/

Article about the gym from a few weeks ago before the controversy broke:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-14355163/women-female-gyms-fitness-influencers-gymtimidation-rise.html

The US site Newsweek has picked up on the drama:

https://www.newsweek.com/gym-trans-women-ban-girls-spot-2042133

Of course it ignores the entirely different legal background in the UK.

I really really hope for her sake anyone close to this gym buys membership.

I'm so so bored of the trope 'only a few people are terfs.' Bullshit. Most people are.

So I saw this unfold on X yesterday and today, and what pissed me off is that the initial pile-on came from "terf twitter" in response to what was a very joyful tweet about her new women-only gym opening.

One particular woman with a lot of reach on X dug up a "trans women are women" tweet by Natalee from four years ago and blasted it out to her followers, who then went onto Natalee's gym opening tweet with a fury and replied with all the usual. Not politely either. Really rude and aggressive and demanding.

Even though of course they're correct in principle, it was awful, bullying behaviour. A handful of women did jump in soon after asking questions like are you sure, maybe she changed her mind, wouldn't it be better to ask first before piling on, but were mostly ignored.

Then because of all that, Natalee released her statement about "that tweet from 2021" and how she's had a long think about it over the years and it's now a female-only gym. So then all the gender cultists piled on even harder and even more aggressively at her, even worse than the terf tweeters.

So now even though all she wanted to do was show off her excitement at her women's gym nearly being ready to open, she's got hundreds of people battling it out in her replies and giving her a load of grief.

The whole thing was terrible and I feel really bad for Natalee. It's put a spotlight onto her and her business, and not in a good way.

Only a strange thing to say if you haven't seen the videos.

Did you say anything at all ever to the provider about this? Because if not, how would they know why you stopped going? I quite strongly feel we all have a duty to stand up and be counted in this long fight for women's single sex space rights.

If you're claiming that intimidation or harassment is not an issue in gyms and that it's all fake, I'm not buying that.

If you're claiming also that it's difficult or impossible to set up men's single sex gyms because of opposition from women, that's nonsense as well.There are plenty of men's gyms in London. New ones opening all the time.

This is what I thought. This poor woman has been absolutely copping it, and often from women with comments like ‘as a cis woman if there’s somewhere I feel unsafe it’s a place that excludes my sister trans women’ 🤢 Tell me you’re both privileged and very naive without telling me you’re both privileged and very naive

WandaSiri · Today 20:39

If you're claiming that intimidation or harassment is not an issue in gyms and that it's all fake, I'm not buying that.

Then its a good job that I am not saying that.

If you're claiming also that it's difficult or impossible to set up men's single sex gyms because of opposition from women, that's nonsense as well.There are plenty of men's gyms in London. New ones opening all the time.

That is not what I said either.

It is, but I expect you have no evidence.

I'm not sure what response you are expecting, but you have misunderstood what I have posted.

This is a you issue.

Some of the criticism Natalee got when people thought she had caved in to the TA lobby was definitely over the top.

The change of mind complicates things - some are saying that she accepted investment from people on the basis of the gym allowing men and then just carried on after she changed her mind. No idea whether there's any truth in that but it does explain some of the astounding vitriol from TAs if they believe it.

They say things like this as if it's such a "gotcha". Like the worst thing that could ever happen is to have to prove your biological sex.

If I really feel strongly that I want to join a female only service, I'm willing to go the extra mile to make sure it really is women only.

If the price for that is a DNA check, fine.

And honestly, if the only way they can screen is a genital check, and that's what it takes to make sure only biological females get memberships... OK. I have nothing to hide and everything to gain.

The attacks on Natalee are awful.

It does seem to have peaked a lot of people though. Particularly black women.

Operation let them Speak again.

Reduxx have a good summary:
Fitness Influencer Faces Abuse And Death Threats From Trans Activists After Pledging To Open Female-Only Gym In London
https://reduxx.info/fitness-influencer-faces-abuse-and-death-threats-from-trans-activists-after-pledging-to-open-female-only-gym-in-london/

Telegraph coverage includes more statements, but doesn't mention how extreme the abuse is:

Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at human rights charity Sex Matters, told The Telegraph that Ms Barnett was “well within her legal rights” to admit only biological women to her gym.
“There are thousands of gyms in the country, almost all open to both sexes. It’s very telling that there is so much vitriol aimed at one woman running one small gym, just because she wants a male-free space,” Ms McAnena said.
“This type of situation is exactly what the single-sex exceptions on the Equality Act are for. The gym owner is well within her legal rights to state that The Girls Spot is only open to female members.”
In response to the criticism online, Ms Barnett issued a further statement stressing that her decision was made to ensure her customers felt “at ease”.
She said: “The decision to have The Girls Space as a single-sex gym for those biologically female was not an easy decision and something that I thought over for many years.
“I spent a great deal of time and money, including seeking legal advice, and it was absolutely not a choice made lightly or out of exclusion or malice, but rather out of my commitment to ensuring a space where women who have experienced trauma, harassment, or discomfort in co-ed gyms can feel at ease.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/10/natalee-barnett-gym-owner-trans-women-ban-girls-spot-uk/

Note there are fitness classes just for trans people running across the UK because they feel they need a space separate from other people. No one is trying to close them down or saying they are "cisphobic".
https://notaphase.org/projects/misfits/

Joey Swoll?

Natalee has limited her account on X probably because of the level of abuse. Hopefully she is ok.

On tiktok alot of comments are saying that people with pcos could be mistaken as transgender. Not only is this highly offensive as someone with pcos, i dont believe that people with pcos do look like that? Are they saying it because of the excess facial hair? Words fail me honestly. Its the delusion that transwomen apparently dont look like they have an entirely different bone structure

'On tiktok alot of comments are saying that people with pcos could be mistaken as transgender'

It's pathetic, isn't it? We're all supposed to pretend that this is such a complex and delicate issue, and the only way to be sure what sex someone is is 'genital checks'. The truth is that it's blindingly obvious whether someone is male or female. Even tiny children can get it right. Almost nobody can ever 'pass' as the opposite sex

Yes there seems to be a theme that whilst TW can only be sexed by looking in their pants, women can easily be mistaken for men by simply looking at a bit of hair on their face.

🎯

I think this is in Wandsworth....have joined the wait list to show support

The only solution in society is for trans to create their own trans space and stop demanding to mix. Unfortunately for them you can't expect and force everyone to agree to accommodate something they don't want or believe in. Women deserve to have their own space without cosplay and I really hope she sticks to her guns on this one.

Who indeed. This lobby doesn't seem to know the meaning of half the theoretical terms it's fond of regurgitating (not that intersectionality is a methodology of any kind, just a social observation). Ask them who Crenshaw was and what was the point behind her article, then watch them stand there with their gears spinning.

If TRAs don't grasp that gender constructivism is the very brainchild of the 'queer' theorists whose work they constantly spout and on which they claim to be informed, there's no helping them. 'Gender' is a crock of socially-sanctioned stereotypes. Don't blame us - just ask Foucault 😆

Here's just another case of TRAs' misappropriation of language, theoretical terms, large threads of academia, and spaces and groups in which they have no business, which in reality have sod all to do with them.

There is a female only gym near me. It doesn't say anything about whether it is for biological women only, but it is in an area of the city that has a high Muslim population, so I would imagine it's a given that that's how it operates and any man trying to self ID into it would get short shrift.

Something about the story feels a little odd to me, maybe a slight whiff of grift about it, the wannabe gym owner seems a bit like an 'influencer' type, and very young to be opening up a gym in competition with the established 'big dogs' who are active in this space.

Though it goes without saying that I say more power to Ms Bennett in her endeavours, the proposed clientele limitations seem more than reasonable to me.