Friday, July 10, 2009

In The Head

A somewhat curious observation made tonight. When I go to Whittlebury Hall spa the women outnumber the men by a ratio of approximately ten to one. And yet in the spa at the gym it is the other way around. It isn't that women don't use the gym, although it isn't quite 50:50. But clearly a greater proportion don't use the spa facilities. There isn't really a lot of difference between the two places so this must be a psychological thing. For the men going down the gym is manly so anything associated with it must also be so, but a spa club is "girly". For the women a hotel spa facility is feminine while the gym has too much testosterone. It's amazing what location can do to something and how it can change perception.

1 comment:

1 i z said...

Possibly also that some spaces become self-enforcing zones of separation. The 'spa' area of my gym is full of burly men being blokey. Few women feel very comfortable sitting in their cosies in that atmosphere full of gorillas in the mist. I can imagine that in a health spa where women are in the majority it feels far more comfortable/'safe' for women...