I know it doesn’t feel like it, but we’re fast approaching the one-year mark for the Dylan Mulvaney/Bud Light boycott.
Yes, nearly 12 months has passed since the woke social media ad campaign first debuted and began destroying roughly a third of the formerly best-selling beer in America’s market share. Naturally, at an anniversary like this, you begin asking questions. Like, what’s an appropriate gift for a one-year boycott anniversary? (I’m assuming not Bud Light.)
The two most important questions one year post-Mulvaney are 1) has corporate America learned anything and 2) if not, who’s next? Given that the answer to the first question is mostly an emphatic no, it’s mostly about spotting what brand will be the next Bud Light. For your consideration, I present Planet Fitness — a chain that loves shaming what they deem to be toxic masculinity via a “lunk alarm” in some of its locations, but is happy to let men use the women’s room and then kick a woman out for documenting it.
The chain went viral last week after gym member Patricia Silva posted a video outside her Alaska gym noting that “there is a man shaving in the women’s bathroom” and that she wasn’t “comfortable with him shaving in my bathroom.” There was also reportedly a 12-year-old girl present.
The man clearly doesn’t even appear to be passing as female (and shaving one’s face at the sink isn’t really something that’s done in facilities for the distaff gender), but the woman was the one who was banned from the gym for taking a photo of the man.
Woman in Planet Fitness claims she went into the bathroom and this man who thinks he’s a woman was in there shaving.
Why does @PlanetFitness allow men to use the women’s bathroom and invade women’s private spaces?? pic.twitter.com/qVJ0YUFQvc
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 12, 2024
UPDATE: The woman who exposed a man shaving in an Alaska Planet Fitness women’s locker room with a 12-year-old present just had her membership revoked.
Why is @PlanetFitness prioritizing a man with a p*nis using a woman’s private space over women’s and girls’ safety? https://t.co/2WLOzdpf3J pic.twitter.com/XVg6h8pGlA
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 14, 2024
A representative for the gym apparently confirmed that the video was accurate, telling the U.K.’s Daily Mail that “discomfort is not a reason to deny access.”
Do you plan to boycott Planet Fitness?
“As the home of the Judgment Free Zone, Planet Fitness is committed to creating an inclusive environment,” the Planet Fitness representative said.
“Our gender identity non-discrimination policy, states that members and guests may use the gym facilities that best align with their sincere, self-reported gender identity. The member who posted on social media violated our mobile device policy that prohibits taking photos of individuals in the locker room, which resulted in their membership being terminated.”
The video was initially posted by Silva to Facebook but went viral after being featured on Libs of TikTok, which called for a boycott.
Bloodbath at Planet Fitness! A woman spoke out about being confronted by a MAN shaving in the women’s locker room. Planet Fitness then revoked her membership.
I’m hearing from insiders that there’s PANIC at corporate over mass cancellations and this PR nightmare they got… https://t.co/AL3d3AC1LS pic.twitter.com/41hj0c9g94
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) March 18, 2024
The gym has been trending on X ever since the boycott calls — and even X owner Elon Musk had something to say about the controversy:
Planet Fitness sounds like a creepy place
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2024
It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time that this happened, nor will it be the last. In 2015, the Daily Caller reported, a Michigan woman had her membership to the gym revoked after telling other members about an incident where she thought she encountered a man in the locker room.
“He looked like a man. He did not look like a woman,” Yvette Cormier told local media at the time.
“I was blocked because a man was standing there,” Cormier said. “It freaked me out because, why is a man in here?”
So, this whole “Judgment Free Zone” thing has been in place for a while. Except Planet Fitness isn’t really a judgment free zone, they just judge one group of gym goers more harshly than another. Hence the “lunk alarm.”
Remember these ads?
Planet Fitness has a “Lunk Alarm” if you lift heavy weight and they will kick you out of their gym if they feel your muscles or heavy weights might intimidate other gym goers. In fact they had an entire ad campaign promoting this idea for years. But they’re more than happy to let… https://t.co/iX40Qdkp8w pic.twitter.com/6LM8TMyJ1b
— Nuance Bro (@NuanceBro) March 14, 2024
Now, yes, there are certain women who dress provocatively in one of the spots — but that’s not really who they’re railing against. Instead, it’s powerlifters who might drop weights after a particularly difficult set or who are seriously into bodybuilding. Case in point:
According to a 2019 post on the blog of gym equipment manufacturer Harison, the “lunk alarm” is “a loud siren, that draws attention and pauses workouts. The alarm also alerts gym managers to the lunk.
“When a person grunts or drops weights, it draws unwanted attention, the lunk alarm will sound, and the club manager will intervene.”
We’ve come up for another phrase for this kind of “Judgement Free Zone” — “‘toxic masculinity‘ not allowed.”
Leor Sapir, fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, put the paradox quite well in a social media post on Monday:
Me: “What’s a ‘lunk alarm’?”
Planet Fitness: “Oh, that’s when a gym bro grunts too loudly and makes women uncomfortable.”
Woman: “There’s a dude in the women’s locker room and it’s making us uncomfortable.”
Planet fitness: “Give me your membership card, you whiny bigot woman.”
— Leor Sapir (@LeorSapir) March 19, 2024
Look, I have no intention of forcing my private sociopolitical views on Planet Fitness just so long as its fellow travelers don’t harbor any intentions of forcing theirs onto me. (Somehow, however, I don’t think that’s the case.) However, there’s a blatant hypocrisy in calling your brand a “Judgment Free Zone” when it’s making all kinds of judgments, just not ones that make any sense to the average consumer.
Planet Fitness told its members, once upon a time, that some men can be really toxic in the gym — and promised to keep them at bay with “lunk alarms.” Discomfort was reason to deny access, at least if one were a “lunk.” Call me old fashioned, call me prudish, but I think a man who lurks in the women’s room at the gym is a lot more toxic than some bro who drops weights. The biggest gym chain in America wants to tell us otherwise.
Then again, they should remember that last year at this time, Bud Light was the best-selling beer in America. That changed in a hurry, didn’t it? So will Planet Fitness’ business prospects, one suspects, if it doesn’t get itself a different set of judgments posthaste.
