#6: The girls spot Controversy

Women only spaces have always been a thing and will always be.
From dormitories, to bathroom stalls and changing rooms, separating certain public spaces and offering a safe environment where everyone can feel comfortable was always a necessity and never really questioned.

The topic of this article is to discuss a tricky subject, to which extent inclusivity must be protected and if it should be limited in certain contexts.
The curiosity around this subject sparked from a news that became viral and, as expected, for all the wrong reasons.

Fitness influencer Natalee Barnet (also know by her Instagram persona of @nataleebfitness) started the project in 2021 with the goal of drawing attention to the ever present issue of sexual harassment in gym spaces and offering an alternative solution to help women sticking to their health and fitness goals without sacrificing a comfortable and safe environment.
Natalee herself was assaulted at the gym when she was 18, but seven years and a lot of self-healing later decided to open a gym of her own, turning a traumatic event into a constructive experience.
Rather than letting her trauma take control of her life she chose to use it as a fuel, redesigning the gym space to offer a lifeline to other women who experienced the same. Her inspiring story both exposed a sad reality and also shed a positive light on people’s resilience when life presents you with unbearable challenges, not to mention that certain ways of coping are far healthier than others.

Now, even though the idea stemmed from a noble purpose, the internet community expressed their opinions and they were divisive to say the least.
One of the points brought up by certain groups of man is that the primary reason women go the gym is to catch the male gaze, making it the reason why this business model would’ve inevitably failed. As polarising as this comments seem, they’d echoed a huge response online.

The argument that women don’t want gender specific spaces for some sort of attention seeking complex seems to be going against the success of women’s only spaces in companies like PureGym, where many women (especially Muslim) greatly appreciate the possibility of training in a quieter environment away from the chaos of the main gym floor and, in many cases, exactly to get away from men’s advances.

Once this controversy died down due to the extremely short attention span of the digital world another one emerged.
Back in the early development phase of The Girls Spot project, Natalee was focused on sourcing all the financial support she could as establishing a gym is an incredibly expensive deal, in terms of facilities, equipment and staff.
Her plead for help was heard by people from many walks of life and she received a decent amount of money to kick start the operations. One of the big selling point of her vision was its total inclusivity despite the gender specific approach, which was welcomed with overall approval.
Now this begs the question: what are the boundaries of inclusivity in a gender specific environment? And should they exist at all?

I will address the latter first with a confident yes, considering said boundaries have been established already by the very idea of a women only gym. In my view, if the facility succeeds to attracts a lot of members and it motivates more women to be more active and ultimately to adopt a healthier lifestyle it has served its purpose already.
The argument that women’s only spaces preventing access to men might spark hate and fuel a deeper division between the two sexes falls apart too when you think about how common men’s only clubs are and how beloved they are by the men attending them.

About the first question, it’s directly related to the latest and bigger controversy, Natalee clarifying that The Girls Spot won’t admit trans women amongst its members.
As of March 2025 this decision still stands, meeting a wave of resentfulness as many claimed to have decided to fund the initiative because it also extended the membership to trans women. 
These same people are now demanding their money back as reasonable solution for what they defined a misleading campaign.

Natalee commented on the sudden policy change  on X claiming that her gym is for biological women only, opposing her original X statement from 2021: "Respectfully, if you have a problem with trans women attending my gym then you can find another gym to train at" adding: "I have discussed this several times before. Trans women are women and also a minority that need to be protected. Please keep your transphobia away".

This shift of views clarified her position at once but naturally generated outrage within the online community that quickly labelled her as transphobic. However Natalee decided not to backtrack and promised a refund to her funders if they donated the money under false pretences.

By clearing the water the hope is for this controversy to quickly die down so the focus can be shifted again on taking the project to completion.
The very inspiration for The Girls Spot was Natalee’s tragic event, so with the current debate still raging on certain trans rights and not being anywhere else close to being settled, it’s understandable the desire to move away from all that.
Bringing trans women in the mix might generate awkward or tense situations where women don’t feel 100% comfortable and safe, opposing the very idea behind a women only gym.

Inclusivity is for sure an ideal to strive towards as it creates a more accepting society where anyone can find a place they belong to but at the same time it has to be regulated and in some cases limited to avoid reducing the freedom of expression of certain groups by expanding others.

Despite your view on this delicate topic, the hope for the next future, with the gym about to open very soon, is that this concept can bring a new dimension to the gym game by providing quality equipment, clean and modern facilities and fun, engaging classes where women don’t have to fear anything but the next leg day.

Link: https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/girls-spot-trans-inclusivity-gym-backlash (12 March 2025)

https://www.independent.co.uk/health-and-fitness/women-only-gym-trans-backlash-b2715417.html