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By: Jennifer Vanasco
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MY MOM LOVES Curves fitness centers for women. She loves working out at Curves
so much, in fact, that she’s been talking about some day opening her own
franchise.
It’s not hard to see why the world’s largest fitness chain appeals
to women like my mom — women who’ve never been comfortable in traditional
gyms because they’re uncomfortable with their bodies, or are older and
don’t know how to use the equipment.
The program is easy to understand and follow. Women circle around from machine
to machine, encouraging each other, jogging on rubber mats to keep up their
heart rate while they’re waiting.
There are no mirrors to undercut the good feelings that come from exercising;
there are no men leering at them from nearby equipment; there are no svelte
20-somethings running for hours on the treadmill without breaking a sweat.
I know a lot of lesbians who go to Curves and quite a few who own franchises.
But the recent controversy over the values of Gary Heavin, the entrepreneur
behind Curves, has made what once would have been a matter of personal satisfaction
for my mom into a moral dilemma.
And not just for my mom but for women all over who feel empowered by Curves’ pro-woman
message and yet are dismayed to learn that Heavin is a pro-life, born again
Christian who donates to anti-choice causes.
THE UPROAR STARTED in late April with a San Francisco Chronicle column that
made a lot of allegations, some of which turned out to be untrue. Columnist
Ruth Rosen wrote that the Curves founder had given $5 million to some of the
most militant anti-abortion groups in the country directly from Curves’ annual
gross revenues.
If that were the case, the decision would be easy. No self-respecting feminist
would give money to a place that would only funnel it toward vicious anti-abortion
groups like Operation Save America.
But that’s not what’s true, according to the online magazine Salon
and a correction ran later in the Chronicle. Heavin actually supports three
centers, the largest of which is a Catholic-run health care facility that provides
services to many indigent, uninsured residents of central Texas.
None of the facilities he supports provides the option of abortion — but
none of them actively advocates against abortion, either. And — this
is important — Heavin supports them through his personal wealth, not
through the company.
Heavin has not hidden his pro-life and anti-gay beliefs. He lets potential
franchise owners know that the company is based on “biblical values,” though
that’s not something pushed on to visitors to the gyms.
He told Today’s Christian, a magazine affiliated with Billy Graham’s
Christianity Today, that, “there is nothing healthy about abortion.” In
an op-ed in the Waco-Tribune Herald this year, he railed against Planned Parenthood,
saying he didn’t want his 10-year-old daughter to be “taught masturbation
and told that homosexuality is normal.”
THIS PUTS OUR backs up, doesn’t it? We get upset when we learn that
people who own businesses where we spend our money are against those things
we hold most dear.
We have always been quick to boycott. When we hear that Coors or Domino’s
Pizza or Cracker Barrel is anti-gay or anti-choice or racist, we take our dollars
elsewhere. And this is the right response if a company’s profits are
going to a cause we don’t believe in.
But the hard question is whether feminists and good political lesbians should
pull our funds from businesses just because the owner expresses personal beliefs
that differ from our own?
After all, we wouldn’t want born again Christians to stop going to the
local grocery store just because the owner was gay, marched in the Pride parade
every year and gave a percentage of his own money to the Human Rights Campaign.
And Curves, despite its founder’s anti-woman politics, really is empowering
to women. Besides helping them get healthier, the franchises are easy to run
for first-time business owners and much less expensive than most. Having more
women control their financial destiny can only be a good thing.
We can’t force people to change their beliefs. We can only encourage
them to change their actions. And in Heavin’s case, I’m not sure
his actions are worth changing.
I don’t know if my mom will buy that Curves franchise. She’s strongly
pro-choice. But if she decided to, I guess I would support her. In this case,
it’s her right to choose.
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