This Man Refused to Leave His Apartment Gym During an Unofficial “Women’s Hour,” and the Neighbors Are Furious

We all know that gym culture can be a little intimidating. You have the grunters, the equipment hoggers, and the people who don’t wipe down the machines. But generally, there is one golden rule: if you pay for the membership, you get to work out. Apparently, the residents of one apartment complex missed that memo, because they invented a fake rule to ban men during prime hours, and one guy is absolutely not having it.

Our narrator is a guy who recently moved into a new building specifically for its spectacular gym. He works a standard 8:30 to 5:00 job, so like the vast majority of the working population, he hits the weights around 6:30 PM. He even pays an extra $40 a month on top of his rent for this privilege. It seems like a pretty straightforward transaction.

But almost immediately, he noticed the vibe was off. Every time he went to the gym, it was filled with women giving him “dirty looks.” Eventually, a friend in the building filled him in on the secret. Unbeknownst to him, the community had established a “women’s hour” every weekday. But here is the kicker: “hour” is a massive understatement. This supposed hour runs from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM.

Let’s just pause and process that. They decided that for three hours—literally the absolute prime time for anyone with a 9-to-5 job to exercise—men are effectively banned from a communal space they pay for. That is not a safety measure; that is a hostile takeover of the bench press.

Our narrator, being a reasonable person who values his sleep and his $40, went to the building management to ask what the deal was. He hadn’t been told about this rule before signing the lease. And guess what? The manager confirmed it isn’t a rule. It is just a “policy the tenants agreed on.” The building neither endorses nor discourages it. Essentially, it is a made-up rule enforced by peer pressure and dirty looks.

When he asked if he could stop paying the gym fee since he couldn’t use it during the only hours he was free, management said no. They told him he was locked in for a year. So, faced with the choice of waking up at the crack of dawn or throwing $480 down the drain to appease a rule that doesn’t legally exist, he chose the third option: he went to the gym.

He tried to be respectful. He kept his head down, didn’t look at anyone, and just did his sets. But the “community” wasn’t going to let him lift in peace. A woman approached him and tapped him on the arm—hard enough that he describes it as a hit—and smugly reminded him it was “women’s hour.”

His response was perfect. He acknowledged the “window” but explained it makes it impossible for him to work out, so he was staying. He also, very correctly, told her not to touch him. She got pissed, told him to get out, and when he refused, the entire room glared at him while he finished his workout.

Now he is wondering if he is the ahole. Let’s be real: absolutely not. While gym harassment is a very real issue for women, the solution isn’t to commandeer a shared, paid amenity for 15 hours a week during peak operational times. That is wildly entitled. If these neighbors want a private, women-only gym, they can pool their money and rent a studio space, or petition the building to create one officially.

You cannot invent rules that bar paying tenants from their own home amenities and then get physical when they don’t comply. The management is spineless for not stepping in, but this guy? He is just a man trying to get his money’s worth. He is N-T-A for refusing to be bullied out of a space his rent covers. If they want “women’s hour” to be a real thing, maybe they should schedule it for 2:00 PM when the rest of the world is at work.