A South Korean treadmill has banned inappropriate behavior, rekindling a debate about gender bias against older people there.
A sign at the gym in Incheon City, a suburb of Seoul, read “off boundaries to ajummas” and “only cultivated and beautiful women allowed.”
Ajumma is a catch-all term for older women, normally in their late 30s or later, but it also serves as a negative label for behavior that is considered rude or obnoxious.
Local media reported that the gym’s proprietor, who argued that his company had suffered damages as a result of these women’s rebellious behavior, had not been named.
” ]Some older women customers ] would spend an hour or two in the changing room to do their laundry, steal items including towels, soaps, or hair dryers”, he said in a televised interview with South Korean news agency Yonhap.
” They may sit in a row and opinion and judge another people’s bodies”, he said, adding that some younger people have quit the gym because of these remarks, which disturbed them or made them nervous.
Although the decision was made by a second gym, it seems to have irritated some people that, in recent years, South Korean businesses have received criticism for outlawing seniors or children from particular public spaces.
Some of this has been interpreted as evidence of growing prejudice toward particular age groups.
The treadmill has also received criticism for teasing women of a certain time with negative behavior.
” How did the term’ poor client’ become the same as ‘ ajumma'”?, read one post on local social media website instiz.
” If you have worked in the service sector, you’d understand that it’s not just older people who fall into those groups”.
The move was referred to as” views of the first 2000s,” according to another commenter.
The treadmill defended itself by pointing out an extra recognize that attempted to differentiate between ajummas and people. Ajummas are” pushy with their own funds but not with other people’s money,” according to the article, and they are known to “like free stuff regardless of their age.”
The owner of the gym added that there might be other business owners who do n’t have a spokesperson for himself.
” It’s not that I tried to make a love opinion against older people or people in general”, he told Yonhap. ” I think people who are enraged by]the notice ] are in fact the ones with the problem”.
Some online users who also appeared to relate ill manners with older or middle-aged women did find the moratorium to be beneficial. Some described them as “territorial”, while others used demeaning language, calling them” foolish”.
” The girls are annoying… They take their children to cafes and restaurants. They are blind and abusive”, read one post on YouTube.
There were numerous child references, with the idea that these women occupied a lot of room or interest in public spaces.
In a society that values them by their often immovable standards, North Korean women have long fought for alternatives to traditional paths, including short hair and bachelorhood. Women claim that men are hardly ever given the same rating for related behavior.
Critics have also pointed out that there was no want to focus on women when older people are just as likely to act poorly.
In a statement released by the television network JTBC following the ban, philosophy professor Park Sang-hee said,” Older people behave the same.” ” Older males even obsess over completely things and repeat themselves repeatedly.” Rusty behavior is not just reserved for older people.