A woman called out her local leisure centre over a “misogynistic” sign telling women not to go in the pool while on their period.
Sophie Tabatadze, from Georgia, spotted the “offensive” sign at Vake Swimming Pool And Fitness Club, in the capital city of Tbilisi.
She immediately took to Facebook to complain about it and asked: “Since, according to your rules, we are not allowed to use a swimming pool 5-6 days each month, do we get a preferential price compared with men?”
The fitness club has since responded to Tabatadze to say they put the sign up as a preventative measure, because of a previous incident involving the water getting “contaminated”.
Using a pool is, for the record, completely safe and hygienic when you’re on your period - as long as you are wearing a tampon or menstrual cup.
“Tampons will collect the menstrual fluid before it leaves your body — so you don’t have to worry about signs of your period showing in the water,” reads the Tampax website.
In response to Tabatadze’s post, a spokesperson for Vake Swimming Pool And Fitness Club said its sign wasn’t “sexist”, but was more of a “preventive objective”.
“We had a case, when the water was contaminated due to which the we had suffered damage,” they said.
“We try to follow norms of hygiene and we ask our members to do the same.”
But Tabatadze said that menstruation has “nothing to do with hygiene”.
She added: “When you go into a public swimming pool you should accept certain level of germs. And since when are men exemplary clean creatures?”
In response to Tabatadze’s post, Melissa Eker questioned why they didn’t have a sign asking people not to urinate in the pool. “Because that happens MUCH more often, as well as diarrhoea, and is much more concerning,” she wrote.
“There are chemicals they put in pools regularly to deal with unknown fluids.
“There are Olympic swimmers that swim while on their periods. Leaks are uncommon.”
Another person, Therése Svensson, suggested that the “misogynistic” view might extend to other areas of the club too.
“When I wanted to sign up for a membership at the same pool a couple of years ago their doctor asked me detailed questions about possible pregnancies, abortions and sex life,” she wrote. “They are thus already on my black list.”
