A small but noisy percentage of American men regard gyms and swimming pools as their personal spots to pick out their harem. This poses a problem for less-than-gorgeous women like me (I’m moderately overweight) as we have to listen to crude remarks about our attractiveness. Friends of mine who are drop-dead gorgeous have told me that they’d really like to do their workout without having to fend off crude, obnoxious guys trying to pick them up.

An all female environment would have distinct advantages for women- especially for those (including me) who use their workouts to unload stress, not take on additional stress.

Also, the rules that women vs. men use in allocating space on exercise machines are different- so that, in a mixed sex gym, the women may not be able to get on the machines their fair share of the time.

I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect non-Muslim women to dress in hijab swim suits during all female swim hours.

But perhaps we can agree that it’s not in any way modesty-related what drives Mr. Pipes

It isn’t uncommon for students to be prevented from wearing hats in school because of the gang association. Some schools require uniforms to be worn and I see that as a good thing to keep the young minds on the schoolwork (to the extent it is possible at all).

But in adult society it’s a hard call. I wrote to a company a few years back that had ads depicting almost fully nude women reclining in poses along the sides of city buses. My objection was that one can’t keep children from viewing the buses as they cruise unpredictably down city streets. We owe it to parents, who have the right to raise their children as they see fit, to prevent this kind of thing, so that would be my test of a situation – are children likely to see something? Most public places allow children to be present so that would put quite a damper on things. The difficulty is in where to draw the line and who does the drawing.

The logic could lead to enforcement of full head coverings for women, for example, as it does in some places.

In the past, in the United States, there was far more social pressure to conform. The thought that people would disapprove if one appeared in public in certain ways would be enough to discourage it. Now, people are defiantly proclaiming individuality and the thought that there might be social disapproval is often more likely to bring on the disapproved behavior than suppress it.

People therefore migrate to a place that suits them (pun intended) be it Tel Aviv/Jerusalem or San Francisco/Oklahoma City. This is polarizing but does allow people to live as they like to the extent that they can without resorting to oppressive laws on personal behavior.

PS to GS: Just finished your book on the settlement movement. Thank you for a very much appreciated education on the subject.