Pop Gym & Safe Space

Pop Gym works to create Saf(er) Spaces through out workshops and classes. Though we do not have a permanenent space at the moment, we acknowledge how various forms of oppression (based upon idendities including but not limited to ability, activist experience, age, cultural background, education, ethnicity, gender, immigration status, language, nationality, physical appearance, race, religion, self-expression, sexual orientation, species, status as a parent and all the ways they intersect) can hamper and limit an educational experience, especially within a practice like self-defense which requires and individual to listen to themselves, their body, and their instinct. As such, we put the into place the following for our events:

  1. We DO NOT tolerate language or behavior purposefully meant to demean or harm folks based on their identities
  2. No one should be forced to discuss their own experience/threat model/situation
  3. What’s said in the workshop, stays in the room. Folks should feel comfortable knowing that others will respect their privacy if they choose to discuss a personal experience
  4. Everything we do in our workshops is done with Consent. Even if the instruction is to work with others, make sure to check in with your partner on how hard of a hit they can handle (even when holding pads), and to ask permission before touching them.
  5. Use people’s prefered pronouns! We start every workshop by asking for folks’ preferred pronouns, so take a listen.
  6. We have a NO Photo/Video policy, unless otherwise stated. Again, this is out of respect to our participants’ privacy
  7. For those times when we have identity-themed classes (i.e. Women, Trans, GNC, NB, or Women of Color, etc.) please respect that class theme if you do not indetify as part of the group in question, and attend a different workshop
  8. Please be respectful of people’s personal experience. Sometimes folks need to vent, without being dismissed or given quick answers.

For more information on how we try to handle situations in which these rules are transgressed, see Accountability