How would a concept like mine do in Davis Square?

[neknockouts.livejournal.com]

I recently acquired the master franchise rights to a relatively new but fast growing salon concept called Knockouts®. 

It is a sports-themed franchised salon chain providing competitively-priced haircuts and other grooming services including coloring, massage therapy, facials, manicures, pedicures, and hair waxing. It caters specially to men by offering a pampering experience that is not available at other discount walk-in salons and without charging high-end salon prices.  

Each salon features specially-chosen staff of female stylists wearing Knockout Girls^® uniforms, large leather chairs fitted specially for men, individual flat screen TV's with a remote control at each station and complimentary beverages. The environment is upscale and professional yet casual and fun.

Since 2004, Knockouts has sold more than 123 franchised locations in thirteen states, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Texas and Vermont. The chain currently operates nine salons, with many more scheduled to open soon.  For more information, please visit our websites www.nekocorp.com and www.knockouts.net.

I'm looking into the possibility of putting my first location in Davis Square.  Do you think it would do well in Davis Square? Are there good locations available? Any input/comments would be welcomed and greatly appreciated.  Thanks...

Comments

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[ifotismeni]

legitimate question though: "safe space" sort of seems to imply co-ed gyms like bally's are unsafe? i used to be in curves though, i can sympathize with wanting to workout without guys. but it does really smack of double standard to me. just in cemetarygates' defense there.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

The problem as I see it is that our society is set up so that men feel comfortable wherever they go in the world. That's part of how patriarchy works, how invasive it is and how much it permeates everything. Men don't *need* a men-only space because day-to-day it's just not that hard to be a man in a sexist world. Women-only space is meant to offer an alternative, a temporary break and space to not have to feel like second-class citizens. While I don't like the tone of deadwinter's comment, I would definitely be more in favor of more safe spaces.

As a simple experiment take a poll amongst your own friends (which will admittedly be a skewed sample group) and ask:

Men: On a scale of 1-10, how uncomfortable do you feel working out in a group with women?

Women: On a scale of 1-10, how uncomfortable do you feel working out in a group with men?

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[cemeterygates.livejournal.com]

I would feel just as uncomfortable working out with women who were inclined to join a female only club as I would be going to a party at a white-only country club. White only country clubs are considered "safe space" by their members, too. That doesn't make it progressive.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

I think that, as a woman who works almost exclusively with men all day long, I wish I didn't feel like Healthworks was too expensive for me to justify.

Also, I think drawing the racial analogy here is not entirely appropriate, mainly because, to use on_reserve's language, it's just not that hard to be white in a racist world.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[cemeterygates.livejournal.com]

I know we'll never see eye to eye on this, since I certainly don't believe it's in any way "hard" to be an american female in Boston in 2007. I generally clash with those who insist on being victims til the day they day as a result of anguish and woe experienced by those who came before them. I'm similarly inclined to roll my eyes at affirmative action. I do enjoy conversations on these subjects though, even though I know that since I don't think of "men" as a special scary oppressive group, I'm in the minority.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[androidqueen.livejournal.com]

True, we won't see eye to eye, but . . .

I certainly don't believe it's in any way "hard" to be an american female in Boston in 2007

Clearly, you do not work in software. :) Obviously, things are not nearly as bad as they were 50 years ago, but the software culture is _very_ male-dominated. Girliness is frequently interpreted as ditziness which is frequently interpreted as stupidity.

Mostly though, it's just different. I don't consider myself a victim, but I can appreciate the desire to decompress in a place that's going to be dominated by the culture of the gender to which you belong. Like I said before, I'd be totally okay with a men-only gym. (I only pointed out the failure of the analogy because that was the argument on_reserve was making.)

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[cemeterygates.livejournal.com]

I worked in high tech for many years and my significant other, as well as about 90% of my friends, are programmers and sys admins, so I am very familiar with the environment, actually! I think that geeks are prone to tease you to test your backbone, and likely to say things that are socially awkward, but unlikely as a group to actually "oppress" you. But that's just been my own experience... and the "culture" of the gender to which I belong is totally uninteresting to me, I think it coddles and fosters the weaknesses and not the strengths that estrogren imbues in us. I think building "cultures" that are inclusive, rather than exclusive, is the way to alleviate tensions like the type you describe in your workplace. ::shrug::

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

/pops in to baffle

i recently worked at a software company where the entire marketing team was female, as was the ceo herself, and plenty of other employees working more directly with the technology itself. i don't know, i don't get it i guess. oh well.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

I'm with you, actually.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Your analogy falls apart because being white is in the same category as being male. Being white in society day to day is pretty easy since we live in a racist society.

You're comparing a private group that caters to an oppressor class with a public group that caters to an oppressed class -- they're not the same thing.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[cemeterygates.livejournal.com]

My discomfort level would be the same in both groups, since I don't think "reverse" racism and "reverse" sexism are anything to be proud of. While I believe exclusionary and separatist "clubs" of all types should have every right to exist, I would never dream of belonging to one intentionally or supporting it with my money. I respect it as a personal decision for the members to exclude whomever they see fit, regardless of how oppressed their in-group has or hasn't been historically.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Claiming "reverse racism" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw-man) when societally oppressed groups advocate for themselves is a real convenient way to shut up oppressed people and sweep lots of ugly isms under the rug.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[0bsessions.livejournal.com]

I'm a white male, but an Irish one. We were oppressed once, does that mean I get to bitch relentlessly and use the word "oppressed" in completely mistaken situations?

I can understand that many people are still oppressed today, but making "female only" establishments is just a step back in the wrong direction. It's segregation at its most basic.

If you want to be treated as an equal, then stop being a wuss and join the pack. The absolute worst way to go about garnering any legitimate power is to go hide in a building with a "no boyz allowed" sign. There's been remarkable steps taken towards eliminating racism and sexism within the next generation or two, but people have completely fucked it up since the eighties and now it's actually going backwards. Whether the intent is sound or not, the result is completely ass backwards.

The ridiculous double standards keep people from taking it seriously. When a woman screams "equal rights" at me and then in the next breath demands exclusive privelages that men don't have, I cannot take it seriously. The way things are going right now, modern women's "movements" are either going to set us back a decade or just replace one oppressive majority with another (As is far too often the case).

Christians were once the oppressed minority, they followed that up with a rise to power and committing atrocities like the Spanish Inquisition. Just because someone's ancestors were oppressed doesn't mean they're given license to be dicks. This may surprise you, my being a man and all, but I'm actually directly descended from a rather long line of women, myself. Sometimes, it hurts to talk about, but I'm pretty sure a few of them likely had it kind of rough.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[neorock.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with what you've said and want to thank you for saying it. :)

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

which is my objection to the "gay community"--equality is not achieved through willful segregation and separation

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[jaybear.livejournal.com]

I am not asking this to be argumentative, but out of curiousity: do you have a similar problem with all affinity groups. For instance, the Polish-American Club or the Veterans of Foreign Wars?

I agree with you regarding reverse racism, etc., especially having grown up as the lone gay boy in the wilds of Northampton.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

Well, we're comfortable because even when faced with attitude, we just don't give a flying fuck. As a straight sports-loving non-metrosexual white guy, I can say that all sorts of ugly assumptions are made about me by the unshaven legs sisters of the victimhood set. Oh well.

But just to clarify a bit, we men do like having our own space where we can be free to speak our minds and make jokes without having some uptight PC twit raving about how we're sexist pigs. Takes focus away from the game, you know?

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

They are also entitled to be able to get a prurient thrill from the idea of scantily clad women without being made to feel guilty about it, or was the sexual revolution only about women's sexuality being liberated?

Men's sexuality was ALREADY liberated. It always has been. It's ALWAYS been ok for men to express a desire for sex.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[on-reserve.livejournal.com]

Men are regularly given messages that equate to "All penis into vagina sex is rape".

Wait? Are you staying at Andrea Dworkin's house? Or are you just caught under a Second Wave tidal wave?

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

I actually disagree with this. Whether or not we're in a patriarchy, women still make the vast majority of purchasing decisions in the average household (I know this from being a marketer) and there are significantly more places that are designed to deal with womens' discomfort around men than the reverse. While I do, in fact, prefer Healthworks and have a membership to it, it's not because I feel "safer" there due to lack of testosterone, it's because frankly, it's a better health club. It has more features that I appreciate, and thus I actually look forward to going there, as opposed to a place like Golds or Bally's, which I found entirely too bright and hospital-like.

Marketers market to specific demographics; the more specific the better. Healthworks is successful because they know there's a large percentage of women who don't want men around while they're working out; just as Hooters works because they know there's a large amount of men who want to watch sports while women with oversized knockers serve them chicken wings and beer. The system feeds itself, and for every woman who gets annoyed at the male patriarchy, there's another one who decides to use it to her advantage.

Another point on this as well - for every strip club or porno mag out there, there's at least one Harlequin romance novel that some woman (who's "horribly offended" by the male-centric porn industry) is reading voraciously.

I'm just as much of a feminist as the next gal (even more, to a certain extent), but I really get sick of the "everything's all about men" arguments. In fact, it isn't. Hasn't been for years.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[hannahlikesmath.livejournal.com]

This is definitely the best comment on this whole thread. Congratulations for actually knowing what you're talking about -- and having a few more credentials besides being of a certain gender and having interacted with those of another gender. Marketing is the most accurate ongoing sociology/psychology experiment, because the more accurately you can predict behavior, the more money you make. If only all research worked this way; we'd have figured out everything by now.

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[dani-namaste.livejournal.com]

why thank you!

Re: Hmmm..."crunchy granola" parts of town

[gemini6ice.livejournal.com]

open a men-only gym. i'll go: yum