Brad Cieslowski: "I'm not allowed to be myself and wear what I want to wear and it's ridiculous." (Facebook photo)
A 29-year-old suburban gym member buff is letting it all hang out in a dispute with Life Time Fitness over a tight, low-cut swimsuit he's asked not to wear.
Brad Cieslowski sees himself as the victim of an "incredibly sexist" double-standard, he tells Andrea Isom of Fox 2 (video below).
The issue arose last weekend while he was swimming laps at the gym off Haggerty Road, south of 9 Mile, while wearing a white Speedo.
"The lifeguard comes up to me and he says, 'You need to change into something more appropriate, that is not appropriate,'" Cieslowski says. He was wearing what he says is a "square-cut Speedo." . . .
"He says, 'We can all see it.' And I said, 'Well then stop staring. No one's making you look at it,' " says Cieslowski. He says when he stood his ground and defended himself, the employee threatened to call the police, so Cieslowski left.
Lifetime Fitness bars unlined swimsuits, such as this style of Speedo.
In a statement quoted by Isom, the gym says "we have a two-layer house code" that requires liners in bathing suits.
"Multiple members registered concerns rooted in discomfort, and as a result the decision was reached to ask the member to leave the pool area."
For his part, the fitness buff -- a Schoolcraft College nursing student from Howell -- tells Fox 2 he sees "all the women around this pool in their bikinis and their one-pieces, showing off every nook and cranny of their body."
"I'm not allowed to be myself and wear what I want to wear and it's ridiculous, and it's incredibly sexist."
-- Alan Stamm
