Nuancing the Curves
Phyllis passed me on a Snopes link about the Curves exercise chain and its founder Gary Heavin. Curves is the largest exercise franchisor in the world. Its "shops" are aimed at middleaged over-weight out-of-shape women. According to the Snopes article, a rumor has been going around the Internet that Curves founder Heavin donates 10% of Curves's profits to radical-right anti-abortion causes. The top of the Snopes piece marks this rumor as "True." Phyllis's reaction: boycott Curves. (I was going to editorialize: "We like curves in the right places, not in the wrong places"...but maybe I shouldn't go there!)
Snopes is generally a reliable source. But to get to the bottom of this story, and understand its nuances, you need to read the full Snopes article, not just the top sound bite. There is no doubt that Heavin is a man of Christian convictions who takes an anti-abortion stance. Heavin, it turns out, one year donated 10% of his income (not Curvse's profits) to charities, conceivably including some anti-abortion causes. This is his personal money, not Curves money (or the money of Curvses's franchisees). (You want to make money as a Curves franchisee? Click here to see Curves's franchises for sale.) There's no hard evidence that the man regularly gives this much to charity, or indeed that the charities include causes offensive to women.
According to Heavin's account of his life, as a thirteen-year-old boy caring for his younger brothers, he woke one morning to find his over-weight mother dead in bed. This set him on a life-long mission to help women become more physically fit.
One can only applaud the goal of the Curves franchises, and their apparent high rate of success. I'd prefer that wealthy patrons like Heavin not support obnoxious causes like the anti-choice movement, but (for the most part) this is still a free country, and I am not the opinion gestapo. The moral? As a researcher, at least read the full story and checkout the background info.
Posted by Harold Davis at February 12, 2005 09:12 AM
