by Chris Hemsworth is a big movie star. He just finished up a blurp as Thor in the Avengers movie serials, and he’s currently the lead in the latest disappointing Men In Black installment. Chris Hemsworth also has a new workout/lifestyle App that I have supported since day one as a yearly subscribing “founding member” and I have been generally pleased with the Centr App that bears Chris Hemsworth’s name and likeness — though he really doesn’t appear to be involved, at all, in the day-to-day running of the App; but the App is filled with Chris’ people, his trainer, his food guy, his movie body double, and so if the Hemsworth name sells the App, the Hemsworth name accepts all challengers to the fitness of the fairness of the programs.
In early June, in the Facebook Group for Chris Hemsworth’s Centr App, an announcement was made that California fitness expert Gunnar Peterson would be joining the Centr family! I was excited to learn of Gunnar’s involvement, because we’d finally be getting some fresh exercise, and meal plans, content.
I flew online and purchased two used books Gunnar wrote. Each cost $35.00 USD delivered.
It was only later, upon delivery of the books, that I realized the hardback version was called “G-Force” and the paperback was called “The Workout” — but they were exactly the same book inside. I accepted my $70.00 USD replication of intention — one for me, one for the wife — and looked forward to working out with Gunnar in the Centr App anyway!
Well, I quickly learned that wasn’t going to happen.
I also later learned, in the Centr Facebook group, that the Gunnar Peterson fitness/eating plan was a limited run — disappointing, since the current crop of exercises are getting stale at the six-month mark — and, even more disappointing, there was now gender bias in play as the Gunnar plan was: FOR WOMEN ONLY!
We men, who were also early adopters along with the women, and who also pay the same subscription price as the women — were now not welcome, and we were pointedly excluded from a new part of the Hemsworth App with purchase and prejudice; and there’s no getting around the fact that this gender exclusion was in play for a long time and there were many approvals to cross in the process before going live in the App.
When I checked the Chris Hemsworth Centr App in the Apple Store this morning, there it is, Gunnar Peterson featured — PROGRAM FOR WOMEN — can’t be clearer than that. There is no equivalency for men.
Gunnar’s program was always for women, and never for men. Here’s the original PR email dated June 4, 2019 that clearly states that fact:
Janna, my beloved wife, who is also a Chris Hemsworth Centr yearly Founding Member, shares her series of emails she received announcing Gunnar’s arrival. Women. Women. All the time, women.
Me, as a man, received only generic emails about Centr in the same timeframe — nothing about Gunnar at all, for me.
The week before today’s launch of the Gunnar series, there were some men in the Facebook group, not me, pointing out the gender bias in the Centr App, and they were brushed off by the moderators that, actually, the Gunnar program was for men, too — but to get the Gunnar program you had to go into your settings and change your gender to Female for the next four weeks to access the program.
There were also quiet rumblings in the Facebook group that — oh sure, the men would one day, maybe, have exclusive content, too — but that doesn’t help us now. Let everyone in at the same time, without gender bias, or don’t do it at all. You can’t play gender favorites today, and not expect to get punted in the face.
The easy test for gender bias, or any bias, is to flip around the bias the other way. If Chris Hemsworth had offered an exclusive FOR MEN ONLY exercise and meals program in the Centr App, the entire Facebook Group would be on fire with outrage from women; but, there is no outrage there in support of the men in the community. Many of the women in the group are thrilled to have their exclusive content from Chris.
I am confounded by this gender bias in the Center, by Chris Hemsworth, App. There are many fitness paths in the Centr App that could be stereotypically focused on men or women, but they are not, and to get the fitness programs, you only need to update your goal — Build Strength, Get Fit and Toned, Lose Weight — and you never had to change your gender for access until, that is, the arrival of Gunnar Peterson’s plan.
I hope there is eventually enough outrage, from both men and women, to force Centr to change their programming to allow men to access the Gunnar Peterson plan in the Chris Hemsworth Centr App without changing their gender — because that’s the right thing to do — even though every motivation before today’s launch of that plan has clearly been to exclude men, and to celebrate only women.
Just so there’s no doubt that I have been a Centr fan, and advocate, since the start, here is the proof-in-point from my February 28, 2019 Human Meme podcast, Paths to Wellness:
Also read my recent Jump Rope Review that includes mention of the Chris Hemsworth Centr App: