Chapter 58
“It is my great pleasure to introduce this week’s special guest on ‘Live, Laugh, Love, Lunge.’ She’s a philanthropist, entrepreneur, self-made millionaire, and all-around badass girlboss. Let’s welcome Dee Bradley, founder of FitFams, to the L4 podcast.”
“Thank you,” Dee said into her Shure SM7B Cardiod Dynamic Microphone. “It’s great to be here.”
“Here” was not in Los Angeles with podcast host Darcy McAllister. Dee was recording from a room inside FitFams headquarters that had previously stored swag from athleisure clothing companies, nutrition-powder producers, and luxury sneaker designers — Dee had relocated the best stuff, like the Yeezy Boost 350s, to her own closet — and was now a soundproofed, tricked-out recording studio.
She had agreed to go on this podcast because it was downloaded 1.1 million times every weekday, and also because Darcy had agreed to let Dee control the conversation.
Dee adjusted the Sennheiser HD 650 Open Back Professional Headphones mashed into her riot of red curls. Cora, Shelly, and Tara were listening through their own earbuds, ready to cut off a question or ask for clarification. Dee would otherwise never have agreed to be interviewed on the topic of “How the Fitness Industry is Fighting for Inclusion, Diversity, and Honesty.”
“The first thing I want to say is, I’m addicted to your workout,” Darcy gushed over the IP audio gateway. “It is the best. Literally.”
“Thank you,” Dee said. Tara silently held up her phone to show a photo of Darcy. Dee nodded. Not bad.
“You’ve done so much to empower people, particularly women, with your company,” Darcy continued. “Please tell me more about that.”
Dee leaned in. “Empowering women is my higher calling. My purpose. It’s what my workout is all about — strength on the outside, yes, but also on the inside. It’s more than a workout. It’s a culture, it’s a community. At FitFams, 87 percent of our employees are female.”
Cora slid over a sheet of more talking points.
“We at FitFams have a saying: ‘don’t let yourself go; let yourself be,’” Dee parroted.
“You encourage women to be themselves,” Darcy said.
“Yes, that’s right,” Dee said. “We are all about celebrating the strength of the human form, no matter what it looks like.”
Cora scribbled madly on another piece of paper and handed it to Dee: “Stay away from body image. Too touchy.”
Dee gave Cora a back-off look, so she did.
“People have said that I don’t embrace all body types, or that I’m contributing to our society’s focus on unreasonable beauty standards and unattainable levels of fitness. But that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Dee said. “A healthy, fit body isn’t unreasonable or unattainable. It is absolutely, 100-percent within your reach — if you come to FitFams.”
“For anyone wondering whether Dee knows of what she speaks, go check out her company’s website and take in the sight of her abs,” Darcy mooned. Then she turned serious. “You bring up an interesting topic, though: your haters.”
Dee let out a long exhale.
“I mean, we don’t have to talk about that, if you don’t want to,” Darcy fumbled. “My producer can take this part out.”
“No, no, no,” Dee said. “It’s fine.”
“Great,” Darcy said. “Whenever you’re ready.”
“What was it that Tina Fey or Amy Poehler said at the ‘Golden Globes’ that one time? ‘Hell is for women who don’t help each other?’ I truly believe that,” Dee said. “I spend every day trying to make women’s lives better, and there are still women out there who desperately want to see me fail.”
“Why is that, do you think?” Darcy asked.
“I think it’s envy. Self-hate,” Dee said, then looked down at her talking points. “I’m reminded of the quote from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, from ‘We Should All Be Feminists,’ that Beyonce used in her song, ‘Flawless.’ It goes something like: ‘We say to girls, you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful, but not too successful … We raise girls to see each other as competitors.’”
Darcy’s producer piped in. “That quote also includes the line, ‘we teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller.’”
“Diana, thanks, but we don’t need your commentary,” Darcy said. “Sorry, Dee. Please go on.”
Dee continued, undeterred by Diana’s snark. “A lot of women don’t like seeing me succeed, despite how much success that has brought the people who work for me and who work out with me. They say they’re feminists, but they don’t like seeing me rise.”
“Who are these haters?” Darcy asked.
“I don’t know,” Dee said. “They hide. Fake accounts on social media, unnamed sources in news articles, that sort of thing. I say, come out and show yourselves, and let’s have a dialogue.”
“Have you tried to have a dialogue before?” Darcy said.
“Of course,” Dee said. “Everyone knows that my door is always open. This is my company, my baby, and it’s something I care deeply about. That shows in everything I do every day. I am very open and transparent and easy to talk to. There’s never any retaliation or ill will — I strive to make FitFams a positive and safe place for everyone.”
“That brings me to my next question: what do you say to people who complain about diversity and inclusion at FitFams?” Darcy asked.
“OK, stop,” Dee said.
“Sorry, what?” Darcy asked.
“We’re not going to talk about that,” Dee said. “I have plenty of diversity on my staff; my assistant, Sheldon, is Black. I’m not in the mood to defend myself on this point.”
Darcy stammered. “Oh, sure, OK. Yes. My apologies. We’ll move on.”
“Great,” Dee said.
Darcy cleared her throat. “From what I’ve seen on social media, you’ve been really vocal about equality, equity, and celebrating various cultures and ethnicities. This week I saw FitFams’ posts about Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the United States. Tell me about that.”
“Oh, yes, we did a big social-media push around Juneteenth,” Dee said. “Every one of our Studio Managers and coaches put up posts to celebrate the holiday and talk about what it meant to them. Like, for example, one of the coaches in Stamford choreographed a fun little TikTok dance in honor of the freed slaves. I posted a video that talked about the oppression I’ve experienced from my haters and as a gay woman.”
“Oh, that’s rich,” Diana, the producer, snorted.
“What did you just say?” Dee shot back.
“What the hell, Diana?!” Darcy yelled, then collected herself. “Dee, again, I’m so sorry. I don’t hire the producers; my employer does.”
“It just seems wildly inappropriate that a wealthy white woman and her white-majority staff would not only do a ‘social media push’ around an important date in Black history but also pretend that she understands ‘oppression’ in this context,” Diana said. “And to do this while you’re in buyout talks with an anti-Semite, anti-LGBTQIA gazillionaire? Should we talk about all of the stickers that were slapped on the window at your HQ?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Dee seethed, throwing off her headphones. “This interview is over.”