Summary
Olympus Spa in Washington state is a Christian, family-run Korean spa offering traditional jjimjilbang treatments rooted in centuries of Korean culture: communal steam rooms, warm soaking pools, and the ancient practice of seshin, a full-body scrub performed by employees called ddemiri in an open communal space where all patrons are fully nude. Because nudity is not incidental but central to the services the spa provides, and because the spa’s owners hold sincere Christian convictions that men and women should not be unclothed together outside of marriage, Olympus Spa has always admitted only female patrons and hires only female employees. In 2020, a male who identifies as a woman filed a complaint with the Washington State Human Rights Commission, seeking to use the spa’s communal area with nude female patrons as young as 13. The owners couldn’t agree because of their female-only entrance policy. The commission then threatened to refer the spa to the attorney general for prosecution and gave the family 10 days to change its policies or close its doors.
