When it comes to gyms, men turn out to have some pretty strange habits, writes Lee Suckling. Photo/123rf
opinion:
Masculinity is strange and fragile. Society has started talking about this theoretically over the past few years in an attempt to deconstruct traditional gender roles. I’m here.
I’m Jim Rat It’s where you spend most of your time every day, outside your apartment and office. But just because it makes him feel like a second (or third) home to me doesn’t mean I treat him that way.
A gym is a social space, and it comes with a social contract. The particular gym I go to has a women-only gym, so the main floor is mostly a male zone.
The following things we do in the gym are objectively very strange to observers (females, for example).
drop the weight
There is no place in life where you are allowed to throw your used stuff on the ground. What if you knock your plate on the floor after dinner? Or did you just leave your boarding pass in the aisle on the plane?
Some men drop weights at the gym. Some people annoy those around them by just tossing them down instead of putting them down politely. It also damages equipment that someone else will eventually have to pay for.
mansplaining
At my gym, which is mostly men, the men do a lot of manspray on other men. Especially when it comes to form and technique. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. Especially if you see someone trying to hurt you. Some men treat this kind of advice as an “urgent only” exclamation.
Other males, however, manspray at others like dogs – urinating where another dog has just peeed.
Some men manspray on women at the gym. I wonder if they think it’s the way to meet girls. Women don’t want our advice in that space.
We are very polite to each other…
Or super rude to each other. Now let’s make an age-based generalization. If you’re under 50, you may be overly polite to other men at the gym. There is a kind of sign language that asks each other, “Are you using this machine?” Even to the guy on the other side of the gym working out a different muscle group. Complete with a gesture.
However, men over 50 can be very rude to each other (especially younger men). Perhaps it’s perceived as a threat to masculinity, but older guys use other people’s machines without asking, huff and puff and appear angry at younger guys, and take up a lot of physical space. You’ll find it takes up (like placing multiple dumbbells across the floor).
Similar to mansplaining, it feels like an older gym-going man trying to enter another pissing contest.
unsanitary at home
Going to the gym right after lockdown was great. They were also overly disciplined in their interactions. It leaves a visible sticky butt print on the machine. We go back to behaving the same way we did in our own filthy and filthy places at home.
Some men moan to get through heavy sets, a behavior that is never acceptable in other social settings. Some people fart and just walk away. Some people talk or text on their cell phones while others occupy machines they want to use. And some really stare, like staring for far longer than is socially appropriate.
vanity
We all go to the gym to appease some sort of personal vanity, but most people keep it quiet. Men crouching in the mirror. Men who brag about how much they can lift. Men grooming themselves in the locker room (Let’s shave at home! We’re still in public!)
I sometimes feel guilty about taking selfies at the gym – and so do many women – but it also counts as one of the weirdest and most useless things men do. Sharing my situation is a great motivator to keep going to the gym, so I’m not going to stop doing that. And they judge us for it.
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