I've been thinking a lot about the gym lately, and not just because my body is falling apart and I know that lethargy is helping it along – the gym has been on my mind in part because of this article, in which Lindy West claims that to be a fat person at the gym takes courage. Not only do fat gym-goers have to fight their own (possible) sluggishness, they also have to be prepared to defy the judgment of other gym-goers, who (West claims) look at their fat colleagues as motivational at best and disgusting at worst.
I have to admit, I feel this way at certain gyms – usually disgusting rather than motivation, though – and it's one of the reasons I don't belong to a gym here in London (the other reason being that I straight-up can't afford it). It's hard to find gyms where normal people make up the majority; almost every gym near me (Virgin, LA Fitness, etc) is very expensive and caters to a clientele that's image-obsessed, as a rule. I'm hard-pressed to find a place like my little 24-hr Fitness in San Francisco, where most of the members were normal people, of all ages and a couple different sizes, with just a few douchebags and makeup-laden spinners thrown into the mix (oh man, I miss that gym, and it took me so long to find). Even if I had it, I'm definitely not paying 60 quid a month so thin people can look at me and feel superior or grossed out.
The motivational aspect of being fat at the gym surprised me, but apparently not everyone had the same reaction. Some people commented saying they'd experienced similar condescension, and one commenter even told a horrifying story of being forced to join a different gym because another gym-goer became obsessed with working out next to her and using her as motivation. Gross. But the point is that as weird as the 'motivational role' of fat people at the gym sounded to me, clearly it resonated with a lot of people.
As for did resonate with me, it was summed up in the section below, which not only made me go 'YES' out loud but also put into words brilliantly why I hate it so much when my thin friends talk to me about dieting or losing weight:
This is something a lot of small or normal-sized people don't understand, though: while they have to motivate themselves to find the time and energy to go to the gym, fat people usually have to find those things and the emotional strength to be seen in spandex (or baggy shorts that then ride up between their thighs) in public, and the truth is that public is often a dick. So the take-away from this piece, I think, is that we should all be a bit less dickish to each other: stop assuming you know anything about a person based on the way s/he looks, and (at the gym and elsewhere) mind your own business. Focus on your own goals and health and leave everybody else alone. We can all do that, right?
Hmm... Fat chance.
I have to admit, I feel this way at certain gyms – usually disgusting rather than motivation, though – and it's one of the reasons I don't belong to a gym here in London (the other reason being that I straight-up can't afford it). It's hard to find gyms where normal people make up the majority; almost every gym near me (Virgin, LA Fitness, etc) is very expensive and caters to a clientele that's image-obsessed, as a rule. I'm hard-pressed to find a place like my little 24-hr Fitness in San Francisco, where most of the members were normal people, of all ages and a couple different sizes, with just a few douchebags and makeup-laden spinners thrown into the mix (oh man, I miss that gym, and it took me so long to find). Even if I had it, I'm definitely not paying 60 quid a month so thin people can look at me and feel superior or grossed out.
The motivational aspect of being fat at the gym surprised me, but apparently not everyone had the same reaction. Some people commented saying they'd experienced similar condescension, and one commenter even told a horrifying story of being forced to join a different gym because another gym-goer became obsessed with working out next to her and using her as motivation. Gross. But the point is that as weird as the 'motivational role' of fat people at the gym sounded to me, clearly it resonated with a lot of people.
As for did resonate with me, it was summed up in the section below, which not only made me go 'YES' out loud but also put into words brilliantly why I hate it so much when my thin friends talk to me about dieting or losing weight:
[Going to the gym i]s entering a building where you know that every person inside is working toward the singular goal of not becoming you.Of course the article is littered with comments on one or another side of the fence ('YES' or 'quit whining, fatty'), but one comment that disagreed with the premise of the post really caught my eye. The commenter points out that assuming all thin people are being judgmental is an equally judgmental move, and that we won't get anywhere as a society unless we stop blaming each other in blanket group-targeting statements and start railing against the media / advertising / society as a machine. And I think she's right, but I also think that's a tall order: it gets exhausting trying to remember that not all 'skinny bitches' (of the type that all look the same and wear the same yoga pants and carry the same Longchamp bag) are assholes, especially since every time one of them is an asshole, it knocks another chink in the wall we put up against stereotyping. Still, I think she's right to point these things out, and I think we should all work harder not to make assumptions about people based on their skin color / size (whether it's large or small) / background / looks...
Do you know how hard it is to walk into a building devoted to not becoming you when you are you!? It's the worst! I'm me literally every day! "Fat=bad/thin=good" is so seamlessly built into our culture that people I consider close friends don't hesitate to lament their weight "problems" to me—not stopping to consider that what they're saying, to my face, is "becoming you is my worst nightmare, and not becoming you is my top priority."
And that's why it is politically transgressive to simply be fat and happy in public. It is against all the rules.
This is something a lot of small or normal-sized people don't understand, though: while they have to motivate themselves to find the time and energy to go to the gym, fat people usually have to find those things and the emotional strength to be seen in spandex (or baggy shorts that then ride up between their thighs) in public, and the truth is that public is often a dick. So the take-away from this piece, I think, is that we should all be a bit less dickish to each other: stop assuming you know anything about a person based on the way s/he looks, and (at the gym and elsewhere) mind your own business. Focus on your own goals and health and leave everybody else alone. We can all do that, right?
Hmm... Fat chance.
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