Welcome to the safari? Men vs. Women in the gym
In today’s society it is very easy to forget that not all men and women are equal or have the same goals put upon them when they grow up. This plays a big factor when it comes to the gym; a very well known male dominated location, where the myth that if a woman lifts too much she begins to look too manly and lose that feminine physic. Due to this myth, I decided that I would go to the YMCA, located in the outskirts of downtown Phoenix. I wanted to make it look as normal as possible for everyone so it didn’t look like I was just staring at him or her for an hour. I wore the “proper” gym attire for men (basketball shorts and an old t-shirt). The sets of experiments I was going to be observing was
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that of male groups (all male groups and that of at least one female in it) and then female groups (all female and then that of with at least one male). As well as how many women vs. men would come to the workout area that contained bench sets, dumbbells, and the squat racks (also including leg press/smith machine). For about 30 to 45 minutes I sat outside of the weight room in the lobby next to the 2-racquetball courts watching people enter since they had no other option, but to walk past me. One of the big things I noticed was that about 30% of the time a female came in she had a child and would drop them off in the daycare center and then went to workout. Where as I saw 3 out of 28 males come with a child and drop them off in the day care center. Males however entered into the gym in groups of all guys 42% of the time, in a group with at least one girl, 21% of the time and then the other 37% they came alone. Whereas it was very uncommon I would see a group of all females enter in together, roughly 29% opposed to the all male groups 42%. When I looked at when a female came with a male it was a little more often that this occurred, 35% of the time. The other 36% of the time they were alone Next, I went into the weight room for about an hour to observe how males and females separated themselves on certain machines and areas. Right when I entered the room there are 10 treadmills, 2 ellipticals, 2 stair climbers, and 5 bikes. I noticed right away those 7 treadmills, 1 elliptical, both stair climbers, and the females took the 2 bikes. Leaving 3 treadmills, 1 elliptical, and 3 bikes to the males. When you do the math, it accumulates to 63% of the possible 19 cardio machines were taken by females. Which in my times of going there comes to no surprise for me. The other half of the gym maybe a little more, is left to exercise equipment and workout machines. I would take 4 laps around this area and mark a tally based on gender under the categories arm focused, leg focused, and core focused machines. I first looked at the workout machines, which are usually pretty packed like it was on that day. When I came across an arm-focused machine 90% of the time it was occupied by a male, when I came across a core-focused machine it was occupied about 50/50. For what the arm machine was for guys the seated leg press and lower body focused machines were for girls, nearly 75% of the time females occupied it. However, when I went into the heavier weights portion of the gym (dumbbells, bench sets, and squat racks) females were pretty much absent. Out of the 6 people I saw on the 2 bench sets, no females used it. When it came to dumbbells and curl bars it was a little better. I saw 4 out of the 7 girls total come over and either take a dumbbell or curl bar and then leave the area, while the other 3 stayed and worked out. When it came to the squat racks (2) and smith machine (2), 4 out of 7 total people who used the squat racks and 5 out of the 8 people using the smith machine were female. Which always seems to be the case when you go to the SRC here at ASU as well. My explanations for each of these were what I was expecting to see when I entered.
Through studies on men and women such as that from the article Why do guys lose weight faster than girls? On livestrong.com it states, “Because men are generally larger and typically weigh more, they tend to burn more calories and lose weight faster.” (North) which I have always known. This to me is a reason why the women were on the cardio machines more then men because they have to work harder for the shedding of those few extra pounds. As I said in the beginning of this paper, I believe that the fact there is a lack of females in the “heavy weight section” is because women are afraid. Afraid of the un-feminine look they might obtain and that of feeling of being too manly. This is why women will usually try to stick to squats, core work and pick up the occasional curl bar because it will help tone the body. Another thing women know is that if they do enough squats, they can have that Jennifer Lopez booty and if they do enough crunches they can have that “flat tummy summer body” you see advertised all over the …show more content…
internet. Now, for men we see squats as something we do or not do depending on how we feel that day.
Because men need to focus on arms, chest, abs, and looking manly for all those women doing those squats on that smith machine across the room. Which is something society has placed upon man through the years. The reason there were more men then women in my observation is because for men it is what the safari is for lions. A test of male dominance, “You hit 220lbs on bench? Guess I’m hitting 220.5lbs today man watch!” it is a great place for guys to just come together and get in a good workout and then go play a pickup game of basketball or something. Whereas for females I see it, as they want to get in and get out as if they were never there, because guys know and girls know that the time guys aren’t lifting they are looking at the girls. Girls also know that if they go over to the squat racks and dumbbells they are just asking to be approached by some random guy, well that’s how majority who go to the gym see
it. One of the explanations that I believe I can create an experiment to test is that of men vs. women in losing weight. Give them the same workout schedule/ plan, diet, and find 3 women considered over weight and 3 males considered over weight. Have them weigh in and do a max (best they can do) on bench, squat, push-ups, crunches, and run a mile at the beginning of a month and have them re-test at the end of the month. Measuring body fat percent, measurements (chest, stomach, and hips), and total weight loss of each individual and group and compare.
...at aerobics is like to younger kids and not how it is seen through media outlets. Lastly, the clothing should be optional when performed at StAC as this will entice many more people who have self esteem or confidence issues or who just don’t like the traditional clothing worn in aerobics. . If these recommendations are acted upon than the engagement of not just males but females will advance within the following years.
For so long, the Athletic Training profession has been dominated by men. In the article “Women in Athletic Training”, the author Marcia K. Anderson does a study that describes what the pioneer women of athletic training had to go through during a time of male dominance. Women entered the athletic training realm as the underlings and weren’t respected as athletic trainers. “The purpose of the study was to describe, from their perspectives, the early experiences of women . . .,” (Anderson 42) rather than building an argument on how she feels about the situation, she’s going to be the middle man and explain their stories. It’s important for an author to establish credibility or ethos because one word or sentence could either be the death or birth of his/her reputation. Ethos lets the reader know whether or not the author is trustworthy. Although Anderson does not have personal experience with breaking into the field, interviewing the thirteen pioneer women gives her credibility in some areas while taking away in others. There are some key aspects she leaves out that lessen her credibility throughout the article, such as, not having any athletic training experience to fall back on, the demographics of the women she interviews, and how she interviews the women.
Newsweek’s target audience is young educated men who have not quite established their own families yet. (Khan Javed) With this audience, it is not too late to take charge of your life and your well being. The author commented that there is research that connected weight to a shorter life span and this might hit the reader harder if they are younger because they have not completely lived their lives yet. Men also tend want more power or be top dog, it is in their genetics. Daily and Ellin wrote “American men would not be able to compete globally, participate in international business, or win wars”(Dailey,Ellin). This statement affect the target audience by belittling them and not letting them become the best they possible could. And guys who have done much for the career they have, they will not be called lazy and prove them wrong. They also quote doctor Gaessar, “ There’s this general perception that weight can be controlled if you have enough will-power , that it’s just about calories in and calories out”(Daily, Ellin). Making it sound so easy, makes it something easy to compete with, Men have a natural instinct to compete and be the bigger, better person. The authors making being thin sound easy will stretch the target audience to take charge of their bodies and control what goes inside of
The experiment to test the social norm of what clothes to wear in the gym consisted of five participants. The three confederates, Julie Curtis, Melissa Medici, and Payge Yerkes, were in the control group and wore gym shorts, t-shirts, and sneakers. The job of the control group was to watch the other gym patrons’ reactions to the experimenter’s attire. The experimental group consisted of Julie Crance, who wore a black top, black pants and brown heels; and Danielle Bonser, who wore a black dress and black wedges. Both experimenters wore their hair down, curled and wore a lot of makeup. Crance rode the bike, while Bonser worked on the elliptical for the duration of this experiment, which took place in the Kaplan gym at Mount Saint Mary College.
When it comes to choice of where to workout it is a complete personal preference. Some people do not like the thought of people staring at them or watching them workout because they are not at the place they wish to be at yet. This is only one other thing that sets people in this discourse community apart from themselves. In some instances, this can become a disadvantage for the person pushing towards a specific goal. Certain goals can be pushed to the side or completely forgotten about because of the discomfort people feel placing themselves in a place like a gym for the first time.
Masculinity’s need for femininity has been a concept that I have witnessed in my own experiences; for example: gender-based spaces. I believe the most prominent example of this in my own life takes place in weight room here at UW-Whitewater. As a particularly male dominated space, it is very easy to feel intimidated. Most of the men present will either make girls who are also there for the same purpose as them feel as if they are in the way, or perhaps worse, they will be very intrusive and assume that their assistance is required. Both of these aspects are a factor in male masculinity’s need for femininity. For one, a feminine, female-identifying person such as myself partaking in the same activities that are often thought of as “manly” takes away the sacredness that such an activity only “belongs” to men. Moreover, my own independence as a woman, especially in a male-dominated z...
The culture of the gym is slowly coming together just after two days of observations. The gym is primarily a male dominant place to do but in our college the only area that is completely dominant is the weight lifting area and that’s only during prime hours. Also on the note of personal space there is noticeably a tendency for both male and female to have a certain amount of space around them like a personal bubble.
As for the gender that is most likely to suffer from morbid obesity is the female gender. As a treatment for now the first step is surgery to try and reduce the obesity also some medical surgeries also involve is minimizing the size of ones stomach. Also according to the panel, FDA guidelines for approval of obesity drugs might well be altered to give less importance to metabolic biomarkers (blood pressure, triglycerides, cholesterol) and more to the loss of adipose tissue itself or particular deposits of adipose tissue that have deleterious effects on many physiological functions (Allison, 2008).
Although men do not look at a plastic doll as an inspiration for a perfect body, but they too have ideals that they wish to live up to. Often times, men find the need to have the biggest muscles in order to please women. Although not always noticed but there is a fine line between healthy and extreme. At a certain point, it becomes an obsession and can take over a person’s life. However, men do have it a bit easier in the sense that their main and only concern is with building muscle. Women are expected to put on make up everyday and always be in top condition. It is looked down upon for a female not to dress and groomed a certain way every single
It has taken many years for women to gain a semblance of equality in sports. Throughout history, women have been both excluded from playing sports and discriminated against in sports. Men’s sports have always dominated the college athletic field, but women were finally given a fighting chance after Title IX was passed. Title IX, among other things, requires scholarships to be equally proportioned between men and women’s sports. Although this was a huge gain for women, gender inequality still exists in sports today. An example of this persisting inequality can be seen when looking at men’s baseball and women’s softball. In college, baseball and softball are both major NCAA sports. It is widely accepted throughout today’s society that baseball is a man’s sport, and softball is a woman’s sport. Very few people question why the two sexes are separated into two different sports, or wonder why women play softball instead of baseball. Fewer people know that women have been essentially excluded from playing baseball for a long time. This paper will focus on why softball has not changed the way women’s basketball has, why women continue to play softball, the possibilities and dynamics of women playing baseball with and without men, and the most discriminating aspect of women being banned from playing professional baseball.
Since sports and athletics have been brought into our society it has always been gender specific. For example, it is seen that males should be playing the rough and tough sports or athletics such as rugby and football, whereas the women should be participating in less competitive sports and athletics such as swimming, or running. Can you imagine that the world population of women is around forty-nine percent and they still aren’t given the same opportunities or respect as men? Being a women in the twenty-first century playing one of those “non-traditional” sports is a tough task for these women. The women who choose to do so are usually questioned about their sexuality and
Although fitness centers and gyms may appear to be a place to break a sweat and work out with the intention of not being seen without makeup and in grungy clothes, this may not be the case, in particular when it comes to college gyms. Contrary to the findings Tamara L. Black displayed in her dissertation for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from the University of California in Los Angeles, in which she depicts the situation of the classical fitness center as exercise dominated, after observations made while participating in the Boston College Recreational Complex, fitness centers may be more heavily focused on expressing sexual and social relations than for health related issues. Although she does not elaborate on this view of the gym, she does recognize that “popular media, cultural stereotypes, and some empirical literature depict gyms as places to meet people, where sexualized interactions are likely to take place, where bodies are on display as objects of desire” (pg. 40). This may be the perfect definition of the situation that I found in my observations. Shari L. Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs, in Body Panic: Gender, Health, and the Selling of Fitness, acknowledge “mainstream media construct men as active and women as inactive. In this view, women are often shown as ‘being visually perfect’ and passive, immobile, and unchanging’” (pg. 40). Perhaps we have media to blame for this hyper-sexualization of a situation that was initially intended for self-fulfillment and health related practices.
...so have a goal to work towards whenever they see the waif-like models in the media. According to R. Modrzejewska and W. Badura-Madej (2013), they have concluded that more women have a negative self-image of themselves when compared to men. As such, women are also more likely to be motivated to lose weight by going on diet plans or by exercising because they are teased that they look fat and or encouraged by friends and family to shed the extra pounds.
In 1970’s there emerged a phenomenon of a ‘Superwoman’ who achieves everything in life. The article by Sylvia Rabiner “How The Superwoman Myth Puts Woman Down’’ staunchly advocates against the superficial and unrealistic image of woman promoted in the media. Rabiner, born in 1939, suffered much during her life, which she considers as a reality faced by the majority of the women, who unlike the elite class go through hardships. Moreover, Rabiner is not only a freelance writer who has written in woman related magazines- Working Mother, The New Republic, and Mademoiselle- but is also a teacher; and has earned
The statistics showed that around 31% of women are obese compared to around 18% men.7 Women are more affected by obesity due to lifestyles. The inaccessibility of safe side walks, cultural and social factors, taking care of kids are some of the reasons that play a vital part...