As far as I can tell, women have a big, huge, ridiculously large advantage over men when it comes to working out: we can take anything.
Thanks to years of agitation by women to be regarded as equals, women have managed to overcome poritions of the socially constructed gender barriers to totally re-write what being “female” means, and how that is signified through actions.
This is a fancy way of saying that I, as a woman, am free to take any group class that I want. I am free to take a Semi-Private Training session, perform one hand snatches, and not have anyone think anything of it. I can take an Extreme Training class, work on my jab-jab-cross combo and no one is going to come up to me and say, “Wow, I can’t believe that you are doing that,” with total judgement face.
I can work my entire body without stigma, without fear of being teased by my peers, or without people wondering if I am losing some core spirit of femininity by taking a certain class.
Men, on the other hand, are not so lucky. I got to witness this first hand when my boyfriend took Stacey’s Ballet Booty class. This class doesn’t get a lot of guys in it, presumably because a guy wouldn’t be caught dead in a class with “booty” or “ballet” in the name. But since Gary is a baseball pitcher, and would like to have stronger legs, I suggested that he give the class a try. He loved it for several reasons, but that didn’t stop several of the men in the gym from cracking a joke.
Case in point: I hear that guys are often insecure about their legs. Apparently calf implants are the number one surgical modification men make to their bodies. You know what would help your calves, guys? A ballet barre class.
When guys say that they won’t do something that will help them out because it’s “for girls”, it makes me sad. Do you know how mad I would be if someone said I couldn’t do something because “it’s for boys”? Fitness shouldn’t be gendered. It should be for everyone, and everyone should be free to do whatever it is that will help them out without fear of social repercussions.
So, c’mon guys. Man up, and train like a girl. Your calves will thank you.
