The gym is a sacred space. It’s one of the few places where you can feel free from judgment about the way you look and focus instead on getting as sweaty and gross as possible. There’s no need to dress up unless you want to. Just go and move your body over 45 minutes of bliss.
Except it isn’t always blissful and far from it. New research has found that men are ruining exercise. A study led by Liverpool John Moores University focusing on women’s experiences in gyms found that men were putting them off exercising altogether.
Out of the 279 women surveyed, 72 per cent said they’d received at least one unsolicited comment from a man while working out and 39 per cent reported feeling intimidated while they exercised. Many said they felt “sexualised” by men in the gym and “creeped out” by them. Others claimed they wore deliberately loose-fitting clothing to hide “problem areas.”
The weights area was of particular concern, the study’s respondents said: “They felt like they did not belong and should not take up ‘too much space’, whereas men took up an ‘unholy amount of space’ and felt entitled to take gym equipment women were using. When women took up space, they faced unwanted stares, comments and criticism from men.”
These are grim if unsurprising findings. I’ve experienced this numerous times as has every woman I know. There was a time when a man followed me around in the gym, installing himself next to me no matter what equipment I used. On another occasion, a man started filming himself exercising right beside me, meaning I was in shot. When I asked him to delete the footage, he told me “not to be so sensitive”. And I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve experienced uncomfortable stares.
These are minor incidents but put together they cultivate an unsafe environment. It forces women into hypervigilance and turns the gym into a breeding ground for harassment. What’s even more galling is that we’re often going to the gym to disconnect from the outside world. The gym is meant to offer some respite from the societal noise that comes with being a woman. It’s where I go to seek refuge: a place where I can take a deep breath, and let all the stress out.
Take boxing, which I started a few years ago after a man sexually assaulted me. That experience I’ve written about before and won’t revisit now. I was dealing with an inordinate amount of rage and boxing was one of the only things that helped.
Boxing became a lifeline. After I learned the basics in classes, I practised in my local gym, focusing on nothing except that punching bag. It was going great until one afternoon when, just as I was getting into the swing of things, so to speak, a man waved his arms in front of me. I tried a dismissive wave back to show I was busy but he persisted. After I’d reluctantly taken out my earbuds, he proceeded to tell me I was boxing incorrectly and would I like him to show me how to correct my form. I declined. Nevertheless, two hours later, he’d slid into my DMs asking me to go for a drink.
So, to anyone who thinks women go to the gym just so you can approach them: we do not. Most of the time, we’re trying to look after ourselves while enjoying some peace and quiet. Please give us that – it’s the least you can do.
