With students determined to maintain their New Year’s resolutions, you won’t see the dungeon that is the PEC this busy any other time of the year. As a student who regularly makes it to the gym about five to six times a week, my issues with the PEC are more than just the ancient equipment and the time constraints. My main concern lies with the “politics” of the weight room.
When I walk into the free weight room, I have a slight feeling of apprehension and it’s because I’m a woman. Since I’m part of such an obvious minority in the weight room, the male gaze just tends to look in my direction. Maybe they’re just curious to see women that actually weight train or maybe they’re secretly snickering when they see a girl lift 10-pound weights in the same exercise that they use 45-pound weights. As one of those girls, I find it very intimidating to walk into an excessively male-dominated room. I don’t have a strong opinion for the popular notion of feminism, but I’m not a big fan of the “macho man” attitude, and even some of the most confident female weight trainers I know it to a feeling of unease upon entering the weight room.
I just began my weight training program this fall, so I’m fairly new to the etiquette of the weight room, but I have experienced two incidents that fall below what would be considered common courtesy. I can’t help but wonder if this treatment was directed to me because I am a woman and seem to be a little out of place in the room.
Both occurred on the same day. I started out in the interuniversity weight room, and as I was setting up my weights on the bar to do my leg squats, a male student from across the room rudely told me he was using the equipment. While he was clearly preoccupied with another exercise, I didn’t feel like starting an argument, so I apologized and moved to the free weights room. Hoping to avoid the previous situation, I waited for five minutes to see if anyone was going to return to the equipment, and when all was clear, I started my exercises. Halfway through my second set, a guy approached me and said he was using the bench, insinuating that I needed to move even though there was another free bench close by.
I don’t know if these men were intentionally trying to minimize the importance of my workout or if maybe there is some weight room etiquette I have yet to learn, but I do believe that if I were a man in either of those scenarios, I wouldn’t have gotten the same rude tone and impatience.
I do not want to generalize this to all men that use the weight room, because I have also had men treat me with respect. These good experiences—along with my motivation to keep in shape—are what keep me going back to the weight room even though I feel out of place.
Many off-campus gyms, including the YMCA and GoodLife Fitness, have addressed this issue by offering women’s-only fitness classes or circuit training. The Running Room also provides a women’s-only running clinic. And women’s-only gyms, like Curves, are springing up all over.
Students at other universities in the United States and Canada have itted in their school newspapers to feeling too intimidated to train in the weight room because it is such a male-dominated atmosphere. One of the few universities that had responded to these concerns was Washington State University, where a “Women on Weights” class is offered throughout the academic term.
Why isn’t Queen’s addressing this issue? We should improve on these initiatives and become one of the first Canadian universities to offer a women’s-only weight room. A women’s-only weight room at the PEC would motivate more women to integrate weight training into their weekly workouts, promoting good long-term muscle health.
I don’t want to begin a battle of the sexes, but the disproportionate male-to-female ratio in the weight room, coupled with a lack of mutual respect toward some women, makes it very difficult for women to feel comfortable. Most students go to the gym to de-stress, not to get stressed out.
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