Summer somehow brings to mind words like “bikini body,” “gym rat,” or “skinny legend.” While they do not sound necessarily bad, these kinds of words usually come with judgment, thus making the rest of us cringe, especially when related to exercise aspirations.
Fitness is no longer the sole purview of New Year’s resolutions. More and more, many initiate regimes again in summer, hoping to be or appear better. But for others, gyms now feel like war zones of conflicting social worlds instead of kingdoms of personal transformation.
Recent studies on women’s life in the gym unveiled an eerie trend: unease sparked by male behavior. This can take an infinite number of forms unsolicited advice, whistling, or disapproving stares. Social media platforms are full of clips that capture these interactions, even though perceptions of such moments are vastly different depending on the audience.
Falling Apart of Boundaries Between Care and Criticism
What is helpful correction from one person can be patronizing to another. Is the comment a man makes about a woman’s physique guidance or condescension? Was the quick glimpse intrusive or just nosiness?
This middle position ignites much online indignation. Men disproportionately rage about it, insisting innocent behavior is inappropriately misread as creepy or off-putting. But ARAKO TV and other online personalities such as Joey Swoll react more extremly frowning or “calling out” women in videos with disparagement, often in condemning women for all challenges in the gym.
Unfortunately, this story does not speak to men only. Women have something to say about it too. Writer Zoe Strimpel, for example, argues that women are equally to blame for the conflict of gym cultures as men and urges them to dress properly because they also must remain under the radar in gyms.
Misplaced Blame and Persistent Stereotypes
Strimpel cites a survey of over 270 English women who said they were spending significant amounts of time up to 40 minutes in one case applying makeup before working out. Her argument is that this suggests vanity, not fitness.
But this projection overlooks wider behavior. Both genders dress or preen prior to visiting the gym, whether with intent or not. And worrying about being spied upon, becoming paranoid about being spied upon, is shared by both genders particularly in a social media-led era.
Most women, however, are at the gym for their own reasons. They’re not there to impress, they’re exercising. Yet, they receive unwanted judgment, the gawk, and in some instances, unwelcome advances. As one Redditor stated, a sports bra and shorts are just fine a virtual invitation. Loose-fitting clothing, as well, they still criticize. The issue isn’t what women are wearing it’s some men’s sense of entitlement.
Sexism in the Virtual Space: The Diet Misogyny Revolution
The struggle is not bounded by a physical space. The cyber space is a fertile ground for “diet sexism”–covert, socially considerate misogyny masquerading as discussion of “protecting” women or “traditional roles.” Personalities like Andrew Tate have become prominent among young men and spread extremist ideologies around masculinity, power, and gender.
As many as 68% of Australian young men view regular online material about masculinity, a Movember report discovered. Though most of it is perhaps comforting and belonging-affirming, much of it will entrench outdated assumptions that frame men as victims of contemporary social change.
These ideas are generally introduced in kid gloves as inspiration or “self-help” before urging crowds further into progressively more extreme ideas. It’s a slippery slope, abetted by algorithms that punish depth, for clickbait, controversy.
Echo Chambers and the Algorithm Trap
Social media platforms reward users for creating provocative, inflammatory views. Video endorsements of such concepts like the “alpha male,” hunter eyes, or anti-feminist backlash overflow recommendation streams with merely passive engagement from a single user. Studies by institutions like Kent and London show how readily users, especially young men, can be drawn into such echo chambers.
Dr. Kaitlyn Regehr describes what happens: platforms like YouTube and TikTok are sensitive to emotional vulnerabilities and offer content that is offering status or control. To a isolated teenager, it can look like empowerment but actually, it’s actually manipulative guise.
Tarang Chawla, an activist and journalist, calls this phenomenon “being fed comfort food” in the guise of traditional masculinity. It offers simplistic solutions to young men, comprehensible hierarchies, and a scapegoat usually women. Instead of empowering self-betterment, it promotes grievance and entitlement.
Red Flags and Rethinking Masculinity
Not everything that is masculinity content is toxic. Chawla instructs people to seek out warning signs. If repeated blaming of women or men as victims can be identified in content, then it’s probably going to be toxic. Otherwise, quality content promotes responsibility, empathy, and personal accountability.
Chawla recommends listening to voices speaking with men about their problems and not voices speaking to women in threatening tone. Masculinity must promote men to safeguard themselves and others, not to dominate and blame others.
Positive masculinity content constructs relationships, empathy, and emotional strength. Toxic content generates anger and combat.
Why the Gym Feels Unsafe for Many Women
Women are insecure in open gyms. They tread on a court of judgment, unwelcome remarks, and sexualized behavior. Avoiding embarrassment, most opt for off-peak hours, loose-fitting clothing, or even weight room avoidance.
These changes are in no way related to narcissism or seeking attention. They reflect an incredibly authentic desire to feel safe and appreciated. The recent surge in women’s gyms should not be surprising. Searches on them have exploded, and TikTok hashtags about them have been viewed millions of times.
They are not about exclusion survival. Women desire to exercise free of intimidation or constant scrutiny, and co-ed gyms simply will not be able to offer that environment.
Inclusive Spaces and the Womanhood Debate
But the campaign for women’s gyms is giving us some uncomfortable questions regarding inclusivity. A good example is The Girls Spot gym in London, initiated by Natalee Barnett. It used to be inclusive for trans women but then reversed its policy and began to admit only “biological women.”
This transition prompted backlash. Allies and trans women understood the shift as exclusionary and harmful. It aligned with broader debates of who has authority to define “womanhood” and who can be in spaces for women.
Activist Jane Fae is critical of such exclusion as a myth of safety. She describes defining womanhood as solely biology as the rebranding of the same restrictive gender norms that feminism strove to destroy.
Policing Gender Harms Everyone
Solo biological traits utilized to describe womanhood leave out not just trans women but cis women who don’t fit normative standards as well. Butch lesbians, tough women, or those who don’t fit beauty standards may be the problem too.
The work of feminist theorist Judith Butler springs to mind here, reminding us that gender is not predestined. It’s performative and socially constructed rather than a definite and absolute biological one. In maintaining strict definitions of what a woman is, we actually end up harming everyone who does not fit into the neat box.
This gatekeeping harms the feminist movement. Real safety and solidarity require that we have to honor the fullness of womanhood trans women, too.
Reclaiming Safe Spaces Without Division
What it takes to create safe spaces in a real way is to do more than keep individuals separate from one another based on outdated definitions. It is to dismantle harmful ideologies and build spaces on respect and inclusion.
Trans women are not the issue transphobia, sexism, and patriarchal norms are. Exclusionary feminism is not feminism; it’s gatekeeping. It carves up shared power and builds hierarchies that benefit patriarchy.
Womanhood needn’t be proven it’s something one becomes. To grasp its complexity is not a mark of weakness it’s the very strength of an inclusive tomorrow.
