Throughout the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed that for many, there was no place they wanted to go more than the gym.
And while there was only a small group who actually protested over gym closures, the number of people who wanted to ditch their limited workout options at home and go right back was much larger.
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However, we soon learned that the prospect of returning to gyms was something of a double-edged sword because it also meant dealing with our fellow gym-goers.
That’s not to say that there aren’t friendly and encouraging people at gyms. In fact, we’ve seen at least one story where a gym mishap served as a meet-cute for a budding young couple.
But considering what we see from the most common stories to emerge out of gyms, we’d be lying if we said that described all of our experiences there.
And it’s those encounters that explain why we just want to be left alone.
Although we’re about to see that pretty much anyone can be harrassed at a gym, women seem to get the worst of it.
For instance, this snapshot from a TikTok shows that despite the fact that she couldn’t possibly look less interested in her surroundings, the man partially out of frame thought it was a good idea to hit on her.
But while that likely made her uncomfortable, the situation was even worse for one woman who was groped by an instructor at her gym. And while the employee involved was fired, that didn’t seem to happen until her video went viral.
Given how often these kinds of encounters happen, it shouldn’t be surprising that there would be a market for women-only gyms.
And as we can see in this TikTok, the gym being shown off here places a high value on the privacy and comfort of its customers.
After all, it not only provides windows that outside gawkers can’t see through, but it also informs customers of the exact times men will be working there.
Although some men went as far as to refer to this gym as “segregation,” it seemed lost on them as to why so many women would want to work out here.
And if they know why and don’t care, they’re only making the unfortunate reality that such places need to exist more obvious.
However, there are still some ugly trends that all the women-only gyms in the world can’t solve.
For instance, the reason why this image has a big gray box in it is because an influencer named Bethy Red felt compelled to conceal the identity of the woman who was not-too-subtly making fun of her weight.
For some reason, she just found it so unbelievable that Red would film herself exercising and kept pestering her about it.
Another woman who wore a similar outfit as Red also found herself kicked out of a gym and shamed in a way she suspected wouldn’t have happened if she were smaller.
While the majority of us can likely agree that it’s both cruel and illogical to ridicule someone’s weight while they’re actively trying to lose it, it seems that doesn’t stop some people.
But even when gender and size aren’t a factor, it doesn’t seem like people are any better at minding their own business.
Take for example the man on the right in this picture, who apparently thought it would be really cool to passive-aggressively film TikTok user Nick Nush before being full-on aggressive by cursing him out.
Why? Because he was shirtless.
The man didn’t accept the guy’s explanation that he was filming his back for fitness video. But in all honesty, there was no reason he had to give it.
Because whether you care whether someone shirtlessly films themselves working out or not, there has to be some understanding that their workout has absolutely nothing to do with you.
So if it wasn’t so hard for the woman at the beginning, Red, and Nush to mind their own business during their respective workouts, why is it so impossible for so many others?
I don’t know, but anybody who’s going to act like the jerks we’ve seen today should just stay home.
