As I step off the elliptical machine in the cardio room, I glance around at the ponytails and brightly colored Nike shorts occupying the machines around me. Most days, I leave around 4:45 or 5 p.m., and there's not a guy in sight. I walk down the hall towards the weight room, feeling timid because I know what awaits me - a bunch of Muscle Bob Buff Pants's.
Do I want to subject myself to this again? Do I want to be the only girl in that room, struggling with the 10lb barbells while the football player next to me is lifting 50's at a million times my speed? WHERE are all my ladies at?!
I step through the door and I feel like an idiot, setting down my giant blue backpack and lowering the weight settings on the leg machine, while the guys next to me are pumping iron with arms that have to be bigger than my head. I know they're not really looking at me - I'm sweaty with glasses and a ponytail, so I'm not exactly runway material at the moment - but I still feel incredibly out of place. I think back to the cardio room where guys seldom dare to venture. Is this how they feel, surrounded by a bunch of girls on treadmills? Why is there such a gender disparity between cardio and weights?
I know the obvious answer. Girls are supposed to be skinny, which is why we do cardio, and boys are supposed to be buff, which is why they lift weights. But, I was talking to my guy friend the other day who does cross country, and he admits that cardio is much more important than strength training for your long term health because it keeps your heart healthy, and you're gonna need that thing until you're, you know, dead. I also know that female athletes have to lift weights - throwback to dry-land exercises during my horrendous days on the eighth grade swim team. What's more, back at my gym at home, there's usually an even spread of men and women doing cardio and weights, but perhaps that's because they're mostly adults and they've realized the importance of paying attention to your full body. But, at least at my college, there's a huge gender disparity - why?
Perhaps the answer is at the top of my previous paragraph. Are we really so conditioned to subscribe to gender roles that we subconsciously segregate ourselves into "getting thin" and "getting buff"? I mean, there's no sign that says "No Females Allowed in Weight Room." Could we organize a female takeover of the weight room once a week, just to show the guys that we can pump iron too? Well, maybe I can't, but I know some ladies can. The other day my friend showed me a passage from the Bible that implies that women are supposed to be fragile, and men are supposed to be assertive. Ironically, it was in Songs of Solomon, which is an extended section that's basically all about sex. I go to college in liberal SoCal, this is the last place that I would expect to follow those roles! Maybe, this just goes to show that no matter how progressive you think you are, your subconscious has, almost literally, a mind of its own.
