If you don’t like feminist rants, stop reading. But know that you shouldn’t stop reading because if you don’t like feminist rants, there’s a good chance you need to read this.

Dear men,
Stop standing behind me at the gym while I’m using a machine. I am not going to get off the machine any faster with you breathing down my neck. I get it. You NEED to work out RIGHT NOW, but listen, I was here first. This is how order works. Without waiting our turn for things, the world would be in chaos. You look really creepy doing this, and it’s really freaking rude. You don’t do this to other males. In fact when other males are on machines, you do something else until they’re done, and then ask them if they’re done before you use it. WOMEN DESERVE THE SAME RESPECT. The gym is not “your turf.” I would not treat you like this if you came to the beauty salon. Why? Because these are public places, not operated by your patriarchy. It is 2015. Every man after Adam came out of a woman. Show some respect.

This actually happened to me. This actually happens kind of a lot to me. If you read my blog religiously, or sporadically I suppose, you know I hate going to the gym. I really do. In case I needed another reason, here is one. Men. Why is it that when I go to the gym I feel like I have to be neither seen nor heard so I don’t get in the way of men picking up heavy things? It’s not fair. It’s really messed up.

The entire time I’m at the gym I’m reminding myself in my head that I owe nothing to the men around me. I do not need to get out of their way. I’m here for the same reason they are. I pay the same membership price. I am a human being. Yet I still get the looks and the signs that I’m in “their way.” It’s ridiculous.

The icing on the cake is that I go to Planet Fitness. I literally go to the gym they call a “Judgement Free Zone.” The idea behind Planet Fitness is that it’s a chill gym. They don’t want bodybuilders and overenthusiastic weight lifters there. The point of Planet Fitness is Fitness. It’s not for you to get ripped, or to get shredded or anything. Like it’s for middle aged people and girls like me who just need a treadmill and some weights. No one at Planet Fitness is going to the Olympics. My 3 minutes on any given machine will not derail your entire workout regimen. And even if it did, I pay to go here! It’s not YOUR gym!

So please, men, calm down. Take a deep breath. Wait your turn. And stop expecting women to get out of your way. We’re not in your way. We’re just here.

Rant over.

xoxo
Kam