distracted. can't concentrate. don't know why.
understanding gendered spaces in a way i never have before:
"men's space" isn't a place where
men want to keep women out,
it's a place where
no women want to go.
specifically:
i am never going to be comfortable around free weights.
especially when they get their own room.
7 comments:
i'm sorry. i didn't mean for that to happen the way it did.
but to me, they are pieces of metal and rubber. and it's a room. and you have to take control of your environment. you have to own it. i keep wondering why that discomfort is there. i can understand it in a lot of ways, but for me, the urge to get past that awkwardness and fear several years ago was a much greater pressure for me.
it's about not giving a fuck what other people think because you are doing something for yourself.
again, i apologize. and i see your point. i just hope you get mine too.
It's interesting that this particular "men's space" is being defined, at least partially, by the objects present rather than the people present.
This makes me wonder if a space can be gendered differently over time.
~B.
i definitely see where both of you are coming from for sure. One summer I spent a lot of time toning my arms cause I was sick struggling to lift my back pack up- but then i went shopping for new school clothes at the beginning of the year I found that non of the designated female cut tops accommodated my newly shaped limbs. Also noted, that fad where they make all t-shirt torso length extra long- total pain.
In response to B's "This makes me wonder if a space can be gendered differently over time", I'm sure it can: I was thinking that I might actually be more comfortable if it were a women's gym. Then I thought, no, because then I'd just be intimidated by the butch lesbians. Which makes it another kind of gendered space altogether!
oh, that's what i forgot.
and in response to Troll's "the urge to get past that awkwardness and fear several years ago was a much greater pressure for me": one of my professors this term is fond of reminding us that people won't change "until the pain of change is no longer greater than the pain of staying the same." i really like this idea, perhaps because i understand it acutely.
*borrow* precise wording for what your professor says.thnx!
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