Why Is The Gym Such A Toxic Place To Workout?
The gym turns on the ‘idiot’ in so many people, it’s almost an epidemic of its own right now.
TW: Discusses issues of violence and sexual assault
Introduction
The public gym. The temple of the body, the abode of the soul, and all that philosophical jazz!
A place where fitness enthusiasts collectively come to workout with the idea that if we all collectively invest into these public goods, they might be affordable and beneficial to most of us. Because let’s face it. No ordinary working class person can afford to have a gym of his own, not an elaborate full-scale one anyway. Hence, like many other things in life, the gym is a crowdfunded luxury opened with the understanding that people will share these modern day creature comforts gracefully and considerately without getting at each others necks about it.
Alas! We might have expected too much maturity, decency, and class from people. Because the atmosphere in any gym is anything but mature, educated, or peaceful.
I’ve come across dozens of online accounts of men and women, especially women, who have faced some form of harassment in the gym over the years. There’s the classic “gym brawl” that usually involves multiple people or even gangs. Then there’s physical altercations between…
