Before high school, you would have never caught me working out in the main gym area. I was the shy, anxious teenager that would rather lift weights downstairs in the tiny women’s gym than risk getting judged by the two-hundred-fifty pound bodybuilders that were max squatting close to triple my weight. Even though the women’s gym had limited space and quite frankly the oldest, dingiest equipment, I didn’t want to worry about potentially publicly embarrassing myself in the main gym. As a middle schooler who had never picked up a dumbbell, I was terrified of what others would think of me when I was working out. I had already thought of the worst case scenarios in my head and that was more than enough to keep me from stepping foot in the main lifting area. 

However, looking back, I realized that my anxiety didn’t stem from not knowing how to use the machines or equipment, it came from a place of feeling like an outsider. As a female, I felt intimated because of the preconceived notions of gyms. If you would have asked middle-school me to describe a gym atmosphere I would have said something along the lines of testosterone and sweaty, muscular men. Nowhere in my description would I have mentioned the word “female” and that was largely due to the fact that gyms have been portrayed as gendered spaces. The body standards and expectations that we place on women doesn’t help either.

Growing up, I remember watching a scene from “Full House” and one of the main characters, DJ Tanner, was trying out the gym for the first time. Instead of heading towards the weights, she gravitated towards the treadmill and elliptical. For so long, the ideal female body revolved around skinny legs, small waists, and dainty arms. Women were afraid to get “bulky” and gain muscle because they feared that they would lose their femininity. This lie has kept so many women, including myself, from stepping foot in the gym because they didn’t want to go against the gender stereotypes that have been placed on our society for so long. 

But, as women have started to embrace the gym and step into more male-dominated fields and interests, a new respect has come from it, let alone even more confidence. Personally, I have never felt more confident in myself after I started lifting weights. In 2020, being a size double zero is less of a concern and physical strength has started to float towards the top of the list for females. As we become more accepting of bodies, gender, and sexuality, my hope is that strong can be the new sexy. Let’s work to desexualize the gym and make it a space where both genders feel at home.