Thursday, July 3, 2008

Cool yet disappointing

Like I mentioned last month, our gym recently rolled out a "No freakin' tank tops or singlets, ya epic invisible suitcase carrying guido/airhead bimbette", for which we are totally appreciative. However; while the male population of card-carrying members of the skinny-guido-in-wifebeater club promptly knew what time it was and grudgingly donned t-shirts, albeit way too tight, they complied. The female population however, has continued unabated with their insistence upon wearing tank tops and singlets, and to my great surprise, the PTs (that's Personal Trainer for y'all not caught up in the business card-bolstering game of inventing kewl-sounding acronyms for what's essentially a job belonging to the paper-hat caste on the corporate totem pole) have walked by these scantily clad illiterate airheads without batting as much as an eyelash - volume boosted by L'Oreal products no doubt. Did this new policy only apply to the male gymgoers?

That sneaking suspicion of a double standard between genders triggered something in me, and as today the vast majority of female gymgoers was dressed in tank tops whilst being totally ignored by the residing PT, I was dead set on confronting the skinny, scarecrow-looking runt who has the audacity to presume any knowledge about weight training despite having all the lean muscle mass of a seven year old girl, and demanding an explanation for this blatant sexism. After finishing the workout.

This, by the way, is coming from a guy who has picketed against Chippendales back in the 90's.

After finishing my workout and getting off the treadmill, the epic 57-kilo clothes hanger masquerading as a PT was nowhere to be seen. Which meant I had to take it up with the girl at the front desk. I started out by complimenting them on their new policy, and then wondering why it only applied to guys. This elicited a surprised reaction, as the new policy most certainly applied to both men and women. Oh yeah - I asked - then how come there is not a single tank-top wearing dude in the gym, but most of the women in there are wearing singlets? Then she got surprised again, and assured me that she was going to take care of it - she was not in the weight room much, but it was very important that nobody were treated differently with regards to this policy, as that just wouldn't be right.

Basically my point exactly, which was way cool, and props to her (assuming something is done about it, of course).

However, in my original plan, I was hoping to confront the douchebag PT who was in charge that day, and maybe even getting a knee-jerk defensive reaction statement from him, which would have led to him either having the choice between admitting to blatant sexism, admitting to sucking at his job or alluding to the population of female gymgoers at this gym being illiterate or mentally retarded within the space of less than three arguments.

6 comments:

Anders said...

Yeah, you tell 'em, Willy! We can still rattle up the AKFRL-gang from the 90's and make some noise. I'm there for ya'!

LOL

Wilhelm said...

Which particular constellation of "the gang" are you referring to now, A-train? The hordes of people who thought picketing against Chippendales was a good idea, or the two people who showed up for the demonstration, including the two of us?

Anders said...

the two people who showed up for the demonstration, including the two of us?

You seem to forget the dude that was not as photogenic as us. And you know what they say, three is a crowd...

Wilhelm said...

Nope; remember him. Only he wasn't actually part of the AKFRL gang, remember? Just some poor dude who was marooned by Arne

Anders said...

Nope; remember him. Only he wasn't actually part of the AKFRL gang, remember?

Semantics, shcmantics. Since when did AKFRL start screening members?

Also, I do remember somebody throwing down his board and running away at first glimpse of a press photographer.

Wilhelm said...

YES! I'd almost forgotten about him....he was the guy who was all "Man; I hope the TV2 news are gonna show up" and then ran for the hills as soon as the reporter closed in on us.