I’ve been thinking a lot about “gym behavior”. That whole “being private in public” thing that happens at a gym. I’m not really a gym girl – I like to run outside, and get the sense of movement, of actually going somewhere – but it’s finally cold here … so I’m gym-ming it up on a daily basis. I love the sense of everyone there, in their own Idahos, doing whatever it is they do to work out, and we’re all there together, but we might as well all be alone. I find gyms intimidating – but once I realized that nobody even sees me … I can deal with it, and go off into MY own Idaho, and it’s quite relaxing. Then there’s locker room behavior, and casual nakedness in front of strangers, and just doing the things that normally you do only in front of your own mirror, or your husband … slapping on deodorant, for example … and wandering around in stages of undress, while chatting on your cell phone, meeting up with friends later, talking to your boyfriend about the Thai food you’re gonna pick up on your way home … all of that locker room stuff. Again, since we’re ALL doing it at the same time there’s something really anonymous about it … and it COULD lead to total cacophony … but the way I experience it is: I zone OUT. I am in my own Idaho. I do my gym thing. I sweat it up. I sauna it up. I chat on my phone. I slap on the deodorant. I bullshit with the guy waiting in line with me for the weights. I move on. It’s almost like we’re all in a collective trance. And since it’s winter the windows totally steam up. So I’m on the treadmill, and I know that outside is 41st Street, and the new NY Times building going up across the way, and passersby rush along, bundled up in snorkle coats, and there’s the nutso blinking neon a block away in Times Square… but I can’t see any of it. Due to the FOG, the body heat, the condensation on the windows.
I look forward to going into that collective trance on a daily basis.
OMG, I totally relate to this. I was a little freaked out the other day when I saw one of my gym friends come out of the shower. It didn’t hit me then but later, I realized in this weird, calm way, well, I’ve seen Jen’s pubic hair.
It’s odd.
RTG – it’s a funny thing, right? But everyone’s kind of over it (or at least – we all ACT like we’re over it, in order to survive the locker room ordeal!) … but it’s a funny thing to be naked with a bunch of strangers, strolling about, doing stuff you normally wouldn’t do in public.
This is probably changing, or has changed, today, but in my time, males were always much more comfortable with locker room nudity because we got used to it at a very young age. I was on basketball teams and the like starting in 4th grade, and, after the inital embarrassment, hanging out with other naked guys in the locker room was no big deal. OTOH, I remember lots of girls in junior high and high school who got doctor’s excuses, etc. to get out of gym class because they refused to be naked or take showers in front of other girls. With the huge growth in women’s sports, that’s probably not as big a deal today, but I still suspect that men are more comfortable being naked in such circumstances than most women—AND, I realize that is a generalization to which there are many exceptions. I guess I am trying to say that I loved the whole being-on-a-sports-team, hanging-out(literally and figuratively LOL)-in-the-locker-room thing that was a big part of my youth. Most of the girls I knew well hated it.
The whole locker room thing has terrible memories for me. I hated it all. I don’t want anyone to see me naked unless there’s prizes waiting for me afterward.
I applaud your nakedness and your cell phone use in the locker room, Sheila. I’m actually in awe about it.
Alex – It takes a lot of courage. I see the skinny little asses and the perky tits and it takes so much courage to not care … and take off my damn clothes.
It was really when I realized that nobody is even paying attention – at least not in any obsessive way (like they did in high school – which was brutal – where the scrutiny was just … God. You wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible)