Clothing in the gym

@CatamaranViper

At our gym the rowing machines all face towards the main gym floor and directly at a weight machine area, then beyond it to towards stair climbers and other equipment like that. The screens on the rowing machine are low and small. The person on the machine (I use them too) will look at the screen to check rating, distance, etc, but may also gaze beyond it and of course one’s back will be straight and eyes forward.

The weights machines at our gym all look directly at the stair climbers. Actually there are loads of places in our gym where this could happen, ie. sitting in a fixed position with eyes forward, and looking towards others in the gym.

I don't think I've ever been in the gym where the machines have been facing the free weight area or that close to another machine where someone's arse would be in direct eyeline (ie a rower directly behind a stair climber)

The machines and the mats/weights in the gym my son goes to are in rows. It's absolutely possible that someone on the mats with free weights has their back facing a machine in the way @SiriAlexa describes.

Some men, and women for that matter, don't know where to put their eyes when half clad women workout in the gym

You keep your eyes in your head and don't look at the others person body. Honestly it isn't hard.

Never seen those leggings before but 🤮🤮🤮🤮 just why?!

This is almost outing because I am so vocal about it in real life - I absolutely hate that somehow we've convinced women and girls that being "free to wear anything" seems to require wearing tight clothes. I hate that on PE days the boys wear trackies or baggy shorts and the girls wear leggings or tight shorts - my tween is not in the slightest bit sexualised in her leggings but the message we're sending frustrates me endlessly. And this has been going on since she was a toddler. For years I forced her into trackies anyway, but I can't anymore. She wants to wear what the others wear AND buying trackies for tween girls in plain black is almost impossible....unless I want to buy boys ones, which again, DD doesn't want. We had a pair with a ridiculous pink stripe (pink = girls, you know) but at least she wore those. They're too small now sadly.

So I'm ALL for fighting back against this at a wider, societal level.

BUT... that doesn't change the fact that if a woman is wearing lycra, and it's tight and/or revealing and she feels comfortable in that, she 100% has the right to do that and men must stop with their whining about how it makes them uncomfortable. Stop invading women's spaces with your bodies and your eyes and let them get on with it.

Edited to add: the saddest bit about it is how often women who, in my opinion, are really attractive with lovely figures, don't actually look GOOD in these outfits. The ones who are slim but wobbly, for example. They're gorgeous and womanly but would look better in something else. But perhaps that's just me.

I go to several gym classes and l have never seen these before. They look revolting

It's mostly pretty normal clothing where I am. The odd woman in skin tight, brightly coloured stuff or those ridiculous bum scrunch shorts but not enough to get worked up about. It's gym clothing, not Armageddon. If the guy doesn't want to see them, he could modify his own behaviour and go at quieter times. Nobody is obliged to change the surroundings to his preference. He clearly hasn't got respect for women to be such a knob about their clothing anyway.

I agree that there is a lot of athletic wear aimed at women that is not designed for exercise but if a woman wants to wear that knowing she's not being properly supported then that's her business. When I am in the gym I'm focusing on my workout and that's all I have the energy to do.

I don't think knitting is for any man lacking self control. Handling not one but two phallic shapes and putting them in and out of holes constantly. What on earth are you thinking 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Me too. I’m a straight woman but I am transfixed by them (not in a judgmental/sexual way just how they work) when I’m on the rower as the running machine position makes the scrunch bit in my eyeline and if I look down I’ll get a sore neck. There’s one woman who goes and I think the stitching has gone wrong and it looks like she’s put them on and then shoved her finger in her bum hole to make the effect more “arresting”.

I wear a longline sports bra and running shorts in the gym, occasionally trunk type shorts too. I'm always hot, and I don't like having loose material flapping around when I'm running or lifting weights.

If anybody doesn't want to look, they can look at something else or maybe just get on with their own workout. I'm not asking anybody to pay any attention to me at all, and provided I'm comfortable I don't care whether they do or not provided they leave me alone.

@5128gap

Absolutely! There’s no way he would start commenting publicly about what women wear. Good point!

I can't stand the scrunch bum leggings. And they are breaking out of the gym, we've got them walking round the school playground.
It's not about men being able to 'control themselves'. Some men, and women for that matter, don't know where to put their eyes when half clad women workout in the gym. It can make you feel uncomfortable if someone is working out infront of you, you dont want to come across as a perv.
And I have to say from experience it is the ones who record themselves for socials that seem to have the smallest amount of clothing on. Men and women on that front.

Again though, isn't he looking at the screen of the rowing machine?

I don't think I've ever been in the gym where the machines have been facing the free weight area or that close to another machine where someone's arse would be in direct eyeline (ie a rower directly behind a stair climber)

Wait till he sees what women are wearing to swimming pools these days 😂
"clutches pearls"

Presumably he's kept these thoughts in the privacy of his own head though, sharing only with you. The entitlement comes from posting publicly about it to try to shame women into dressing differently for his benefit. Ironic really the guy objects to clothing being too physically revealing, yet has no qualms about revealing the scrapings from the gutter of his imagination to the world, which would have been far better under wraps.

Respect for men? Seriously? Why do we need to respect their lack of self control?
Women should be able to dress in as little as they like, for any reason at all. If a man doesn't want to see it, he doesn't have to look.

Gosh, I hate it when people are so disindigenous. It is not the same is it? Why do you think there is soft porn on magazines, girls in skimpy clothes ie sports illustrated. Because men buy it. Woman certainly don't have the same visual sexual preferences. Think of young teenage boys, whose hormones are just starting and they can control it less. What makes them hard? Seriously woman do not get turned on the same way guys do so to equate the two is just dumb

@CatamaranViper because if he is positioned looking in a particular direction due to the layout, for example on a rowing machine, and then a woman wearing very little then moves into his direct line of sight, then he may well be focussing on his workout while looking at what is in front of him. Maybe he is paranoid but he worries that he could be accused of being a pervert (which he isn’t) when he’s really just staring straight ahead.

Objectively , I think it's true, but everyone will say "oh no the man has to control hiimself!" It is not about controlling, the man isn't doing anything about it, but I don't see why any woman who is secure in herself would want to dress so overtly sexual. There is a difference between wearing something that is short and overtly showing butt cheeks and cleavage? I have a fair suspicion these girls that say he should look away are the ones wearing it. Oh and will also be the ones moaning about other girls in skimpy clothes talking to their man etc. I honestly think out of respect for men in general, my sons one day, my own husband and myself, I don't see the need

Men are literally topless in the gym but I have to be uncomfortably hot by covering up more? Because they can’t help but look at a bit of skin instead of concentrating on their own workout? No thanks

But why does he do that? Why is he looking at them in the first place and not focussing on his own workout?
I don't think I've ever been to the gym and had to turn my head away from another person, yet I've also never found myself staring at someone. I'm looking at the screen on the cross trainer/bike/treadmill or the weights in my hands or my reflection in the mirror or my focus point on the floor/wall/ceiling.

Ok I was thinking about this too. I watched this recently, from a side on position doing cardio so there to see it all play out.

There was a man on a tilted leg press. In front of him was a Smith machine. Ordinarily the person on the leg press would barely have seen the person on the Smith. But a young woman with the scrunch up yer bum leggings came to the Smith with a bench. She stood on the bench facing away from him, so her bum was now at his eye level and straight in front of him, and did deadlifts! This meant that every time she leaned forward, he was basically looking into the cleft between her arse cheeks. Now she had a spectacularly nice arse, but he got up and left (he wasn't finished based on what I'd seen him do up until then). If he had stayed, he'd have looked like an absolute perv unless he worked out with his head awkwardly turned to the side.

Had she been wearing a pair of regular leggings, it would have been awkward but not anywhere near the level this was.

I personally think women should wear whatever they like, as should men, yet when I watched this, it did seem to me unfair on the man. There was no way at all he wouldn't have looked like a total creep/perv had he not moved, yet why should he have to move away because she wants to stick her arse right in front of him and bend over?

Nope
Clothing does not "invite" anyone to "gaze" in any manner
Young women want to be comfy, they want to have performance and they want to look fashionable and also not unattractive or out of style.
This is not an invitation for anyone to stare at them and it's far from porn!

It's attitudes like this that are driving a lot of issues in young women. Either they are expected to embrace it and be sexually available or they rebel against it but only by becoming trans or non binary so they aren't sexualised.

It's not about revealing skin, but about flattering.
Long Bermuda shorts are just not flattering on women....they make legs look thicker....and while I wish that wasn't important....it is for many women
And don't pretend men don't do the same.

My teen daughters do sports that require fitted lycra sports wear...swim suits, leotards, crop tops snd shorts. These are functional.
They would NOT perform anywhere near there best in joggers and t-shirts. They train in similar clothes.
No - they are not inviting the male fathers and brothers of there team mates snd competitors to "gaze sexually"

I can see where the OP is coming from. My husband has said from time to time that he finds himself having to turn his head away when he sees some women in the gym in various positions wearing really revealing clothing. That doesn’t make him entitled or a pervert, he’s just being honest.