“Pics or it didn’t happen” has taken on a new meaning as the popularity of gym-goers setting up tripods and filming their workouts grows. For whom, you may ask? These videos are posted, and enter the endless abyss of other workout videos featuring grunting men and Alo-clad women.
Working out as an Aesthetics vs just working out?
The gym, a safe haven for the dedicated and frustrated, has become an aesthetic. Something to tag on your posed Instagram pictures or heavily edited TikTok videos.
In real-time, you will see men strain through a workout as their buddy masterfully angles the camera. And once the set is over, the man will either snatch the phone, watch the video with a critical eye, and rush to make the edits in real time, or hand the phone back to his friend to take the video again.
Am I the only one who finds this strange? Why do we constantly feel the need to document every part of our lives? Why can’t we just exercise… and go home? Does the external validation from countless strangers outweigh the sense of accomplishment you feel to reach a new goal?
Where is shame? Should there be any shame?
For over ten years, I have been a dedicated gym-goer, and until recently, I’ve never had to dodge so many tripods or avoid people filming their workouts.
I’ve seen mini tripods. Tall ones. Full one productions. I’ve waited patiently until a person finishes so I can scurry away and avoid being in their video. Heaven forbid I accidentally step into a photoshoot, and I end up on the micro-influencers page for ruining their workout.
Are Gyms the New Third Place?
In America, we face a lack of Third Places; while other cultures prioritize a sense of community, we embrace individualism, creating a culture rooted in performative behavior and loneliness.
For young men, the gym is seen as an environment where they can build their hyper-masculine bodies, forge a path of manhood, see the fruits of their labors, and be rewarded by–other men. The male approval they desperately seek, whether it is from middle-aged “podcast bros” who tell them they are weak for treating women as equals or from the older men who spot them at the gym, they listen eagerly, emulating what they see.
For women, the gym is liberating. A safe haven where the time is ours, where we dictate how many plates, how much weight, and what our workouts will look like. We find community in classes or in the sacred routine of solitude; whichever allows us to pick and choose will also be rewarded with a better physique.
Rewardment tied to both sexes that admires both the physical physique and the discipline that is earned. Or in some cases, bought. Sculpted. Injected. Starved.
Performative vs Performance
Fake lives. Fake pages. Fake results. Fake depictions of human bodies. Standing on your tippy toes. Sucking in your stomach. Flexing until you nearly cause yourself a hernia.
As humans, we can live as we please. Our ancestors fought hard to give us the right to choose. As a woman, I find it liberating to do as I please. To encourage other women to go to the gym and lead healthy lives. I guess I just don’t understand why we feel the need to constantly document every aspect of our lives. If we don’t, do we feel like we don’t matter? That our actions, whether big or small, mean nothing without external praise?
It’s baffling, maybe just for me, but I wonder what gym culture will look like in the next few years. Should I buy my tripod now, or will an AI bot that is also my trainer, lover, and best friend be the one acting as one?
Just let me know so I can prepare.
Mecca-Amirah Jackson 