Ah, the gym....

I went to the gym yesterday and the day before during lunch time as I often do, and should do more because I work about half a street block away from the gym. For the SA girls, it's everybody's favorite Discovery benefit. On walking in I blindly made for the girl's locker room just to be stopped in my tracks by a second, very urgent shout from a security guard. I had to use the little boys room as they had workmen in the little girls. The boys locker room provided much food for thought though as the differences are subtle, but obvious if you start looking. (if you ignore the urinals, that is - not so subtle)

1. More mirrors - I swear, way, way more. Now this amazes me - are men more vain than woman or just more confident?
2. This does oppose the first item - the scale is tucked far in the back most corner in a set of lockers, away from all eyes. In the girls it sits right at the entryway to the rest of the gym, where everybody passes. Are men therefore more shy of their weight or are we woman subtly shoved into the direction of obsessing about our weight.
3. The wear and tear on the recently revamped wooden laminated lockers is way way more than in the girls room. Is it more used or more abused?
4. I was surprised that half the showers had no doors? What the? All the girls showers have doors. Does this stress the fact that this particular branch is known to be a pick up point for gays or are we woman stupid - we do not like other to see us when we shower but we comfortable dress in front of everybody?
5. The print advertisements behind the doors is the boys room currently is for a liver remedy, in the girls, for a constipation remedy. ;-)

Onto the treadmill and while sweating away, the video give me food plays on VH1 - so not on in the gym? I admit Virgin Active has no control over what VH1 plays, but still ironic. Then I notice that a few of the "fatso girls" in this video is not even really that fat! Gosh, my twin skin is more than the rolls on some of those tummies. What does this tell us? Is the expectations of the world towards how thin a woman should be to be attractive too high? Should we all look like Lady Gaga, Fergie and Beyonce, three other scantily clad girls that entertained me on VH1 yesterday? Gosh, I wish I looked like Madonna at 51 but I do not have the luxury of that amount of time and money.

And what will the expectations be when my daughter is 16? What about rather encouraging healthy eating than skinny bodies? And what about moving that scale in the further most corner?