Is there such a thing as showing too much skin in the gym? (Yeah, I got you to read farther. Who wouldn’t?) But I’m kind of serious too. Is there a Too Much Hot Flesh level?
Personally, I don’t get it. Sure, some folks seem to be stripping down to their underwear to work out, but I’m okay with that. You don’t want me like that, but if some hot young thing with the Hello Traps! and the Back Squat Booty wants to leave less to my imagination, I’m not going to toss a tablecloth over her. She wants to feel free and show off her hard work, let her! It’s her body, her hard work, her choice. Just like it’s my body, my work, my choice. It seems pretty simple to me.
So why do some people get so revved up when CrossFit publishes a photo of a half-naked female athlete? Sure, in Womens Studies classes at Vassar, they would have taught me that this was objectification of women, but I’m not going to lie — if showing me awesome abs is objectification and provides me with motivation, I’m good with it. We are sexual beings. We are visual people. Why are some people so scared of the human body?
Now, I understand if people think that the harm is that some people will solely judge folks on their bodies. Yeah, that would be wrong, and stupid. But wrong and stupid are our constant companions in society, because there are morons in the world. The question is whether we should allow the potential acts of stupid people to dictate everything for the rest of us.
While we’re on the subject, why does this topic only apply to women? Folks don’t seem to go nuts if a guy strips off his shirt. Kind of like when you see trouble in the world, you dig a little deeper and find that same group is usually also trying to restrict/cover up/control their female population. Coincidence? You decide …
(Image courtesy of Nicole Bedard Photography.)
