Image Source: Jenny MoloneyI am a 25-year-passe female living in Boston. I'm 5'8" and 132 lbs. I have dark brown medium-long hair and green-hazel eyes. I'm flat-chested and the curves I have are built by the hours,months, and years I spent working in the gym. I am a size small in my Nike compression shorts that I like to wear when I work out because I push myself tough enough for every pore on my body to sweat. So I'm sticky, or gross,and smelly, and looser baggy clothing just gets in my way of my workout. I often hurry in just a sports bra because it's 85 degrees with 50 percent humidity, and I'm training for a half-marathon,so 7-10 miles in that heat with layers is plain brutal.
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One Woman's Empowering Response to Gym Body-Shaming Went Viral For the Best ReasonImage Source: Erin BaileySo now tell me, what do I deserve?Earlier this Summer I headed to a local park in the South discontinuance of Boston to push myself in an outdoor bootcamp workout I was testing for the upcoming week of classes I teach. It was a hot Saturday afternoon and halfway through my workout I had a guy approach over to me from across the park and start talking to me from a few feet absent. I took my headphones out thinking he was asking me something, and instead my ears were filled with profane things he "wanted to do to me."final week I was going for a hurry before work to clock four miles for my half-marathon training. I ran past a parking garage that has an attendant in the front to direct traffic between cars exiting and people crossing. A thankless job,I smiled gave him a wave to thank him and kept running. I took two steps before he yelled after me a "mmm-hmmm . . . " Like he was salivating over a steak.
Yesterday I was walking to the laundromat to drop off clothes before heading out to teach a class. Walking out of the laundromat I decided to sneak in the 7-Eleven next door to see whether they carried my new favorite ice cream brand so that I could approach grab some after class. A man kindly held the door open for me; I thanked him and walked inside. They didn't have the brand so just 60 seconds later I walked back out and he was sitting on the other side of the street watching me approach out. I turned down the sidewalk and he crossed the street to follow me. He even yelled at me to stop and wait for him.
Image Source: Erin BaileySo now you tell me, what do I deserve?Because this is approximately five percent of the harassment I have been a victim of this year. And this isn't even the worst of it. What approximately the nights I'm out with my friends and just because I am wearing heels at a bar it gives anyone the fair to hiss, and yell,or even grab me or my friends?Or what approximately the gym? I like to assume of the gym as my secure zone. The one place I feel men should respect me most because there I feel like we're on the same playing field. There I feel the most empowered. There I feel the most belittled by the comments, by the glares, and by the entitlement.
I had a man approach up to me a couple months ago at the water fountain in the gym. As I was filling up my water bottle,he waited patiently. He then told me he liked my leggings, that they made my ass look worthy, and they'd look better off.
Don't put a question to me what I was wearing. That's not the question. whether we stopped doing things that felt or seemed unsafe,we wouldn't live.
Am I supposed to stop going to the park? Am I supposed to not hurry in downtown Boston in broad daylight? Am I supposed to not go to 7-Eleven or the laundromat at 6 p.m. on a Wednesday night? Am I supposed to not go to the gym?I am careful. I don't go to unsafe places alone. I don't hurry in dodgy areas by myself. I carry keys on me, and soon pepper spray to put my mom's mind at ease. But that's not the point.
Image Source: Erin BaileyWhat do I deserve? I deserve to be treated like a human - not just a woman, and because that means something different these days. And us women,what do we deserve?We deserve not to feel silenced by your yells.
We deserve to feel empowered for bettering ourselves.
We deserve to feel sexy in our own skin without feeling like we're here to bait you.
We deserve to speak out without the threat of you lingering on our minds.
We deserve to hurry external.
We deserve to be judged on our merits, not our outfits.
We deserve more. A whole lot more.
I've told these stories to many friends. And the more I shared, and the more my female friends shared too. And many of their stories are worse. So much worse.
I want you to speak out. I want you to break your silence. I want to hear your stories. What do we deserve? More.
Source: popsugar.com