One thing I really love about my gym class is that we talk about epistemology, politics, social justice, and philosophy, and the people who I'm talking to are super progressive. My trainer, J, gets so worked up about some of these ideas that his voice will rise louder and louder, not in anger, just in excitement and conviction. We agree on most things, but our current disagreement is that he thinks he'd be a happier person if he were ridiculously wealthy -- even though he's already an obviously happy person. Studies suggest, though, that after a certain threshold, you don't actually get any happier with more money.
One thing I dislike about gym class is swinging the kettleball. That is pretty much my least favorite thing to do. My hands get sweaty and it is so heavy and the momentum is so great that I always fear that it's going to fly out of my hand and kill somebody.
I have now been taking that gym class for 1 year! It has also been 2 years since I have stepped on a scale. I have no idea how much I weigh. I couldn't tell you that number, and I don't think the number matters or says anything important about who I am. What I do know is that my mile time is now 40 seconds faster than it used to be. I know that I can easily hold a plank for over a minute without breaking a sweat. I know that I can curl 20 pounds and swing a 30 pound kettleball and do pull ups, when a year ago I could do none of those things.
What would it be like if women focused on being strong and powerful instead of being small and skinny? If a woman's dress size didn't matter, but her biceps did? What would it be like if we taught young girls that their strength, grit, and discipline was what mattered, not how pretty they could make themselves look? What if it being being sexy meant being smart and competent instead of looking good in a tight skirt? What if women believed that they deserved the space they took up in the world? What would that be like?
4 comments:
"What if it being being sexy meant being smart and competent instead of looking good in a tight skirt?"
I totally buy this, but...
In the physicality of things, I have felt so incompetent in anything athletic for my whole life that even trying to improve leaves me feeling like crap. Strong and powerful in a physical way? I wonder what it would take for me to get to the point where I would want that. I love that you are doing it. It seems awesome. But for me? I feel like it would just be another opportunity for me to get down on myself. I guess the way to think about it is incremental progress and small goals.
"What if women believed that they deserved the space they took up in the world?" I love this. I'm getting there...
All this is to say that I do find your post about your milestones to be super inspiring! I just don't know what it would take for me to feel powerful in a physical way...
I think I can relate in some ways to what you're saying. For instance, I was never good in school at things like volleyball or baseball. So I just disengaged. And for so much of my life, I was never able to run. I felt like I was decently active, but any time I'd try to start running with my friends or something, I'd get these immediate stitches in my side that were so painful, I could never do it.
For me, it was a really long, slow journey. It started with things I felt comfortable doing, like walking. In CA I'd walk and hike around in the hills, so it was good exercise and walking was something that I felt I could do. It took years, literally years and years, before walking turned into other things, like more ambitious hiking, and then running, and then this sort of stuff I do now.
I never had an "athlete" identity, if you know what I mean, and still tend not to think of myself that way. In my own mind I see myself as the dorky person who gets passed by toddlers on trikes when running. On the other hand, I did have some positive experiences too (gymnastics) so that did help. I know that you've mentioned that you enjoy walking, and I think walking is a really great form of exercise. In fact I was just listening to a Talk of the Nation podcast about it and it was all about the health benefits of walking for exercise, which are many!
This is really interesting to me, because I thought you always had a sense of yourself as an athlete as a part of your identity. I find what you're saying even more inspiring!
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