Gender and the Gym

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V089qoqR5ys "Gender Stereotypes at the Gym"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hG5hZQOvpg  "The Flip Side - Workout"

                Stereotypical gender roles regarding gym behavior are nothing new. Like many gender stereotypes, these stereotypes portray a negative weak view of women and a strong view of men. Simply put, stereotyped behavior for women at the gym revolves around the idea that women focus strongly on cardio, ignore weights, and generally aren't there for a full comprehensive workout. On the other hand, stereotyped behavior for men emphasizes the hegemony, as discussed by James Lull in chapter 3, men have in society by emphasizing their dominance and power, with men focusing on lifting weights and  their physical strength being a core focus. Both the "Gender Stereotypes at the Gym" video, uploaded by Adam Migirditch, and "The Flip Side-Workout" video, uploaded by Michail W. Baljuta, provide good stereotyped behavior for genders at the gym. 

                Starting off with the  "Gender Stereotypes at the Gym" video, this video provides an easy to understand and simple representation of stereotyped behavior at the gym. This video describes women having an emphasis on  cardio exercise only (0:15), that women are afraid of getting bulky so they avoid lifting weights (0:21/1:08), that women spend a lot of time on their phone while exercising (0:28), that women kind of just sit around talking to each other or are on their phone barely doing anything or barely focusing on their workout (1:00), and the video portion on women's stereotypes end with the idea that women place emphasis on cute outfits and continuously looking cute while at the gym and checking out how they look overall (1:20). For the men, their stereotypes imply that they place a high emphasis on lifting and lifting only (1:34) and "getting big" is the ultimate goal (1:52), the more weight guys can lift the better (2:06), the video shows that guys are encouraging of their friend to lift more and often do a celebratory gesture after the friend successfully finishes his lift (1:45), men place a high emphasis on the importance of protein during/after their workout (3:00), and the video shows that stereotypes male behavior at the gym also involves flexing and checking himself out in the mirror (3:22). As you can see, this video creates a near perfect dichotomy of stereotyped behavior between the sexes, the only similar behavior being the desire to look good and checking themselves out in the mirror.

                In  "The Flip Side-Workout" video, it shows pretty much the exact opposite of what the first video shows. The opening scene of this video shows a woman doing lateral pulldowns with a high weight (0:02), emphasizing men's stereotyped behavior of high weight is better, and a man doing lateral pulldowns with virtually no weight (0:14), showing a woman's stereotyped behavior of a fear of bulking up. The flipped video then shows two women discussing the importance of protein during the workout and how no cardio is the way to go (0:25), demonstrating stereotyped men's behavior of no cardio, lifting only, and how important protein is to them. At 0:33, there are two men just sitting on yoga balls talking, showing that stereotyped behavior of women at the gym has them pretty much not doing anything. On the other hand, at 1:43, a woman is shown really pushing herself, grunting, and working up a sweat while doing armflies, showing stereotyped men's behavior of loving heavier weights and the idea of "go hard or go home." At 1:08 and 1:58, a woman is shown flexing and checking herself out in the mirror and at 1:05 and 2:01, a man is shown checking out his butt and fixing his hair, emphasizing a man's stereotyped behavior of checking himself out and his gains and a woman's behavior of looking cute and attractive. Just like a man's tendency to push and encourage his friend while lifting, the video shows one woman saying words of encouragement to her friend doing bench presses and then the two have a celebratory high five (2:45). The video closes with a scene of multiple men running fast and hard on a treadmill, panning to a man leisurely walking while on the phone and reading a magazine (2:58), yet again showing man's stereotyped go hard or go home attitude and a woman's stereotyped behavior of not really doing much and constantly being on her phone.  

            These stereotypes had to come from somewhere, right? So, I quickly looked to pop culture and music videos, like Douglas Kellner from chapter 1 said, and I tried to see if these stereotypes were shown in anyway. My immediate thought on men's stereotyped gym behavior went to 50 Cent's "In Da Club" video. In this video, 50 is shown working out intensely, whether it be running hard, lifting weights, using the weight machines with high weights, or doing sit-ups while hanging upside down, there was a clear emphasis that getting big and having muscle mass was a goal for 50. In terms of women's stereotyped behavior at the gym, I immediately thought of Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda" video where there is the scene of her and her friends working out. The video depicts the women as barely doing anything with one just bouncing up and down on a yoga ball. Nicki herself and one of the other girls are shown lifting weights, but the weights look to be about 1 pound. While the scene was most likely done like this to increase the sexuality factor, it can also imply woman's stereotyped gym behaviors of pretty much not doing anything while working out and a desire to not get big and gain a lot of muscle mass.

                Both the "Gender Stereotypes at the Gym" video and "The Flip Side-Workout" video provide a dichotomy and imply that men and women have to act a specific way at the gym when that is not true, it's possible, and more likely, that both men and women fall somewhere between stereotyped men's behavior and stereotyped women's behavior.

                I believe that the target audience of these videos is predominantly young adults, those interested in gender stereotyping, those who enjoy going to the gym, and/or those who simply like to have a laugh. Yes, I do think that these videos are effecting in reaching their audience.