Gym that makes you go hmmm…
Anti-Gym. Their commercials are a thorn in my side – the most irritating one insinuates that any woman who isn’t a size 4 will never get a man. I won’t post the commercials here, they’re available for viewing on their website under the “Caught in the Act” tab.
I appreciate the efforts of this gym to avoid the concept of diet and to encourage physical activity for all people. But overall, the impression I get from the facility is negative.
Here’s a few thoughts, Anti-Gym:
- While I applaud your efforts to describe a “Chubby” as anyone who is an “unmotivated, lazy slob” regardless of weight, portrayals of “Chubbys” in your commercials specifically poke fun of people who are larger in size.
- Undiagnosed hypothyroidism makes it nearly impossible to lose weight. Even if someone actually has the energy to exercise most days of the week, the weight simply does not come off until the hypothyroidism is addressed. Let me tell you, all the “mentalcizing” in the world won’t help an underactive thyroid. Thyroid replacement hormone will.
- There are young, impressionable girls out there seeing your commercials who will start to believe that they need to stay thin to attract men as they get older. Why perpetuate that myth? Don’t we have enough women with eating disorders and disillusions about weight? Get a clue, there are men out there who do prefer a little meat on their women.
Watch out, San Diego, you’re next in line for the Anti-Gym.
Posted on December 20, 2007, in Health, Writing. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
I’m a guy who prefers gals with a bit of meat on their bones. About 170cm (5.5 feet) and 65kg (140 lbs) or so. Far over that and things start hanging, which is bad. Far below that and I’ll stay ten feet away for fear of breaking you.
Despite all these ads telling women that they can’t get a man unless they’re skin and bones, the reality of the fact is that men don’t really care that much.
The effect that these ads have is that women start competing with each other. Getting a guy stops being a goal and being better and skinnier than other women starts being the goal. Being skinny is seen as the ultimate standard of beauty.
And when women elevate skinniness to such high importance in order to compete with other women, they also start looking at men this way. The ideal man also has to be skinny.
Thanks to thousands of years of natural selection, the average guy is actually pretty big and slightly chubby. But now instead of being who he is naturally, he’s gotta watch his diet to be skinny and get chicks. For guys whose priorities don’t lie in attracting new mates all the time, but are, for example, in building a stable family, attracting women becomes more difficult.
Oh, I love people who keep perpetuating that whole, “No Fat Chicks” mentality.
And if those assholes at that gym would have done their homework, they’d realize that the “bearded lady” isn’t really a thyroid problem, it’s probably PCOS or Cushing’s, which also can’t be “mentalcized” away, no matter how hard you try.