Co rec

After visiting the weight and cardio sections at the co-rec, I noticed that there was a clear separation between each room. As I walked through the weight area, I primarily saw relatively muscular guys. At one point, there were actually guys who were checking themselves out while flexing in the mirror, staring at their “oh so buff” muscular groups. When I walked through the cardio area, the majority of people there were girls. While there were a few guys there, no one there was actually “fat”, or really even that muscular. The walkthrough of the co-rec generally reinforced the stereotypical expectations of the male and female gender.

As explained previously, the stereotypical man should be a buff, tough, emotionless beast. The co-rec reinforces this idea, with guys constantly working out in comparison to girls, and constantly trying to show off their muscles. The guys in general seem to think that cardio is not worth their time compared to weight lifting, as being skinny or fit always succumbs to muscle mass in the eyes of a guy. Actually, the co-rec does not necessarily reinforce the idea, but I think it is probably the product of the expectation of men.

The girls tend to work in the cardio area, and the girls that do not usually lift light weights for toning. Society today expects girls to be skinny, yet fit, and the cardio section aims to do both to help out girls. The girls were not “hardcore” in their aerobic exercise compared to guys, since it seemed that the guys were only there for endurance training rather than weight loss. Again, the co-rec’s cardio section is the result of society’s harsh expectations of what is expected from girls.

The co-rec’s separation of genders in the weight and cardio sections represents what the world sees of men and women today, even if they do not think about it. Society’s expectations pushes everyone everywhere.