Internalized misogyny and sports?

[lorial]

@carltonh If it's helpful at all I saw a female tiktoker talk about how she wasn't able to do pull ups until she switched to Calisthenics training. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRW7YvNN/

 

[lorial]

@bcubed When I see a man doing a pull up easily I remind myself the same higher center of mass means he can't do the chair challenge easily it's silly but it helps defuse that competitive feeling by reminding me how silly it all is

 

[fliphkd06]

@lorial Wait so does having a higher centre of mass help with pull ups?

 

[lenka]

@lorial I can relate to this, and comparing myself to men in the gym used to really get me down (even though it makes no sense to do that of course.) Especially with not just numbers on the bar, but things like calisthenics skills that are a lot easier for male beginners to pick up on-- it just feels sometimes like many places you read about fitness online assume the reader and recipient of the advice is male, which can become frustrating. However reading this sub, talking to women irl about fitness, and following female athletes really has helped and I actively seek out that perspective now. This is kind of dumb, but knowing we naturally have a "disadvantage" with strength sports has almost made me even more proud of what I have accomplished because that means it takes that much more mental tenacity.

 

[lorial]

@lenka Thanks for sharing! To an extent, popular sports advice reminds me of how popular sex advice used to center this idealized male figure dominating a woman then bragging to his friends about his sexual prowess, and sidelining other bodies as having "weaker" and "worse" versions of that sex life. Instead of each person being able to find what worked for them individually and seek it out for their own fulfillment.

 

[dawn16]

@lorial Yes, absolutely! For me it was the way that male-dominated forms of exercise (usually gym-based heavy weight lifting) are seen as the default or the "best" form of exercise. I've tried heavy weightlifting, hated how it made my body feel. I switched to Pilates and I totally love it, but it gets a reputation for being "not as hard", even though it's in many ways much harder. I secretly love watching men take Pilates class and get totally humbled.

 

[lorial]

@dawn16 Oh my favorite debunked myth is that heavy weightlifting is somehow equivalent to oh-so-manly heavy physical labor (which people love to pretend women didn't/don't do). I saw a video of a gym rat once explaining that he was fully unable to lift the metal that skinny construction workers were tossing around, simply because those aren't the muscles you're training at the gym.

 

[dawn16]

@lorial Haha yes! Those big muscles aren't always functional. My neighbor is a short, slight, gentle looking man with no discernible muscles. My visibly muscular husband came home one day from our gym and reported with awe "that guy can bench more than twice that I can, he's strong"

I have a baby now. I've been deadlifting more than fifteen times her weight for years, but damned if it's totally new muscles to build, carrying her around, throwing her in the air, picking her up from the bath, etc.