I recently decided to be brave and take a military-style workout class at my gym. It was offered very early in the morning, which meant I could sneak in some exercise before starting my day.
After two classes, I decided that it wasn’t for me. Not necessarily because of the endless calisthenics, or the fact that we ran laps outside of the gym, even on a day when there was thunder and lightning and the insides of my shoes got all wet. I could have put up with those things and eventually, reveled in them.
I quit because I couldn’t stand the women who were attending the class.
Even though I was a newbie, and fully understanding of the fact that people “get in the zone” when they exercise, no one in the class made me feel particularly welcome and many of them seemed to have this snooty, hard-core attitude, like we were all army recruits instead of a bunch of middle-aged women trying to lose a few pounds at the gym. We were a small group, and it was very clear that even after a few classes that there was an obvious clique who rallied each other on, pointedly ignoring anyone else who wasn’t a part of their inner circle.
The instructor, who was actually a nice guy, at one point told us to, “have a seat” against the wall, and I sat down on the ground. Within seconds, one of the hard-core leaders of the clique told me in a smirky voice that he didn’t mean that command literally.
Ah. It was one of those “chair poses,” where you propped your back against the wall and “sat” there until you felt really, really uncomfortable. “Sorry, Sarge,” was the retort I came up with later.
Later on, I remembered how I’d been asking the instructor some questions on how he ran the class, and two of my classmates within earshot began whispering in “that way” women do, when they’re saying something catty about someone else.
I thought to myself, “I don’t need this at 6 a.m., two days a week.”
The women’s behavior in that class made me wonder why catty behavior is so prevalent in our society: in offices, in social groups, on public transportation. Why do women feel the need to gang up on one another? There’s so much discussion these days about bullying in the schools, and teenage girls and boys hanging themselves because they just couldn’t take it anymore.
Let me tell you something. There’s a lot of bullying that takes place in the adult world, too.
It makes me wonder if anyone ever does graduate from high school.
