Blog: Can We Start Wearing Clothes When We Work Out…Please?

One of the most annoying parts of social media is the fitness genre, especially when you mix GenZ and millennials into it. Sure, not all of it is bad. Personally, I’ve benefitted quite a bit from watching and following along with workout videos on YouTube. But what is with the clothing situation? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run across a workout video, and it looks like the person (usually a woman) is wearing the bare minimum to avoid getting her video flagged as inappropriate. Did we forget how to dress when social media came around? What happened?

I think that social media has definitely changed the way that we dress, especially when it comes to wanting clicks and views. Whenever we get a like, comment, or new subscriber/follower, we get a big rush of dopamine. This dopamine rush is addictive and eventually, we become dependent on it, needing more and more to feel happy or satisfied. Because of this, we’re driven to do more and more stuff that we wouldn’t usually do to get more attention and more dopamine. Raise an entire generation on that, and you start running into massive problems, such as body dysmorphia, impulsivity, narcissism, etc.

Now mix the corporate world into that. Fitness wear has always been ridiculous, but I think that due to social media’s impact on people’s brains and perceptions of what makes them look good has exacerbated this problem, especially for women. Us ladies want to look alluring and unfortunately, many of us will quickly buy into fads if we think that it will do that. Companies know that and with social media, have been incredibly successful at convincing us that we need to buy their Lululemon leggings and tops to look good while working out (add on the Stanley tumbler and you’re good to go).

Unfortunately, this mix of social media ads and dopamine addiction has led to a bunch of women (many of whom being incredibly entitled and wanting to claim victim points) going to the gym wearing tight leggings that look like torture devices meant to give the corporate world a good laugh, while wearing bras instead of shirts, with some of them being lingerie. And the craziest thing about this is that these women claim that this outfit is cute and comfortable.

I’m sorry, but never once have I thought to myself that I needed to buy an overpriced, intentionally wedgie-inducing pair of pants to look good or to work out in. Nor have I ever thought that that would be comfortable. Not only is it immodest, but I think it’s rude to other gym goers. No one wants to see your butt and certainly no one wants to be accused of harassment if they glance in your direction while you’re filming a TikTok video wearing your “outfit.” You’re not being cute; you just want attention. If you want to wear that at home, go ahead. But please stop going out in public while wearing that and then playing the victim card when people stare.

Until next time,

M.J.