Here's Why Guys Are Afraid to Show Off Their Butt in the Gym
“Peacocking, stunting, flexing—whatever you want to call it, guys care about how we look.”
That’s Randall Otis, Daily Show writer and host of the new Men’s Health video series Get a Grip! where Otis takes five-minute deep dives into a variety of fitness and lifestyle topics. Last week, Otis riffed on fitness apps, especially running trackers (which, most importantly, “lets you draw dicks.”) This week, we’ve got gym clothes—and, more broadly, men’s fashion—on our minds.
“Just check out The Rock,” Otis begins. “He’s decked out in the finest gym attire, showing off the muscles he uses to carry the Fast and Furious franchise on his back. And he has a small-to-modest dick towel.” Ah yes, the famous dick towel. What a fashion statement. And the dick towel is really nothing new. From Rocky’s Sly Stallone in the '80s to the adult diaper way earlier into last century to Greeks and Romans just being jacked all the time, apparently, dudes show off at the gym. (Or at the acropolis … wherever.)
A post shared by therock (@therock) on Oct 27, 2019 at 1:43pm PDT
“This dick towel situation isn’t that strange,” says Otis. He points out the growing industry around male fashion—part of what we at Men’s Health call the “Manconomy,” or the industry using gendered awareness to exploit customers for profit. (Basically, just woke capitalism 101.)
“But all the marketing has to be tough, rough, and manly,” observes Otis. “Bearglove” deodorant, for instance. Because: we don’t buy flowery, sensitive women deodorant.
The 'Manconomy' also requires rebranding traditionally female attire such as leggings. “The Rock wears leggings all the time, but men don’t wear ‘leggings’—unless they’re dancers or Robin Hood,” says Otis. Men wear “compression shorts” and “compression pants”—the “Bearglove” of gym pants, if you will.
“It’s funny how so many men are nervous exposing parts of their legs and butts even though it’s completely normal for guys to work out topless,” noted Otis, comparing it to a reverse Donald Duck (Donald never wears pants).
So many gym-going male-legging wearers hide their “compression pants’ under shorts. “I think it has less to do with modesty and more to do with gender,” Otis says.
And that hesitation to show off butt muscles also includes a hesitation to actually work butt muscles—so that we can show them off.
“Men, you’re covering your butt with shorts. You’re not working it out. I’m disappointed. Having a big ass is great. You’re taller when you sit down. Every chair is soft. And you get those sweet, sweet likes on the 'Gram.”
So man up and wear some girly leggings. And don’t skip on your glutes.
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