Universities across the country are sure to accommodate their students with fitness facilities. Western Washington is no different, with the Wade King Student Recreational Center. Located here is everything you could ever need to get in shape. With basketball courts, volleyball courts, free weights, weight machines, cardio machines, an indoor track, and a pool. There are three main sections of the rec center and those are the free weight room, the upstairs area that contains cardio and weight machines, and the courts. In these different areas one will like find different genres of people.

Paul Heilker is an author who has taken it upon himself to describe his view of the world through genres. Heilker describes his fear of the world as, “I believe genres are ways of being, ways of emerging into the world.” (19). In his essay, Heilker describes the common student desk and all the different genres it entails. He states that the chair “makes a host of demands on its users, on how we need to be, on how we need to be present in the world, in order to use it.” (24). He then goes on to explain the different ways one could view the desk and how the students using it must fit into the desks genre. In observing the rec and working out in in myself I have noticed that certain rooms at the rec make demands on their users on how to be present in order to use it.

On the main floor of the rec students will find the free weight room, this room is surrounded by walls of pure glass and full of free weights like barbells. Looking at the weight room it sort of reminds one of a fish bowl; anyone can look in and see what is going on. Knowing this, students who work out in the weight room know they must be on top of their game, they must fit into the genre of physically appealing while lifting (which can be tough to do). Most students one will find in the weight room enjoy getting their fitness on by benching, squatting, deadlifting, etc. They’re probably pretty good at it too considering everyone can watch them. Outsiders who do not usually workout in the weight room feel intimidating by the genre that is being forced on them. “Do I have to have perfect squat form to be in here?” “Do I need to bench double by body weight?” “Crap, I forgot my muscle tee at home.” “Am I actually a meat-head like everyone else here?”

Crossing through the hall of the rec center you will pass by the sport courts. Here you will most likely find a bunch of sweaty shirtless dudes chasing a ball across a court. This in itself could be a genre forced upon students wanting to be involved on the courts. Majority of the time if you want to be involved in a game on the basketball court you better damn well be athletic and competitive, otherwise you will be forced to be. Observing the games going on on the courts makes it easy to see the type of genre that’s forced upon students here. Athletes run these courts.

As you make your way up the stairs of the Wade King Rec Center you will find a familiar scene if you have been to any fitness center before. Located on the top floor of the rec are the majority of the assisted weight apparatuses, lots of cardio machines, and an indoor track. Walking in here, you will immediately feel the pressure to be extremely fit. You may find yourself wondering things like, “Ooo could I run a mile as fast as that guy?” or “Shoot she looks way better in her yoga pants than me.” The genre that the upstairs forces on students is one of extreme physically activeness. Girls working out here will most likely be wearing their Lululemon yoga pants with matching tank top because they can show off the body they work so hard for. Students feel forced to fit into the genre of fitness that the upstairs pressures them into.

In observing the Rec center here at Western I found myself wondering, if people are known for specific ways of being at the rec does that they carry outside of the gym? Are the meat heads forever meat heads? Does wearing yoga pants automatically mean the person wearing them works out upstairs at the rec? Are these genres stuck with people for the rest of their life?