Wait…Leggings Are Conservative Clothing Now?
Gym culture and social media are warping our idea of normal
“You’re dressed conservatively, you look classy,” is not something I ever expected to be said about me, especially not while in the gym.
Take a moment to imagine what conservative activewear would look like to you. Perhaps it’s loose trousers, long sleeves or a hijab. That was certainly my idea of what it would be.
But I wasn’t dressed like this. I was wearing skin-tight black leggings and a grey, short-sleeved top. I suppose I wasn’t showing any cleavage, but that’s a pretty low bar for conservative, right?
Well, apparently not.
Why do we wear revealing clothes in the gym?
Anyone who has spent time in gyms or even on social media during the last decade will have noticed just how revealing women’s activewear has become.
In the UK (where I live), almost all women now wear leggings instead of joggers or loose shorts to work out, and sports bras are now the top rather than something you wear under your top.
I want to make it clear that I don’t necessarily think this is a bad thing.
Leggings are very practical for a gym setting: the lack of loose fabric reduces the risk of clothing getting trapped in machines and causing injuries, and they provide a useful compression effect.
Being able to strip down to just a sports bra makes a real difference in the middle of a heatwave, meaning I can focus on my workout rather than how unbearably hot I am.
However, I’m starting to think we’re going a bit too far. To explain why, I’ll have to go back to the start of my conversation with the man who called me conservative.
Modern gym culture
As often happens in a gym, we had exchanged a few words about what equipment we were using. A few minutes later, he spotted my boyfriend sneaking a quick video of me and apologised, saying he didn’t realise we were filming.
So, I explained it was no problem and that we just record each other sometimes to check if our form is correct, but make sure no one else is in the video and never upload them anywhere out of respect for other people’s privacy.
This led to what he self-described as a “rant” against modern gym culture, where everyone cares more about how they’ll look on social media than actually working out and being polite to the other people in the gym.
“I’m probably twice your age,” he said, “and I’ve never known such a narcissistic generation.” His words might have been harsh, but he had a point.
As many before me have pointed out, gyms are an increasingly hostile environment for anyone who doesn’t want to be an influencer. Don’t want to be filmed by a stranger in the gym? We now have a culture where people think the person objecting is the problem.
This is driving what we might call “normies” out of these spaces due to privacy concerns and fear of being shamed as a “creep” on TikTok if they accidentally glance at the young woman filming herself in a crowded public space.
Filming other people without their consent is inherently narcissistic — it’s a statement that you think your social media profile is more important than their right to privacy.
What is more, there are countless videos online of people asking not to be filmed which have been uploaded to mock the individual complaining, creating a chilling effect by which people are silenced by the fear of being shamed in front of potentially millions of people.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can find a lot of examples of women accusing men of being creeps, people mocking others’ workouts and people ridiculing those asking them to stop filming on this channel.
The relationship between clothing and antisocial behaviour
But how does this relate to clothing? As I said above, gym clothing trends are somewhat driven by practicality, but there’s more to it than that. If you want to be a fitness influencer, you have to look hot, with almost no exceptions.
And how do you do that? Showing more skin is a classic strategy.
So the sports bras become more strappy and the shorts even shorter to the point where women look dressed for the beach. And this, in turn, sets a standard which other women, and even young girls, want to emulate to receive the same status and attention or just to follow the latest trends.
But, at the risk of sounding reactionary, I want to question whether this is really a good path to be going down.
Should we be creating a culture which normalises sexualising yourself in public and shaming anyone who feels uncomfortable with that?
We put so much emphasis on women’s choice to wear what we want, but what about everyone else’s (including other women’s) right to feel at ease?
Often we defend our clothing choices by saying they’re comfortable. I’m not convinced that booty gym shorts are any more comfortable than leggings or that a barely-there tube top sports bra is at all practical clothing for a workout.
Like I said above, I’m all for comfortable gym clothing, but if we’re truly honest, that’s not what’s been driving the trends in recent years.
What is more, assuming that anyone who looks at you must be a pervert places an unrealistic expectation on others to avoid glancing in your direction. And — news flash — if you dress in an eye-catching manner, people are going to notice you.
You can’t have your cake and eat it by dressing for attention on social media while simultaneously demanding no one in real life looks at you.
And let’s not ignore the fact that people might be more likely to notice you if you set up a tripod to film yourself in public. Until five minutes ago, no one would have considered this normal behaviour.
What about the gym bros?
Of course, it would be remiss not to mention the pandemic of male fitness influencers who strip down to their underwear while posing in public gyms and even in changing rooms. This is just as vain and antisocial.
Surely it wouldn’t be a big ask for these guys to just wait to take their photos when no one else is around?
Shifting social norms
Gym culture does not exist in a vacuum. It leaks out into wider society and affects social norms.
After asking several people if they thought gym leggings were conservative clothing and receiving an overwhelming answer of “yes”, I started to feel rather like the stick man in Elon Musk’s infamous tweet.
When I first started going to the gym back in 2017, I wore the same kind of outfits as I do now. No one would have called leggings and a top a conservative choice back then. In fact, women were still being ridiculed for wearing leggings as trousers (a stance which received a strong eye roll from me).
But norms have shifted so much in just seven years that apparently I’m a clothing conservative now, something my punk music-loving teenage self would have found hilariously unbelievable.
What I’d like to see is a compromise. I believe we should all be able to dress in a way which makes us feel comfortable and I’m deeply uneasy with the idea of policing other people’s clothing choices.
However, I also think we have a duty to respect others when we’re in public spaces, and sometimes that means acknowledging that other people might not want to see you recording your butt cheeks for your Instagram.
