Exercising for Women - Why is it taboo?

There is a weird double standard within society when it comes to women exercising.

Women are expected to be beautiful - because men desire beautiful women, and women want to be desirable.

But in order to maintain the kind of beauty that men find desirable, women need to exercise.

However on a cultural level women who exercise are considered to be less than feminine. They are referred to by any number of derogatory names: Tomboys, dykes, etc. Even female athletes are treated poorly because they are seen as less than male athletes.

And yet judging by videos like the one further below, females who exercise (even those who aren't athletes) are highly desirable.

It is as if women are expected to have cake and they're allowed to eat it for once, but they're not allowed to make it somehow.

So how are women supposed to get this beautiful body they're expected to have without exercising? Diet? That just leads to eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Or worse, yo-yo dieting and stretch marks from rapid weight changes.


What really needs to happen is a cultural change wherein women who exercise are more revered by society as a whole - as opposed to one aspect of society supporting exercise for women and another aspect of society condoning it and treating women who exercise as less than feminine.

Having watched the video above do you think the women in the video were less than feminine? Probably not. They are very obviously feminine and very attractive to boot.

This means we need to endorse and applaud women who exercise and give young women more positive role models who are female athletes they can look up to. Not just in North America either, but globally.

From a male perspective this means two things - more attractive women out there - and it means that we men need to do better ourselves and exercise more because we aren't as fit as we like to think we are.