Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Back to work... androgynously

So Hubby & I have just had a week off together. Nothing special, mind you... we'd just surreptitiously booked off the extra 3 days around the Diamond Jubilee weekend so that we could make it a full week. We spent the week on various projects. Top on my list of things to do was to clean out our bedroom, because there's been a huge growth of mould in our room over winter, what with our room getting damp due to the two of us breathing in there overnight. I broke the back of the job in a big way and still have plenty more to do, but that's a job for another day.

I've been attending our local gym every day for the past week. I did my scheduled cardio sessions (which is often difficult due to the lack of airconditioning in the gym) and for three days (M, W, F) I followed this up with some upper & lower body weights. Hubby doesn't know this, but the reason why I'm doing this is because I prefer the way my body looks when I'm more muscular. Not only that, but a little protip here: orgasms feel much more intense if your thigh muscles are well developed! Ahem... that may well be TMI.

We spent today trawling around the local gyms in the area because I've been getting disenchanted with our local one. It's a bit shabby and it takes them ages to repair anything that breaks down. But none of the other gyms are as large as the one I use, and I'd dread having to wait to use the equipment I need. So it looks like I'm staying put.

In amongst reviewing these gyms, I have been investigating the possibility of using the 'accessible' changing areas. It has been becoming more & more apparent that I'm desperately unhappy about being forced to use the female changing rooms. I hate it for several reasons: 1) I don't identify as 'female' or 'woman', so it seems inappropriate to use those rooms. 2) I greatly dislike looking at the female form, especially naked, and there is an unfortunate tendency in this country for people to get butt naked in the common area of the changing rooms, so many's the time I have walked into the room to be greeted by the sight of boobs or beavers, which I find totally repulsive. 3) women are SO FUCKING BORING and EQUALLY FUCKING LOUD in their conversations. Why can't they have a quiet conversation, or at the very least talk about something interesting? I HATE being in the same room as these women and their banal little chats about who said what, what they were wearing, and where they met up. I don't belong amongst them... and I never have.

Sadly, the provision for 'accessible' changing rooms does not take transgendered people into account. Even worse, it doesn't even take the needs of the disabled into account. Stacked lockers, one near the ceiling? Check. Total lack of hairdrying facilities? Check. Staff who use the lockers in the disabled changing room as their own personal lockers? Bloody check. So I've been disappointed in my efforts to locate gender-neutral changing facilities.

I've decided that when I return to my workplace gym tomorrow, I will ask to use the little-used downstairs changing rooms so that I can try to avoid sharing with women. I'll try to speak to the manager (who I believe to be a lesbian; maybe she'll be sympathetic?) to organise this. Oh well. A week off work, and now I have to go back in the morning. And I'll be going back dressed androgynously.

I'm not looking forward to it at all.

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