# Dirty old skanks at the gym **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 10, 2011, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509 "2011-07-10T15:16:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/61 "2011-07-11T00:00:12Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Yes seriously. I know it is considered politically correct to bash people for being fat and to use “fat” as an insult but that does not mean that it is not a form of hateful speech. Really? Politically correct? Is that why a large number of people have ignored the bulk of the OP to focus on the usage of the term fat, because it’s so “PC” to bash people for being fat? > [@](#): > > Yes seriously. If substituting a more generally understood to be discriminated against group for the word “fat” in a statement would be out of line, then using “fat” there (or “skinny”) is probably also out of line. Well yes, substituting a more generally discriminatory word in a statement that is totally unrelated to said discriminatory word is going to make the whole statement sound worse. But if you’re doing that to make the case that “fat” is a slur, you’re a moron. > [@](#): > > This particular poster can’t decide if he thinks fat people are the ones who are lazy disgusting people who leave their sweat on equipment, or if he just want to use fat as an equal to calling someone a moron. He should make up his little mind. Maybe, just maybe, the people in question are both fat (as a descriptor and causative factor in the “sweating all over the place” phenomenon), and morons for failing to wipe down the equipment, which is unsanitary. > [@](#): > > And no it is not okay to say insults about a class of people as long as you are not directing it to their faces. > > In any case, his sweat phobia is very odd. But then I was a wrestler back in the day, so others sweat is not something that I have much of a fear about. I didn’t know fat was considered a class now. I would posit that it is not, no more than “tall” or “brunette” is a class. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/62 "2011-07-11T00:04:44Z")
Thanks **ladyfoxfyre** ; you put it far more eloquently than I did. I also used the word ‘ugly’ in the OP, perhaps I should have stuck with ‘those with aesthetically unpleasing features’ and, of course, clarified that not all such people are unhygienic jackholes. ---
**Author:** ![ladyfoxfyre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/63 "2011-07-11T00:12:23Z")
No amount of eloquence is going to change that you’re going to lose this particular battle. Anything else you say will continue to be obscured by the fact that you used the “F” word, so now we have to argue about what a discriminatory bigot you are rather than the fact that it’s disgusting not to wipe your equipment after you use it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/64 "2011-07-11T00:16:30Z")
I’m just glad I didn’t call the offenders chubby lardarse muffin-topped heiferlumps, which would have made me worse than Hitler. The real joke is that I don’t give a shit if people are overweight - the point of the OP was hygienic gym etiquette! ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/65 "2011-07-11T00:37:05Z")
looking at the op from a Game Theory point of view gives me the impression hes wrong. if everyone wipes down the machines then the people who dont give a crap are working to satisfy those who do however if those who give a crap wipe down the machines BEFORE they use them then only the ones who give a crap are wiping them down. the second result is obviously the most fair to everyone so long as you discount people who are just grossed out by someone else sweating on stuff. personally I wash my hands/shower after a workout…cause wiping down 10 machines seems pretty damn silly to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lucretia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/13edae/32.png) [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/66 "2011-07-11T00:50:58Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Note, in this bigots little world, only fat, ugly, old people are inconsiderate. Actually, I found that the young & fit are just as often as rude as anyone else. Yeah, exactly. The OP is a bigoted asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Kobayashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4af34b/32.png) [@Mr.Kobayashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Kobayashi)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/67 "2011-07-11T00:55:44Z")
> [@Lucretia](#): > > Yeah, exactly. The OP is a bigoted asshole. Then you can take a flying suck at my ass too (unless you’re wooshing us, I hope you are). I complain about what I saw, the whining thought police aren’t gonna convince me there were five lights no matter how many false assertions they make. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/68 "2011-07-11T01:03:47Z")
> [@Indygrrl](#): > > It’s funny how the kind of guys who are disgusted that they must inhabit the same planet as all these grotesque fat women always make comments about how they need to get their fat asses into the gym, but when they do they still get called names and are told they need to lose weight. > > It’s a gym. People of all shapes and sizes go there. Hell, some of them do enjoy taking their time and chat with friends. These are all legit things to do at a public gym. And because it is a place where various activities happen simultaneously, just about everyone will occasionally see/hear things that bug the shit out of them. That means there are probably times when YOU do things that could annoy others. Live and let live. Thats not what I said lardygrrl. I dont stop fat people in the street and tell them to go get some exercise. I didnt mention people standing in a gym talking with their friends. I didnt say anything even like that. What I said was that these dumb fucks are standing on these fad machines and deluding themselves into thinking that they are exercising. They are not, they are paying lip service to the whole fucking idea of exercise. They are taking the easy option, patting themselves on the back for a “workout” that has done more harm than good for the simple reason that it doesnt do any fucking good in the first place. I generally pay no heed to fat arses walking around town, but I do reserve the right to casually insult dumb bitches that do dumb shit in gyms. Also, I will call those dumb bitches flobby Ten Tonne Tessies because saying stuff like that seems to annoy anal weenies like DSEID, and I feel that can only be a good thing, on the whole. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/69 "2011-07-11T01:23:52Z")
This thread smells like french fries. Fatties lol. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/70 "2011-07-11T01:51:28Z")
I know it’s not quite the same thing…and I’m the farthest thing away from a germphobe. But before I use one of the “borrow” yoga mats at the studio I go to, I always grab one of the complimentary sanitary wipes and give it good wiping. It’s an unspoken rule that if you use the studio mats, you wipe it down afterwards. But I still do it beforehand just in case someone forgot to, or whatever. If changing gyms is not an option, just carry one of those Lysol cylinders with you and immediately wipe a machine after it’s used. Don’t say a word or give anyone an ugly look. Eventually people will get the hint and may follow suit. Either way, you won’t have to worry about the sweat cooties getting you. (I wouldn’t want to work out on a sweaty machine either. And that’s why I don’t go to the gym!) ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/71 "2011-07-11T02:06:26Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I dunno, leaving the equipment sweaty after your workout isn’t just inconsiderate for the next person to use it, but for the gym users in general since sweat and germs left uncleaned will start to stink up the place, wot? Right. Fresh sweat doesn’t stink, old sweat does. So, clean your sweat while it is fresh. (But the proper gym etiquette is to inform the person it is required, not use the pseudo-parental question.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/72 "2011-07-11T03:01:11Z")
> [@Red\_Barchetta](#): > > Though ugly skank sweat is way worse than beautiful sweat. Beautiful people don’t sweat. They glow. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/73 "2011-07-11T04:02:52Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > Look, **DSeid** , I’ll level with you. I call it as I see it - fat sweaty people using the equipment. They don’t wipe it. This irritates me. But it’s only _fat_ people who are inconsiderate, eh? You could have said stupid or rude or assholes, or shit-for-brains, or camel-felchers, but somehow to you, only fat people are inconsiderate and it’s the worst insult you could come up with.:rolleyes: Or is it you only notice when fat people are being inconsiderate? I In both cases, you are a bigot. No matter how you slice it, it comes out bigot. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/74 "2011-07-11T04:45:12Z")
> [@Mr.Kobayashi](#): > > I’m just glad I didn’t call the offenders chubby lardarse muffin-topped heiferlumps, which would have made me worse than Hitler. > > **The real joke is that I don’t give a shit if people are overweight - the point of the OP was hygienic gym etiquette!** Then that’s what you should have said. As it is, it sounds as if you’re bashing them for their looks rather than what they did. As if only unattractive people do inconsiderate things. That may not have been your _intent_, but that\* is\* how it comes across, and that is why you’re getting grief rather than agreement. Had you confined your insults to the actual act that is jerkish you wouldn’t have your thread be derailed like this. As it is, when people do as you did in your OP it seems to link people’s various unattractive traits with whatever inconsiderate act they’ve committed, as if their fat is what’s causing it. Doing that is just as rude as the rude thing the ugly person is doing. That said, I also hate those that don’t clean up their eqpt. I was that way when I was slim and I’m that way now that I’m a fat grandma. I get sick at the drop of a hat, so I’m now one of those weird germaphobes who wipes down everything others have touched (or don’t touch them at all). ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/75 "2011-07-11T04:48:13Z")
> [@ladyfoxfyre](#): > > No amount of eloquence is going to change that you’re going to lose this particular battle. Anything else you say will continue to be obscured by the fact that you used the “F” word, so now we have to argue about what a discriminatory bigot you are rather than the fact that it’s disgusting not to wipe your equipment after you use it. Actually his particular absurd obsession with the possibility of touching the sweat of others, to the point of _warning_ someone else that he didn’t know that the handlebar they were about to touch was, omigosh the horror, not wiped dry previous to their about to touch it, and his simply _not believing it_ when the other person didn’t give a shit (and possibly gave him a very odd look) … the sweat of others being ground into his palms … mixing with his own essential bodily fluids … so disgusting … unbelievable … has already been adequately mocked. It is polite to wipe down equipment because some people care about it but as noted different gyms have different local cultures and many people do not care. If your are in a gym where most people do not care then really following **monstro** ’s lead would be wise: wipe it down yourself before you use it. Being polite I put the seat down for my wife and did for my sisters growing up. Would it really have been any less fair for them to have to put it up for me, or at least to put it down themselves? But sure, I can do that. If local gym culture is to wipe down the machine, including the moist handle bar, after every use, I can do that, and even if it is not local custom, if someone asks me to nicely, I’ll smile, say sorry, and comply. And try to remember that it is important to at least one person there and do it the next time too. That’s how we anal weenies roll. OTOH if I forgot once, or just plain didn’t, and some asshole came up and “somewhat gruffly asked” me to, instead of trying to be nice about it, I’d probably just pretend they did not exist and walk away (and think about telling them to fuck off but not do it, because I am polite). **Mr. K.** , you are simply a jerk, and one of the many reasons I am happy I have my home set up is that I don’t need to interact with your kind in a public gym. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/76 "2011-07-11T05:06:08Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I dunno, leaving the equipment sweaty after your workout isn’t just inconsiderate for the next person to use it, but for the gym users in general since sweat and germs left uncleaned will start to stink up the place, wot? If you are not fit enough to battle off whatever Fatty Kooties you encounter then you have no business in a gym. Pussy. The fatties manage it. Are you weaker than them? Er, than they are? Or whatever proper grammar would say? And watch your step because I’m a fatty and you cannot say anything about it without stating your bigotry, you skinny-assed mother fucker. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/77 "2011-07-11T05:09:51Z")
FTR: I’m a bit OCD and contact with the sweat of others makes me puke in my mouth a little bit. I’d rather they wipe it off when they are done, but I will wipe it off, anyway. And wash my hands afterwards, but only once. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/78 "2011-07-11T05:20:35Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > Okay, MRSA is the cootie you are particularly concerned about. I know something about MRSA. Sorry but sweat is not its medium. [aside] My wife had a boil in her armpit that grew so large that even she sought help from an MD. After it was removed the nurse briefed me in how to dress it. Looked like the entry wound of a 20ga slug. Wife handled all the dressing, which was good because if she had told me it was MRSA I’d’ve taken myself and the kids to a motel, only returning for dressing while wearing a decontamination suit, and then burnt the house down. She waited until it had healed to tell me. ETA: No, I really wouldn’t have. Motel linen scares me even more. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/79 "2011-07-11T05:38:58Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > If you are not fit enough to battle off whatever Fatty Kooties you encounter then you have no business in a gym. > > Pussy. The fatties manage it. Are you weaker than them? Er, than they are? Or whatever proper grammar would say? > > And watch your step because I’m a fatty and you cannot say anything about it without stating your bigotry, you skinny-assed mother fucker. > > 😃 Ah, shaddup, you’re only in this thread because it’s trapped in your gravitational well. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509/80 "2011-07-11T05:41:58Z")
As you are, bro. A few more revolutions and you will become a part of me. Which is pretty gross because I’m not into gay Canadians… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dirty-old-skanks-at-the-gym/588509.md?page=5)