Body Image in the Gym Locker Room
Behind the Treadmill Work Out are Women’s Crazy Stories
Oct 23, 2006
If you want to read about women’s crazy stories about body image in the gym locker room, Leslie Goldman has it covered in her book, Locker Room Diaries. Poignant things happen behind the treadmill work out.
Leslie Goldman was a regular gym-goer while earning her master’s degree in public health. But what she took away from her weekly treadmill work out was more about what she saw and heard behind the gym locker room doors: some crazy stories.
Some women would parade around in the nude, letting all of their glory hangout for the world to see; others had developed intricate rituals to get from the shower to their locker and into their clothes without baring one inch.
She began taking her notebook with her to jot down poignant moments and observations in the gym locker room, keeping her inconspicuous, and sometimes not, eyes alert for the action. From there she began talking to various women about their body image and experiences behind the treadmill work out.
Full-fledged interviews abounded and she ended up collecting her notes into a book called Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth about Women, Body Image, and Re-Imagining the “Perfect” Body.
The author’s writing style is relaxed, personal and humorous. Always one to crack a joke at herself, she uses her witty intelligence to flesh out the narrative and delve into her own struggles with eating disorders.
The women she meets and talks about are so real, you can remember seeing someone like them yourself. The book entices laugh-out-loud moments, as well as silent chuckles in each of the crazy stories.
This is a book about the extreme lengths women will go to keep up their appearance, or not, and the crazy things they do in the “privacy” of the gym locker room.
An entertaining read from beginning to end, it’s also a perfect gift for your best girlfriend, who will understand the humour and sometimes devastation of what happens after the treadmill work out.
Locker Room Diaries can be ordered from Amazon.com
