, as a society we have come a long way in terms of gender equality. Every day women are gaining access to spaces that were once only for men. However, there are still remnants of that macho culture in various places of everyday life. These are subliminal messages that discriminate against women and go unnoticed. One of them is the designs and images used in gyms for weight training.

In these days of radical quarantine, where it is necessary for me to occupy more leisure time, it has led me to always be on the lookout for topics on human behavior. Today one of my followers @yndira vallenilla, uploaded a publication making an alert about it. This active observation made me realize that there is still this visual discrimination against women.

When taking a walk through the different Instagram accounts, dedicated to gyms all their illustrative images of how to correctly do the exercises corresponds to male figures. Just as you see and read.
After spending a good amount of time opening how many account about fitness, bodybuilding, workout, or about extreme workouts all the images and videos are with male models. While it is true that there are demonstrative videos with women performing powerful workouts or lifting irons that surpass their peers, but they are few. Female images abound more in activities such as yoga, running, aerobics or fitness.

The fitness industry, just for the year 2019 according to the Global Wellness Institute report GWI Wellness indicates that the global physical activity industry represented a total of US $ 828.2 billion. This makes it a very lucrative and important activity in the world economy.

Marketing studies indicate that Millennials and Gen Z are already the vast majority, representing 80% of the total fitness market. This was one of the most salient findings of the 2019 Les Mills Global Consumer Fitness Survey, which revealed that the generational shift in the fitness market is happening much faster than most people realize. Therefore, the industry must correct these types of images and design them more suitable for the cultural patterns of these new generations.

The trend in human behavior is making gyms, clubs and boxes more than just exercise centers, they have become social spaces, where friendships are developed and values are transmitted to the youth and adults who attend.

The fitness centers are exposed to legal sanctions, there are countries like Spain that have legislation in this regard, for example the Organic Law 3/2007, of March 22, for the Effective Equality of Women and Men.
Article 41. It considers unlawful advertising that involves discriminatory conduct in accordance with this law. The Law on Unfair Competition and by the special rules governing certain advertising activities.
For its part, Law 7/2010, of March 31, 2010, General Law on Audiovisual Communication in its TITLE II Basic Regulations for Audiovisual Communication, CHAPTER I The rights of the public Article 4. The right to receive a plural audiovisual communication. in its numeral 2 establishes that:
Audiovisual communication may never incite hatred or discrimination based on gender or any personal or social circumstance and must be respectful of human dignity and constitutional values, with special attention to the eradication of behaviors favoring situations of inequality of women.

Doing a thorough research, with statistical data would be the most appropriate and hopefully business organizations such as Les Mills, the same The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) which is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance wellness around the world by educating the public and private sectors on preventive health and wellness.

They are committed to researching and changing this macho organizational culture so that gender-equal images can be developed.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)