Caity Healy | Editor-in-Chief
Recently, I went back to the Health and Wellness Center for the first time since summer had ended. I was incredibly happy that it was finally open and I was excited to get back into a fitness routine, so I dressed in my favorite, most comfortable workout tank top — one that I had worn to this same location numerous times.
Mid-workout, I noticed an employee staring at me across the gym. I didn’t really think anything of it. However, at the end of my workout when I was stretching, he approached me and told me that what I was wearing was against dress-code.
At first, I was taken aback; I was wearing a tank top, leggings, and close-toed shoes, all of which seem normal for a gym. However, he then explained that my tank top specifically was against code as it means I could spread sweat more easily, and potentially spread disease.
Let me make myself clear, I am in full support of keeping students healthy and preventing the spread of disease. In this case, though, I felt as if this was something aimed more towards stopping students from dressing a certain way than towards stopping the spread of disease. Not once in my time here have I been told I’m breaking dress code while wearing a T-shirt but being sweaty. I have been to the gym multiple times with my boyfriend as he literally drips sweat from his clothing, and not one employee has even stared at him. Why me? It’s as if they only care about preventing a hypothetical spread of disease than doing something about the actual people drenched in sweat all around me.
On another note, aren’t you supposed to sweat at the gym? Isn’t that the point of the sanitizer and towels? When it comes down to it, if you sweat, at the place meant to get you sweaty, just clean it up.
I’m not the only student who has been bothered by this new policy enforcement. Junior ASL/English Interpreting major Kaitlyn Allen was dress-coded for wearing a wide-strap tank top. In her opinion, this new code simply “is not reasonable. It will cause people to wear something they are really not comfortable working out in or it may potentially discourage people from going to the gym on campus.”
Overall, I’m not enraged at the employees or the policies of the Health and Wellness Center for dress-coding me. I appreciate that they are trying to keep their facilities as clean and disease-free as possible. My only request is that if you are going to dress-code me for wearing something that exposes more skin that could potentially get sweaty, then please just dress-code the ones who are also coated in sweat. Just keep it fair. Otherwise, I end up feeling singled out and awkward when I’m approached and stopped mid-workout to get a lecture from an employee, when in reality, there are other people they probably should be focusing more heavily on.
Contact the author at chealy16@wou.edu
Photo courtesy of Paul F. Davis
