Why are people so concerned with what others do at the gym?

You can't change what people do... period. As I stated before, there will always be threads like this.. if you do a search, you'll see a thousand more just with different titles. It's apart of life and unless you can say that you've never judged or made fun of anyone, then you have no room to talk.

Of course I have room to talk - people change and grow and that's why I'm talking about this. I'm not content to live in a world where people just shrug and accept bullying as a part of life. It amazes me that anyone is! It shouldn't be a part of life. It's terrible and horrible and affects peoples lives in a massively negative way. Why should we just accept it? Why can't we just be supportive and nice? What on earth is wrong with me wanting people to just be nice to each other? It's actually incredibly depressing that people have a problem with that.

You can always decide to change your view on this and then maybe you could even convince someone else to as well. And then maybe one day we'll get to a place in our society when people won't just chalk bullying up to being just a normal part of life. Wouldn't that be lovely?

Teasing isn't bullying.

What's the difference if you hurt someone's feelings? Why is that something that you would want to risk?

People need to get thicker skin.

What on earth is this victim blaming bollocks?! YOU get hurt by something, and it's YOUR fault? That's 100% not fair. Some people are more sensitive that others and that's absolutely fine. Some people can happily shrug off insults but some can't.

Kids and parents are crying wolf at every little thing. A friends child was sent to detention because he said a classmate looked like that red head snowboard kid... I forget his name.... Shawn something.... This was told to his parents as the reason, and it wasn't even said in a derogatory fashion. Are you f'ing kidding me????? A detention for an observation. Anyone who actually was bullied knows what it's like and what you are describing simply is not bullying.

Well, unfortunately kids don't always tell the entire truth to their parents about why they've got into trouble at school. But that's beside the point. Observations can absolutely amount to bullying. "Oh my god, you're so skinny, you must have an eating disorder. You're anorexic, you're anorexic!" or "You're so fat, you can't even run without getting out of breath! You're so fat! You're so fat!" Both observations, but definitely nasty and definitely bullying.

I don't care if other women don't like my make up at the gym. I dare any of them to say something to my made up face - which has never happened. If one did happen to ask - is that bullying? Hardly. I would simply put them in their place, which to me is right next to the dirt on my shoe because that's the equivalent to a strangers opinion for me.

I don't care either. But some people do, that's all I'm saying. It's not about daring people to say things to our face, it's not about putting people in their place. It's about acknowledging that saying things like "Oh, I hate that woman at the gym who wears makup and jewelry - who the hell does she think she's impressing?! What a stuck up cow!" (which are things that were being said in the other thread) can be hurtful TO SOME PEOPLE. If you don't want to call it bullying, fine. Call it being insensitive, call it being rude, call it whatever you want, but if you're hurting someone's feelings by doing it - why do it? Seriously. Why are you arguing so passionately for your right to make other people feel bad about themselves. Would you rather start a "people that I love at the gym" thread, and watch people pipe up saying "Hey! That's me! I'm the guy/girl who always sanitizes my machine and it's so cool that I'm getting recognition!" rather than people scrambling to justify why they do the things that other people hate?

Telling someone to wipe their sweat puddle off a machine isn't bullying either - it's called hygiene and I'm not their mom. I'm not cleaning up after them. But I will certainly point it out - first to them, then to management if they continue this disgusting behavior. Again, NOT bullying.

Well, unless you stroll up to them, call them disgusting and make a massive scene about it, embarrassing them in front of the whole gym. That would be bullying. It would be equally as easy to tell the gym staff who would do it in a much more tactful manner.

Legit gripes sure. Yeah, it's a pain when people don't wipe down machines and act in a way that endangers others at the gym.

This is not the kind of comments that I'm addressing. It's the comments deriding people who choose to walk on a treadmill, read a magazine on a bike or wear makeup to the gym. Defend making fun of those people.

I will say, and I'm guessing you agree, that anyone who is actually at the gym and doing any level of exercise is already ten steps ahead of over half the population who would rather just sit at home on the couch watching TV. And for that I agree they do deserve a level of respect, at least until they do something else to lose it.

Well yeah, that's exactly my point!