I Am a Great Man

But you don’t have to agree

On a Sunday morning at a Lululemon store, I found myself among a bunch of dudes, yelling out, “I am a great man!”

It was weird.

I have oppositional defiance disorder, so, obscured by everyone else’s voices, I would say my own thing, like, “I think I’m pretty good,” or, “I’m fine, thanks.” Nothing clever, just something to save myself from feeling like I was being obligated into a social ritual, which I instinctively rebel against. And also to protect myself from a sense of embarrassment, even though it seemed everyone else in the room found it motivating.

My friend, who runs a group workout that I regularly attend, and is also a “brand ambassador” for Lululemon, had invited me to what he had described as a workout session. Lululemon has guest trainers come in and use the store space outside of shopping hours for various seminars or activities, like yoga or fitness or life coaching or whatever. It’s part of Lululemon’s attempt to build a brand identity around some manufactured sense of community and life philosophy, and not merely a pile of admittedly well made but crazy expensive clothes.

My friend neglected to tell me beforehand that this exercise class was especially targeted at men. I wouldn’t have gone if I had known that this was a gendered event, and not just…