I'm a married bi man in my mid-fifties. In my late thirties I started bodybuilding. I did some modeling for underwear ads and nude pics when I was forty. At the time, I was in the best shape of my life. I remained a devoted gym rat until age 49 when my years of bodybuilding and martial arts, coupled with what started as a minor scoliosis, final began causing noteworthy degeneration of my disks. In the past five years I've had a over a million dollars in surgeries and now have steel rods and bolts fortifying my spine from T3 all the way to my pelvis. Needless to say, the exercise I do today is a mere shadow of what it used to be.

While I was still building, however, I never had a problem with oglers. I'm not contradicting SLCB—I experienced the extreme oglers he described in yesterday's SLLOTD. It was more noticeable in some gyms than others, but it never bothered me. Even when the oglers were yellow-toothed, 80-year-old fat men, it didn't bother me. I accepted it as a compliment. If someone approached me in the showers or by my locker, I said, "Thanks, but I'm not interested." No one ever pressed the issue. Honestly, now that my physique is a gaunt, slow-moving shadow of what it was, I miss the attention. De gustibus.

If the oglers bother you, say so. If not, smile and wave.

Former Smiler And Waver

Thanks for sharing, FSAW. Another response to yesterday's SLLOTD after the jump...

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Reading the letter today from the guy who was praising your response regarding locker room behavior I just wanted to roll my eyes, thinking, "Oh yeah, buddy? Being ogled is uncomfortable? Thirty times per year it happens to you?!? GASP! Try being female. Anywhere. Anytime."

And then there was your response! It was so perfect! Dudes: BE RESPECTFUL. No one wants to feel like this, female or male. Can someone just plaster the whole interaction in gym locker rooms so gay dudes who ogle think, "Oops, I should quit it," and straight dudes think, "Ohhh. I see—maybe I should quit being a dick to women on the street!"

I'm home sick and the theraflu is talking. Hope this makes sense!

Yay And Whatnot