So there is a real problem at the Rec Center — an arrogant, egocentric and apparently really, really ridiculously big man in the weight room who employs gender stereotypes and gripes about skinny "boys" who aren't interested in what he has to say. What Mr. Bajt really needs is to keep the big pulsating vein in his head from popping out, but then again what do I know? I'm just a skinny 115 pounds of fury (rounded up). I'll start with the only positive insight I found in his article.

I congratulate him on choosing pre-physical therapy as a major. Finding a passion and making it happen is commendable. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "The world makes way for a man who knows where he is going." Unfortunately, you don't seem to know where physical therapy will take you. You said you wanted to "work more with the body." Exactly whose body are you talking about?

The majority of physical therapy clients are the injured, frail, lame or morbidly obese — people very unlike you. They are the rule — you are the exception. When you actually begin PT school you will learn that it isn't all linebackers and point guards. You're ignoring a key point of becoming a health provider: it's not about you, it's about them. In this case a cocky freshman who likes to sit and stare at himself bothers you. Is there anyone reading this who can honestly say they never look? It's "men" like you that keep women like me away from the gym. Perhaps it's the strut that says, "Hey, I live here. Get off my machine." Or perhaps working out in your shadow makes people feel inadequate in this super-sized society.

The resentful looks you get are not cases of good intentions gone awry. Your article made it very clear about what you think of your peers at the gym in their cutesy Abercrombie outfits and feminine tans. So don't play the "I'm so concerned about them getting hurt" card. You resent that they style their hair and stare at girls because what could possibly be more important than beefing up? Brace yourself. The Rec Center, for many, is a social place — an excuse to have fun and maybe do something with their body. We all live together and do what we can. This is a college campus, not an Olympic weightlifting facility.

I won't even touch what you had to say about football coaches. You dug your own grave on that one. If anything you highlight your narrowed opinion of people.

You criticize these "boys" you don't even know for being small, puny, conceited and ironically judgmental. Who said that muscle "hypertrophy" (really, really big word for increase in size) is what makes a man? Several times you subtly allude to the notion that being a guy with big muscles is something to be envied — very arrogant. You make a dangerous assumption that everyone should have your body. There is no one correct workout. What is good for you is not always good for the next person. I would think your third-year, strength-training textbooks would have mentioned that.

I did not write this to solve your issues. What I really want to say is get over yourself!

This viewpoint was published in The Marquette Tribune on October 18, 2005.