Sex has been a common theme in OCR Facebook groups this offseason. With daily picture themes such as “ThighThursday”, “FlexFriday”, and “MilfMondays” things have certainly heated up as of late. Generally the OCR offseason consists of heated debates over shoes, price increases, brand wars and race loyalties. A change of pace from the in-season , course markings, venue changes, burpeeVsMOA, course cutting, cheating and of course, shoes.
I’ve now witnessed on a weekly basis waves of sexually charged, rule pushing pics from both genders. These themed days have given racers an avenue to express their exhibitionist, free spirited ways, manipulating the theme for self gratification(fully nude, hands over nipples, hashtagged #thighthursday) I mean hey… There’s thighs in the pic, right? I think … Yea there was thighs .. I think.
Though it’s not all breasts, butts and “look at me”. A lot of the transformation pics are truly inspirational, the desired intent of the group by many. Waves of people have left these groups after feeling the group as whole, lost its way. Lengthy declarative posts, stating how someone joined for motivation, weight loss tips, training help and comparing race schedules, but have found a soft/hard-core pornography group they didn’t sign up for. Generally the responses to such posts range from “likes”, “please stay”, “I completely agree”….mixed in with “scroll past it”,”you’re jealous”, “STFU”.
When people report these posts as something they find offensive, depending on the group settings, the complaint generally goes to the admin of the group. The pressure is then put on this person(s) to decide what’s appropriate, offensive and within the groups rules/guidelines. This is not just a U.S. Based offseason problem. I have now seen the exact same debate in U.S. And UK based OCR groups.
You work hard for your body. You’re proud of the progress you’ve made.
Is it ok to display your accomplishments and to what degree of sexual innuendo, if any, is acceptable?
Are themed days the issue?
Are we just a society of ultra-sensitive individuals? Or is this ultimately the offseason virus spreading to the brains(and sex organs) that’ll be treated with the season starting up again (and some penicillin).
What advice would you give to the admin(s) of one of these groups to be fair/firm/consistent and not gender discriminatory?
Mike Natale
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Not to mention the unsolicited “dick pics” sent to females by some colorful individuals or the psychos using these groups as sexual hunting grounds.
We’re probably thinking of the same person too, bro. As well as the same situation from the end of last year!
So, just so I have all the information to make an educated decision, could you please post the names of the FB groups you are referring to? Thaaannnnkkkksss
Don’t need to be a scientist to know it’s that 4-0 group.
That is why I left 4-0! I was sick of the admin hitting on me knowing I am married! You know. That “go go go” Ameer.
Off season Virus? Penicillin to treat this? Tsk tsk..
I would say that is a bit judgemental. Why not support and encourage people to show their bodies instead of comparing it to an illness?
I’m pretty sure they aren’t calling a problem involving a harmless social media trend a literal virus. It was a joke. A tongue-in-cheek attempt to keep things light and allow people to laugh at themselves and the how silky those things can get.
*Silly lol. Please moderator, allow me to edit my mistake ?
Kate, I agree things can become quite silly. However, reading the article and then the comments of people alleging (I use this word as I do not have specific confirmation that anything transpired) the receipt of unsolicited picture, admins hitting on members and these pages used as a hunting ground is not something I would consider “harmless”.
I am a member of several FB OCR pages and I am one of the people who believe if you don’t like what you see, then keep scrolling or leave.
Being the Founder of UKOCR.com and also the largest OCR social media group over in the UK, Obstacle course racing (UK.OCR)
I can honestly say being admin of any group that gets on some days over 10,000 comments it is a thankless task,
We don’t get many reported posts, maybe because the OCR scene in the UK is a close knit family and everyone tends to know everyone, so what Admin get is a private message when there is something that upsets someone, and the admin team speak to to people explaining why post are deleted (usually just people spamming)
So my advice would be to the people who report the posts, Talk to the admins and explain why you don’t agree with it, you will get more respect from your admin team and also get your point across better in a conversation
Our social media group has been lucky or unlucky some may say, in the respect that we have not seen the flesh posts on a regular basis, the most flesh we have on show is #gunshowfriday and then it is limited to a very few individuals flexing their biceps at races
I also think that one of the reasons why this is not seen in the UK.OCR social media group is that in the UK there is another group that caters for this type of Risqué posts, it is a closed group, meaning that people who don’t want to see flesh can’t see it without joining the wronguns group. But a lot of people do like to see that flesh or , after all it is 3,500 strong
Have fun my american racers
I am in a couple of different OCR and Fitness FB groups that have theme days in which people are encouraged to post pictures of themselves. I find it interesting that on multiple occasions I was seeing the same photo being posted in multiple groups but the reactions were completely different based on the posting rules and enforcement of said rules.
Most groups create a master thread each day with the request that all comments and pictures associated with the day’s theme be posted within the comment section of said theme thread not just randomly posted to the group page itself. So if there was a “Show us your calves Sunday” everyone who wants to comment and post pictures of their calves (human, reptile or of the bovine variety) would post them in the official thread. If it wasn’t uploaded in the thread and obviously related to the thread it would be deleted by the admin team. Then there are Those groups that don’t have a “limit your comments and pictures to the thread rule. That allow individuals to post the theme of the day photos in o divide all messages and depending on the group size that could generate several hundred individual posts/messages threads per day relayed to the theme instead of one long message thread.
Over the years I have found that groups that limit photos to the body/comment section of the daily theme thread have way less complaints/drama than those who don’t limit how photos are posted tend to have.
I have unfollowed or left FB friends and groups because of photos, memes and/or volume of posts that would pop up on my news feed.
I manage several social media pages from different locations throughout the day (home, work, tablet, laptop, desktop). One day while signing in to my FB account on a computer at work in order to show my boss and a couple of coworkers several posts in a few of my work related FB groups a “Thigh Thursday” photo happened to be the first thing posted on my personal news feed. The person who posted the photo felt that appropriate angle to show off his/her thigh needed to include the entire backside of their obviously naked body. I was mortified and one of my coworkers actually turned off the tv monitor until I could click through to the page I needed. Because of that one photo my coworkers and I are no longer allowed to manage work related social media groups in areas where the monitors could be seen by clients or minors. As a reply of this incidence and to avoid it happening again I have u followed or outright left three different fitness/OCR related FB groups because I need to be able to open up my FB account anywhere and not worry about what pops up as my FB feed loads.
How would I go about getting in touch with the author of this article? I have some first person information regarding this very subject and have been silent for too long.
He has reached out to you.