Obligated to be Fit: Gendered Healthism according to Fitness Experts and Magazines

• In Event: 4284 - Section on Sociology of Sex and Gender Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 02. Gender and Health

Abstract

In the past 40 years, “fitness” has become a major commercial enterprise (Smith Maguire 2001) and revenue generated by fitness and recreational sports centers exceeded $21 billion per year (U.S. Census Bureau). The concept is used to promote products such as Fitbit trackers and is the subject of news articles, magazine covers, advertisements, and doctor-patient conversations. The medical and health field, consumer culture, and government and public programs all promote fitness.

Fitness is made to seem more attainable than ever thanks to the promises of gym membership advertising, commercials for exercise equipment and programs, and television shows like “The Biggest Loser” in which participants compete to lose weight by changing their diet and exercise habits. References to “fitness” and its connection to health are so widespread that the concept of fitness may seem well-understood, but in fact, it carries multiple and complex meanings. The concept of “fitness” and its link to health depends on historical and cultural contexts and continues to evolve. Furthermore, examining how fitness is socially constructed can provide insight into the contemporary understandings of health, gender, the body, and their intersections. Using findings from a content analysis of fitness magazines and interviews with fitness experts, this research paper explores how gender ideologies shape the social construction of fitness and its promotion as a healthy activity. I argue that fitness has become the new gendered healthism: the pursuit of physical fitness as well as the “fit look” is an obligation requiring various types of gendered work. Contextualizing our current understanding of fitness provides insight into why it has become such a pervasive pursuit today and the implications of its idealization.

Author

• Sarah Pollock, University of North Carolina-Charlotte