12/11/14
English Comp. 101-12
Lora Strey
Feminism Fitness
Fitness in contemporary society can often be accused of working in diametric opposition to such celebratory expressions of physicality. So often, physical endeavors are linked to pursuit of an aesthetic, with no focus on empowerment and strength. Physical activity has the potential to provide happiness and to celebrate the female body outside of dictates about what it should look like. With so much societal pressure on woman to fit, there is no wonder that feminism has started to become of fitness as well.
When promoted in a healthy, feminist fashion, wellness can be a vehicle for individual, community, and social empowerment. One only needs to sit in stillness and take a few deep breaths to innately feel it – wellness is about physical practice. Inherently selfish, personal endeavors, physical motion and meditation provide pathways to connect the external with the internal, and to revel in what can be found in that space. This makes fitness a tool for woman to use to strive to increase their own personal goals and self worth. But sole reliance on fitness for this sense of happiness can be problematic. As woman age and take on more challenges, it becomes difficult to stay active and fit like their younger selves.
Most people know the kind of pressure put on celebrities and people in general to look goof and be in shape. Yet few people know the unrealistic figure that models and fitness freaks have and try to maintain. One less well known fact is that fitness models and people who compete in the figure category in fitness competitions aren’t actually at the height of healthy when they compete. By the time “game day” comes, they’ve followed a regime that no one recommending a healthy approach to fitness and diet would recommend. They’ve eaten too few calories for the intensity of workouts they’ve been doing. And they’ve reached a weight that they have no intention of maintaining. In short, their bodies, admired as models of fitness by so many, are unrealistic even for them.
As you can see there is outstanding social and unrealistic model that are glorified for being perfect bodies. This lead people to do irrational things to be like those people and be compared to them. But with new and more simple and realistic workout ideas being geared by self drive and some feminist perspectives as well. But no matter what social or economic problems people are facing, fitness and getting fit can be a break and stress relieve for people from all walks of life.
Work Cited
http://www.genderforum.org/issues/special-issue-early-career-researchers-i/re-thinking-wellness-a-feminist-approach-to-health-and-fitness/
http://time.com/3588846/time-apologizes-feminist-word-poll-robin-morgan/
