Tuesday 23 July 2013

I'm thin and fit, and I'm tired of 'fitspiration'




So in a culture obsessed with image/youth/thinness I should probably be happy, I mean I AM thin, so ‘winning’!! I could probably go ahead and post photos of myself like YAY ME! But really, that would make me feel like a narcissistic dick.

A lot of women do speak up against these ‘fitness’ images and people will often say “your just jealous coz your fat etc”…  It seems that big people’s opinions are invalid.. So as a 'validly' opinionated thin person I can say that thin exhibitionism isn’t healthy or helpful.

I will list rather than blab about why:

- Fitness/health has nothing to do with appearance, so why do these women have more makeup, hair and tits than anything else? They are actually promoting cosmetic surgery and dieting, not health, this is my main gripe.

- If these images are inspiring hardcore workouts then they should show all types of people running/lifting/boxing, sweating, no makeup, etc.

- Where are images of healthy people who are bigger/older/disabled/etc? These people are fit and healthy too.. These 'thinspo' pages show such a narrow ideal of ‘health’ that is all about young women/men, I can’t even imagine how older/minority groups feel when they see it.


- I don’t know how body insecurity feels.. But I see women in my own family (bless) and I feel their shame, guilt, pain, they hate their body, they think they aren’t worthy of love, they think they aren’t worthy of food!!! I just want to shake them like “LOVE YOURSELF YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH, JUST EAT THE DAMN CAKE!!” Hopefully empathy helps me understand.

- I think a lot of people are shamed into exercise and diet by these pages, rather than loving themselves first and foremost.

- Personally, I know that thin doesn’t equate with health. I’ve had so many back and joint problems in the past, because I was lacking nutrition and strength! Even my doctors always insisted that I was fit and healthy- wrong!!

- Lastly, if people were encouraged to just love themselves and disregard image, I wonder how much more time people could put into perusing other goals, doing what they love, making progress, feeling good etc… Evidence tells us that we cannot perform cognitively if we are self-conscious.
I know ‘fitness images’ might inspire workouts, but what about inspiring women and men to be more than an image?

And of course what about the effect on young peoples self-esteem, relationships, we know all kinds of body image disorders are on the rise- are these people really helping with that?

Maybe the fact that my body shape has fitted in this ‘ideal’ means that I see these photos and I don’t find them attractive, I just think – ‘what the actual fuck are you doing’…

I’m all for people building health, but I think it starts with relaxation, self-acceptance and blocking out bullshit media. Whether the label is ‘skinny’ or ‘healthy’ - the overall goal is still about being unrealistically thin and fitting a very narrow idea of 'attractive'.

2 comments:

  1. Well said Laura. It is so infuriating to see skinniness being equated with health/fitness so often. They are two different things.

    Imagine if all us girls and women could let go of our shame over our bodies and channel our energy into more important things. Wouldn't that be awesome.

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  2. Thanks for your comment :)
    I am still considering reworking this post, perhaps to go into a more structured critique of the images presented here... I think I may also need to explore my own story more as well..
    Writing a blog is not as easy as writing academic papers I suddenly realise!
    Thanks again!

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