- By the end of the semester, you should compile an annotated bibliography with at least ten sources that you believe will be central to your research projects.
Camacho-Miñano, M.J., and S. Gray. “Pedagogies of Perfection in the Postfeminist Digital Age: Young Women’s Negotiations of Health and Fitness on Social Media.” Journal of Gender Studies, vol. 30, no. 6, 2021, pp. 725–736., https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2021.1937083.
This article looks at the impacts of technology and social media on women’s perceptions of self within the fitness industry. The article analyzes interviews of young females in Spain who follow various fitness influencers on Instagram and their interactions with media and the ways that they understand themselves in comparison to these idealized women. The piece goes on to explain that there is a pressure for young women to conform to a practice of constant improvement and striving towards perfection which negatively impacts the relationships that these women have with their bodies. This piece is the crux of my research idea in looking at how the neoliberal agenda has permeated into the health and fitness industry with the way in which women interact with their bodies, the bodies of other women, and the perceptions of men. I will be using this work in conjunction with Saraswati’s analysis of the neoliberal agenda to explain how women fall into a position of submission into the male gaze and the pressures of perfection on social media and in the fitness industry at large.
Chewning, Chase, director. Curated Content Is DEAD. Instagram, 4 May 2022, https://www.instagram.com/reel/CdJZxGtADT1/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y. Accessed 19 April 2022.
This video provides a back-and-forth dialogue between two fitness influencers and personal trainers on Instagram. The short video highlights Sam Gwaz’s experiences being an influencer and content creator on Instagram and TikTok and the pressures to constantly curate content for viewers. She speaks about the vulnerability for building a brand that is driven by confidence and success and the importance of crafting an authentic representation of yourself and your values to the individuals, often women, who are viewing this content. This piece provides a lot of tangible insight on the experiences of women who are in the fitness industry who have a day-to-day role in crafting fitness content that is consumed by hundreds of thousands of users. It highlights a lot of the same frameworks that Saraswati explains as the neoliberal self(ie) and provides examples of the ways that women curate content that is inauthentic and misleading.
Dworkin, Shari L. “‘Holding Back’: Negotiating a Glass Ceiling on Women’s Muscular Strength.” Sociological Perspectives, vol. 44, no. 3, 2001, pp. 333–350., https://doi.org/10.1525/sop.2001.44.3.333.
This article analyzes the concept of a glass ceiling within the fitness industry and women’s ability to take part in exercise that is often seen as a male-dominated space. The article looks at how women in fitness seeking strength and personal growth face limitations on the accessibility they have to fitness and the different social barriers that prevent them from achieving a sense of personal success that they strive towards by taking part in the fitness industry. The article looks into the different ways in which women are breaking into the fitness industry and crafting new forms of fitness and redefining what it means to be muscular and strong. Finally, the article provides a commentary on how women in fitness are questioning gender stereotypes and challenging the heteronormative practices that play out in western society.
Dworkin, Shari L., and Faye Linda Wachs. “From Women’s Sports and Fitness to Self.” Body Panic: Gender, Health, and the Selling of Fitness, New York University Press, New York, 2009, pp. 144–154.
This chapter of Body Panic looks into women’s performance in sports and fitness and the impacts of Third Wave Feminism on how women approach the industry and the different practices that women have taken on since the late 20th century. The chapter draws a contrast between new feminism’s push towards individuality and self-help and the system of capitalism that traps individuals in a concert of consumption that aids and hinders women’s position in fitness. The chapter also touches on how fitness is a marker of accessibility and privilege that only certain women have access to. This section of the book emphasizes how the rise of commodity feminism have structured the way that women approach health and fitness. This piece is a really compelling analysis of how the media and capitalist practices have impact the ways that women associate themselves with exercise and how putting women on the face of the fitness industry is a double sided sword that both amplifies their space in the industry but also further commodifies and objectifies them in ways that take away from the empowerment that attempt to grab from fitness and instead subjects them to the male gaze and its hold.
Jenny Fitness, director. Full Legs for the Gains. TikTok, 4 Feb. 2022, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdsfFnTm/?k=1. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.
This video is a 30-second explanation of one fitness influencer’s leg workout at the gym that she has shared with her audience to gain exposure to different audiences and share information about fitness and strength. The woman in the video is wearing tight athletic leggings and the video features slow motion shots with the camera angled directly on the woman’s buttocks. Although the video appears to just share fitness and workout information, it actually provides a great exemplification of the objectification of women and the pressures of women to fulfill the male gaze within the fitness industry. I plan to use this as a form of media evidence to support my argument that women are submissive to the male gaze power dynamics that have permeated into the fitness industry and form a social pressure or necessity on women to project themselves in certain ways in order to gain social and erotic capital from those who view and interact with their videos.
Mercado-Lopez, Larissa. “Who Gets to Be Fit? Working Out the Intersections of Fitness.” Girls Gone Strong, 4 Oct. 2020, https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/blog/articles/intersectionality-of-fitness/.
This opinion piece written by Larissa Mercado-Lopez analyzes the intersectionality of identities within fitness and the exclusivity that projects itself in the industry. The author explains how women of color, overweight women, and women that do not fit into the Eurocentric beauty standards of Western society find themselves being excluded from representation within the fitness industry. The article questions the different body types that are advertised or portrayed when you search fitness on Google and the exclusivity of the industry in various settings. The author provides an overview of intersectionality and how womanhood is shaped by various identities aside from gender that are often forgotten or erased within fitness. This piece will provide a super useful personal narrative and explanation of intersectionality in the fitness industry and will aid in my analysis of how different women are represented within the fitness industry and the social pressures that may prevent certain women from entering fitness in general.
Pridgett, Tamara. “The Fitness World Is Overwhelmingly White, Skinny, and Blonde – and We Need to Fix That.” Teen Vogue, Teen Vogue, 18 July 2016, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/fitness-racism-diversity-serena-williams.
Rose, Caraline, director. Muscles Do Not = Masculine. TikTok, 27 Feb. 2022, https://www.tiktok.com/@caralinerosefit/video/7069503422751362346?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=6984018340663739910. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.
This video shows a female fitness trainer who is very muscular wearing a hot pink prom dress in the bathroom of her home. She is posing in front of the camera and showing off the dress while simultaneously flexing her muscles to show off the work that she has been doing to strengthen her physique. In the background of the video’s audio, you can hear the girl’s mother say to stop flexing. The girl ignores what her mother says and continues to smile towards the camera. The video is captioned Muscles Do Not = Masculine. This video provides a strong commentary on the perpetuation of the male gaze and how both men and women can be perpetrators within the system. Women can and often do police other women to fulfill the male gaze and identify with gender and heteronormative roles, especially within fitness, as we see with this video example.
Sailors, Pam R., et al. “Core Workout: A Feminist Critique of Definitions, Hyperfemininity, and the Medicalization of Fitness.” IJFAB: International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics, vol. 9, no. 2, 2016, pp. 46–66., https://doi.org/10.3138/ijfab.9.2.46.
This article looks into the ways that women’s place within fitness provokes conversation on feminism and gender/heteronormative practices. The major avenue that this analysis takes in looking at this intersection is by analyzing the medicalization of fitness and the ways in which women’s bodies have been seen as objects needed for labor, reproduction, and satisfaction of men. The article provides a historical overview of women and exercise and the shifts that have taken place that put women in the driver’s seat of their own fitness, even though this self-empowerment falls under the confines of the male gaze nonetheless. This article provides important questions and evidence for how even though there have been major improvements in accessibility to fitness for women, it still pressures women to perform in certain ways that satisfy male-dominated spaces and frameworks. Additionally, it begs the question of who has gained access to this industry and which women are still excluded from the fitness industry and the male gaze in general.
Saraswati, L. Ayu. “The Neoliberal Self(Ie).” Pain Generation: Social Media, Feminist Activism, and the Neoliberal Selfie, New York University Press, New York, 2021.
This chapter is a very interesting analysis of women on social media and how their attempts to pave new roads of empowerment of women and the projection of success as inspiration have shapeshifted into a neoliberal attempt to commodify success and promote the curation of different content in order to project a certain sense of personal growth to other people within their accounts and audiences. The article talks about how different women use social media as a platform for activism and a representation of third wave feminism. However, these women fall into a system of mass culture in which they all curate content to fulfill a certain aesthetic in order to gain social capital on social media and gain traction/following. This chapter is a promising framework for my analysis of the neoliberal impacts of women in fitness and the pressures that female fitness influencers face on social media to curate certain content in order to increase their own social capital, increase their financial capital through brand deals and vlogs, and increase their erotic capital by posting revealing content that pulls at thee desires of the male gaze.
Team Moe, director. How to Avoid Making Your Waist Thick. TikTok, 2022, https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdsyWsJ5/?k=1. Accessed 19 Apr. 2022.
This video portrays a male fitness trainer who provides advice to women on how to avoid having thick abs. The man speaks over photos of a CrossFit trained female who has “thick abs” and states that this is something for women to avoid. He then goes on to share different at home exercises that women can do in order to get a thin waist and presents viewers with a revealing photo of a woman in lingerie that has a slim waist and many curves. The photo, he states, is what a lot of women are looking to get from working out. This video provokes dialogue on how men put women in a position of submission to the male gaze and perpetuate the power of this practice that holds women in a subordinate place within society, subjected to changing and shaping their bodies to satisfy the desires of the men in their lives. Although this video was created to help women, it appears to be another form of evidence that suggests men continue to see women in fitness as objects of male commodification and desire.