On Fitness Culture
Image: Unsplash
“I don’t work out to lose weight,” my friend declared. I watched as eyebrows raised and surprised faces looked back at my friend. For a lot of folks, especially women, a very particular messaging about the relationship between body weight, health and happiness manages our relationships with our bodies. Fitness has been sold to us as a lifestyle for decades. Now, with social media, fitness culture is inescapable and so are the discriminatory practices that shape the phenomenon. Outdated measurements of health, including but not limited to the Body Mass Index (BMI), are intrinsically tied to racism and the impacts of colonization.
“I do enjoy going to the gym, especially when I’m alone and have my music in. It helps me get into the zone, but also block out a lot of preconceived notions of health that often discourage me from regularly working out. At first me wanting to work out did start off as part of a weight loss goal but I’ve since started focusing on the gym as an outlet to work on my mental health,” said Anjali* 27, who emphasized the different reasons for wanting to work out. On social media, snippets of fitness culture regularly creep into your phone screen. While the before and after images are inspiring, the realistic representation of the non-linear nature of remaining active is often missing. Further, the impacts of racism and capitalism on our commitment to this certain ‘lifestyle’ are not properly unpacked in the white dominant industry.
“It’s hard to keep on track, especially when you aren’t wealthy. People forget that a lot of what we see online is because those folks have money and the time to commit to this lifestyle. When you grow up in poverty and remain working class, work takes up a lot of time. Finding time outside of multiple jobs to dedicate to cooking healthy meals and working out daily is really hard. I don’t think we make that connection enough, especially within racialized communities, we are impacted more by the demands of capitalism in relation to our survival,” said Sharmi* 28, reflecting on her experiences navigating capitalism and the impact it has on her commitment to fitness. The whiteness present in these spaces also seeps into what we understand as the ‘ideal’ body type: thin.
“Fitness culture is extremely toxic. It made me think that I was unhealthy because my body didn’t look like everyone else’s, even though I was active. It took a while for me to understand that being ‘fit’ doesn’t synonymous to being lean,” explained Jen* 29, pointing out the fabricated notion that being thin automatically equals being physically in shape and healthy. “There are a lot of thin people who get away with eating fast food and it almost becomes a personality trait, whereas when someone bigger is seen eating a burger, they are immediately judged for their eating habits. Never mind if there are other socio-economic factors that are resulting in these choices,” continued Jen.
The shame and coercion associated with weight loss, especially as it pertains to women, is prevalent in Tamil and South Asian communities. The need to be thin is directly tied to the desire to be closer to whiteness, a notion of looking ‘healthy.’ While, we are bombarded with images of fitness culture on and offline, it is important to remember to be gentle to our bodies.
*Names have been changed upon request for anonymity.
