Health, Appearance and Fitness Practices

Fitness practices related to diet and exercise are culturally linked to both appearance and health and tend to focus more on changing or maintaining the outside of body (appearance) rather than the inside (health).Young Canadian women are inundated with messages from both the public and private sectors about the imperative to be healthy. Many of these messages suggest that getting healthy will change our lives for the better. Four university-educated, middle class, white women; the demographic which is most marketed to by the fitness industry were recruited to take part in a study about how they understand their fitness practices. The data arising from the group shifted the project s focus from fitness toward broader questions about what it means to be healthy in today s culture. In the context of pervasive neoliberal notions of health, my analysis explores some lines of intersection between social class and fitness/health as they relate to discourses of physical and healthism in today s society. My analysis reveals that many young women are negotiating a paradox in that they engage in fitness practices, despite their knowledge of feminist body image critiques.