Why do women exercise? The answer is writ large in women?s magazines, billboard ads, and fitness clubs: you need to exercise to trim down, firm up and get the Ideal Body. And just what is that? That?s defined as young, toned and fit, and it?s pretty much impossible for most of us to achieve. So why don?t we say to heck with it and quit obsessing?
Socio-cultural professor Dr. Pirkko Markula, and an expert in feminism, fitness and women?s attitudes to, and experience of, exercise and dance, says women are bombarded with messages that make them highly critical of their bodies. Worse still, it?s not likely to stop any time soon. ?Many women feel there?s a societal expectation to keep working on their bodies. Even when our partners tell us to stop obsessing, we can?t. Women ? even in their fifties - feel pressured to keep obsessing about beauty and looks and body shape,? says Markula.
A former aerobics instructor and a certified Pilates instructor, Markula, who recently presented her paper ?Affecting Bodies: the formative pedagogy of Pilates? at the Conference of Qualitative Inquiry, looked at fitness centres in commercial settings to understand how instructors ? the front line for us when we go to a fitness class ? were designing their classes and the messages they were conveying to women.
Markula talked to instructors of Pilates, all of them working in commercial settings, and found that though they didn?t want to promote the ideal body through their classes, their clients all wanted tighter thighs, slimmer tummies and toned arms. ?So the instructors were struggling with pleasing the client and trying to focus on the body/mind format at the same time. They put a lot of emphasis on creating good classes and trying to please the client, but they didn?t have the tools to do something differently,? she says.
To see how instructors could change the usual messages women hear in fitness classes, Markula decided to teach a Pilates class with no mention of weight loss or the ideal body but rather focus on the better functioning of the body. Markula?s classes were also taught in a commercial setting to mimic the environment of the instructors she?d interviewed. ?I talked to participants about how Pilates could work to help the body function better in everyday life and how we could make modifications for different bodies and different abilities; (Pilates) was for creating alignment and avoiding neck pain and lower back pain,? she says.
There was a period of adjustment, says Markula. Some felt the class didn?t ?work them hard enough, but after a while they got into it as well and realised their limitations are not to do with the size of their bodies but perhaps with decreased flexibility in the arms, for example. Some had not attended an exercise class where people did not emphasise how ugly your body looks. They found it quite liberating.?
The obsession with the ideal body is a leading culprit in eating disorders, says Markula, noting that the first step to anorexia nervosa or bulimia that require hospitalisation, is body dissatisfaction. Alarmingly, ?In medical studies it shows that 80 percent of women have that,? she says. BID or Body Image Distortion ? in essence the unrealistic and critical way we perceive our bodies and our feelings and thoughts about them ? is a leading cause of eating disorders.
?I have never met a woman who was satisfied with her body. Even models are critical of their bodies. I think the female ideal is so narrowly defined that I don?t see anyone fitting it,? says Markula, adding that high-performance athletes with their already fit, toned and young bodies, are just as much at risk for BID, maybe even more so. ?It?s difficult to talk to people about this,? she says, ?because people get very defensive about it.?
But Markula feels there is a sliver of hope: one of the keys to turning round our obsession with trying to live up to an impossible ideal of female beauty is for the messaging around exercise and what it can do for our bodies, to change. Markula says fitness instructors can play a lead role in orchestrating change by realigning the messages in fitness classes toward the health benefits of exercise instead of focusing on messages about fat loss, burning calories, or working on ?problem areas.?
?Going to the fitness industry is one way (to bring about change), but one needs in some way to tap into the instructor training,? she says. ?I?m hoping to interject myself into instructor training.?
?It?s hard to overcome centuries of stereotyping and the practices that support that,? says Markula. ?There?s a lot of money in the fitness industry, so it is very difficult to change things. But one has to try.?
Socio-cultural professor Dr. Pirkko Markula, and an expert in feminism, fitness and women?s attitudes to, and experience of, exercise and dance, says women are bombarded with messages that make them highly critical of their bodies. Worse still, it?s not likely to stop any time soon. ?Many women feel there?s a societal expectation to keep working on their bodies. Even when our partners tell us to stop obsessing, we can?t. Women ? even in their fifties - feel pressured to keep obsessing about beauty and looks and body shape,? says Markula.
A former aerobics instructor and a certified Pilates instructor, Markula, who recently presented her paper ?Affecting Bodies: the formative pedagogy of Pilates? at the Conference of Qualitative Inquiry, looked at fitness centres in commercial settings to understand how instructors ? the front line for us when we go to a fitness class ? were designing their classes and the messages they were conveying to women.
Markula talked to instructors of Pilates, all of them working in commercial settings, and found that though they didn?t want to promote the ideal body through their classes, their clients all wanted tighter thighs, slimmer tummies and toned arms. ?So the instructors were struggling with pleasing the client and trying to focus on the body/mind format at the same time. They put a lot of emphasis on creating good classes and trying to please the client, but they didn?t have the tools to do something differently,? she says.
To see how instructors could change the usual messages women hear in fitness classes, Markula decided to teach a Pilates class with no mention of weight loss or the ideal body but rather focus on the better functioning of the body. Markula?s classes were also taught in a commercial setting to mimic the environment of the instructors she?d interviewed. ?I talked to participants about how Pilates could work to help the body function better in everyday life and how we could make modifications for different bodies and different abilities; (Pilates) was for creating alignment and avoiding neck pain and lower back pain,? she says.
There was a period of adjustment, says Markula. Some felt the class didn?t ?work them hard enough, but after a while they got into it as well and realised their limitations are not to do with the size of their bodies but perhaps with decreased flexibility in the arms, for example. Some had not attended an exercise class where people did not emphasise how ugly your body looks. They found it quite liberating.?
The obsession with the ideal body is a leading culprit in eating disorders, says Markula, noting that the first step to anorexia nervosa or bulimia that require hospitalisation, is body dissatisfaction. Alarmingly, ?In medical studies it shows that 80 percent of women have that,? she says. BID or Body Image Distortion ? in essence the unrealistic and critical way we perceive our bodies and our feelings and thoughts about them ? is a leading cause of eating disorders.
?I have never met a woman who was satisfied with her body. Even models are critical of their bodies. I think the female ideal is so narrowly defined that I don?t see anyone fitting it,? says Markula, adding that high-performance athletes with their already fit, toned and young bodies, are just as much at risk for BID, maybe even more so. ?It?s difficult to talk to people about this,? she says, ?because people get very defensive about it.?
But Markula feels there is a sliver of hope: one of the keys to turning round our obsession with trying to live up to an impossible ideal of female beauty is for the messaging around exercise and what it can do for our bodies, to change. Markula says fitness instructors can play a lead role in orchestrating change by realigning the messages in fitness classes toward the health benefits of exercise instead of focusing on messages about fat loss, burning calories, or working on ?problem areas.?
?Going to the fitness industry is one way (to bring about change), but one needs in some way to tap into the instructor training,? she says. ?I?m hoping to interject myself into instructor training.?
?It?s hard to overcome centuries of stereotyping and the practices that support that,? says Markula. ?There?s a lot of money in the fitness industry, so it is very difficult to change things. But one has to try.?