Here’s a fun quiz we can play!
- Do you want to get fit and feel strong?
2. Do you want to sweat?
3. Do you want to sports?!
4. Do you look like this after a gym session?
5. Now, on a scale of one to ten, how do you feel about yourself right now?
Welcome to the hell that is #fitspo on Instagram. A place of unattainable abs and thigh gaps, from women with come-hither looks, posing for full-body selfies with undies pulled down so far that they’re a bees dick away from flashing their pubic bone.
If I have to look at another ripped ab workout selfie, next to a suite of inspirational quotes telling me to ‘love myself’, I am going to scream so loud it will Lulu your lemon.
When did “fitness” become this?
When did health become so sexualised?
No doubt these women are gorgeous. Beaming with health. They’re playing straight into what Instagram is built for; selling beautiful images, and they are really good at it. Some are successful personal trainers selling a lifestyle brand of empowerment and femininity and health. And while I don’t want to begrudge anyone building a business (that takes serious work), I think it’s interesting to hold these images, this behaviour, this culture up to the light and say ‘why does this make me feel so bad?’
Fitness, to me, is about doing great things of strength and courage and empowerment. It’s about teamwork, sacrifice, the ugly face in the middle of a run or the strain on the eighth pushup. It’s being able to bend and jump and walk up stairs without having a heart attack. The feel of grass under shoes and arms that stretch to shoot baskets and the hot air from in your lungs when you run.
But it’s starting to lose that feeling. Because now, an outside workout looks like this:
Health looks like crotch fruit.
And “motivation” looks like this Instagram accountm, SkinnyGirlsMakeGraves, which actually bills itself as female motivation.
Fun fact: In 2008, psychologists exposed college-age women to fitness-related images in magazines, and then examined their response. Instead of leaping out of their chairs and throwing on their sneakers, they found the opposite. After just 30 minutes of looking at magazine images of fitness, the women reported increased negative mood, depression, and anxiety.
An Australian study in the same year had similar results. Researchers tested women aged 18-35 on the effects of media images of self-objectification. Again, women who viewed advertisements featuring a thin-idealized woman reported self-objectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood, and body dissatisfaction.
And this was almost a decade ago. When people were still reading the occasional magazine.
Now, this magazine of impossible body ideals is in the palm of your hand. These women have millions of followers combined. And there are over 40 million #fitspo images in Instagram just waiting for you to scroll and hover over.
It was actually Stephanie Rice that pushed me over the edge.
Not her, persay. I’m sure she’s a lovely girl. All Olympians I know are. They are women who know more than anyone the pain, sacrifice, pride, camaraderie, strength, and hurt that sport demands of you.
Steph Rice knows what a body can do, just as well as what it looks like. She powered her limbs up and down a pool her whole life to get onto the podium at the Olympics.
And even she is all about the pouty, come-hither look, right down the lens.
Sex sells. I know that. I’m just not sold on it this time.
So I’ve unfollowed.
I’ve unfollowed anyone trying to sell me fitness as sex. I’ve unfollowed anyone trying to sell me health by making me feel worse. It’s not you. You do you. I just need to do me.
So I’m out.
And I have to say, it feels pretty good.
Mamamia Out Loud is the weekly podcast with what women are talking about. Listen to the latest ep here:
Top Comments
I personally think that this "Fitspo"/ Instagram culture is literally poisonous to society. Not only are these images not "real" (many people can take a flattering selfie in good lighting and in a certain pose. I know I myself can transform my body in a selfie into something it isn't just by sucking my stomach in, sticking my bum out, tilting the phone camera at a certain angle that emphasises my bust. And this is BEFORE Photoshop even comes into it), but it promotes narcissism, an obsession with one's appearance, and a need for validation from strangers (measured by the number of followers and "likes" garnered on a post.) Ironically, "fitspo" is far from healthy. I refuse to follow or post any material of this nature for this reason.
I agree, some of these pictures seem oversexualised. That needs to be toned down.
But to the commenters below who are putting these bodies down, I just don't understand. These bodies are amazing! Why do we put down people who devote themselves to creating healthy super fit bodies? And then complain about a 78kg woman on the Biggest Loser because she isn't really that big? Something is wrong in this picture... Something is wrong in society. We make excuses for being big while criticising fit people for being image obsessed.
To the comments focussing on the breast implants - why? They may have got them 10 years ago in a very different stage of their lives. They may have wanted to boost their confidence by getting a breast enlargement. Plenty of women would have altered their image to make themselves happy. Get over it...
The point is these pictures don't depict bodies that have been working like maniacs to drop weight and keep it off. The pictures are just sexy pictures of naturally lean and thin girls that clearly have had boob jobs. It's not inspirational - FITSPO - fit inspiration! It's unattainable and misleading. I really don't think any of these 20 somethings had a boob job done ten years ago.