We’ve all seen it before: women with arms thin as rails chomping on lettuce to lose weight and men chugging protein shakes to put on muscle mass. You’ve got to wonder why anyone would spend two hours in the gym, doing 1000 crunches a day to get “rock-hard abs,” and why a woman would starve herself halfway to death just to be thin.
It’s no secret that advertising relies on our insecurities to sell products. The fitness industry has made a fortune from women concerned with the shape of their thighs-in the U.S., women make up more than half of the 36 million health club memberships-and men obsessed with attaining chiseled abs.
There is persuasive evidence that the media, in a variety of forms, plays an integral role in perpetuating a distorted body image for men and women. Studies have found that young women who watch four hours of television a day report greater dissatisfaction with their bodies than those who watch an hour or less.
The link between sex and fitness is also instrumental in explaining the strange love-hate relationship that we have with our bodies. Who can forget Jane Fonda in her skin-tight spandex and terry cloth headband sweating it out to Olivia Newton John’s ‘Let’s Get Physical’? From Step Aerobics to Tae Bo to Cardio Striptease, fitness promoters are making millions from marketing an impossible body type as the ultimate sexual ideal, especially to women.
That’s right, stripping is now considered a legitimate cardiovascular workout. Carmen Electra has even put out her own six-DVD set of instructional aerobic striptease films.
I didn’t take issue with it initially. Aerobic striptease, or whatever you call it, seemed like just another ridiculous fitness craze. I assumed that any video that encouraged people to work out was a good thing.
It was not until I learned that my best friend’s 15 year-old sister was learning how to “crawl” erotically on the floor that I grew concerned. I was disturbed that a 13 or 14 year-old girl could learn how to gyrate her hips and pose seductively with her finger in her mouth.
I realized then that the workout had little to do with being fit and more to do with being a sex kitten. The DVD seemed more like an opportunity for Carmen Electra to jut her breasts out at the camera and purse her collagen-enhanced lips.
Consider the effects that a highly sexualized body image has on both men and women. The emphasis is on the body as an object to be admired and adored by others. The focus is on the form rather than the function.
This is part of the reason that athleticism needs to be so important in society. Participation in sports helps men and women appreciate their bodies for what they can do, rather than trying to achieve an unhealthy and impossible standard of beauty.
However, Hollywood works against the idea that being in excellent shape is important for women. Hillary Swank, who put on 20 lbs of solid muscle for her role in Million Dollar Baby, groaned about “wanting her old body back.” She held 112 lbs on a 5’7 frame prior to filming the movie, which is drastically below her recommended height-to-weight ratio.
Demi Moore, who made one-armed push-ups look easy, quickly opted for a more “feminine” look after her rigorous army training for G.I. Jane. Hollywood demands that female actors be thin, lithe, and highly stylized.
This impossible ideal has devastating effects for men and women. Eating disorders are most common among females aged 15-24, with anorexia nervosa estimated to affect 1 per cent of the female population and 0.1 per cent of the male population. Further, two out of every five college-aged women suffer from bulimia. These figures would be much lower if there wasn’t constant pressure on society to be unhealthily thin.
Even without clinical diagnosis, I have yet to encounter a woman who doesn’t worry about the number of calories a piece of chocolate cake has or that looks forward to swimsuit shopping. Men also feel the pressure to bulk up and develop well-defined abs, pecs or any other arbitrary body part. While the emphasis on looks is not as obvious for men, there is still pressure to be a physical specimen like Hulk Hogan or Arnold, governor, Schwarzenegger.
How much longer are we going to keep punishing ourselves?
