Written originally for Women’s Studies, a Stage 2 subject, during 2005.

“Are Fitness Centres really Beauty Myth promoters in disguise? How might this be changed?

“Today young women are still bombarded with images of thin, beautiful women held up as ideals. They appear in magazines, on television, in films, and on public billboards. Byt when young women look at such images, what do they see? Do they see themselves and their friends? Or do they see an unreal and impossible standard of beauty?”

Through the media, body image has become one of the most talked about issues of modern times; spawning heated arguments the world over through books, lectures and even support groups. Yet, it’s because of the media itself that body image has become such a giant issue, with many blaming the medium for the alarming rate of females wanting to change their body size. And, when people want to lose weight, where do they go? A fitness centre. Quite possibly, fitness centers are one of the biggest perpetrators of enforcing the “beauty myth”.

Firstly, to understand how fitness centers fit into the equation, we must try to comprehend why people want to lose weight in the first place. Obviously, there is the reason to be healthy; as everyone knows, regular exercise will ensure that your health is at an adequate level. But, while the want to exercise comes from us, the push to exercise comes from an open influence – everything that we see on television, in magazines. We are taught from an early age that to be slim is to be beautiful – with mostly skinny people shown on television, we are made to believe that being thin is the “norm”. If we aren’t part of the “norm”, then we are faced with the scenario of being social outcasts. And, while this does affect men in some ways, it doesn’t affect them as much as it does females. It’s almost as if these images target female, specifically. Overweight women are also shown as the jokes of society;

“Movies and television programs regularly feature thin women; when overweight women appear, they are subjects for scorn and humor. Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Roberts, who are very slender actresses, wore “fat suits” in recent films to show their characters before they lost weight – when they are usually the butt of jokes … The message is very clear, and it is not being lost on young women: Perfect features and body are crucial to happiness.”

So, with females afraid of becoming what society shuns, they feel as if they have no choice but to head off to the gym. Going to a fitness centre and working out has become the new chic thing to do, almost a new form of socializing than actual fitness. The recent outburst of women attending gyms can be traced back to 1999 when the television series Sex and The City premiered – with all women in the show, at one time or another, portrayed as being active members of a gym. All four of the main female characters have slender figures.

Corporations control the media, and the media, in a sense, control the public through such prominent advertisements that it could almost be called brainwashing.

“… the billion-dollar brainwash was created by deliberately teaching women of all sizes to hate their bodies. And three Big Lies underpin the entire process: 1. that fatness is the worst cultural catastrophe possible for women; 2. that obesity must be voluntary because slenderness is available to all who pursue it with sufficient diligence and money; and 3. that the sole cause of all “excess” weight it therefore despicable self-indulgence. Brainwashing the entire population to unquestioningly accept these lies paves the way for stigmatizing Fat Chicks – and guarantees that women of all sizes will frantically spend money on products that promise escape from that punishment.”

In every television commercial that is shown in Australia for a fitness centre, there are no “full-figured” women who make an appearance. What kind of message is this giving the women of Australia? It promotes the idea that if fitness equals beauty, then fitness can only be acquired by those individuals who are already beautiful. This mentality could easily be diminished and, quite possibly, vanquished by the simple inclusion of larger women in their advertisement campaigns. This would show the patrons of fitness centers who use them for their true purpose; to become fit. Not to lose weight to impress society or to socialize, but to feel good about yourself and to enhance your level of fitness and well being.

I could even go as far as to say that fitness centers aren’t just “Beauty Myth promoters in disguise” – in some cases there is no disguise. In 2003 a gym in Los Angeles called ‘Groove Fitness’ went bankrupt after a string of lawsuits from full figured women who were denied access to this “exclusive” center. They claimed it was because of their weight. This gym was all about image, and to have obese women there would taint that image. This centre even had a DJ who would play songs throughout the day; making it more reminiscent of nightclub than a place where you go to lose weight.

In closing, fitness centers are promoting the beauty myth through their advertisement campaigns and their selective memberships. Since when did getting thin in a gym have the requirement of being thin already?