Let's Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercise and Reshaped the World
Thomas added
Greif situates fitness culture at the nexus of several contemporary threads: the relentless quantification of everything, the drive to optimize the self, the decline of public space—and, of course, “wellness,” as the concept has come to be known. We all want to be “well,” or should want to, at least. But why?
Matter
alexi gunner added
On social media, the fitness journey is rarely the purview of men. Instead, it is a deliberate repackaging of weight loss, adding an emotional element.To carve out a new body from the one that previously served you is good for the physical but also for the mental. You will be fine, of course, if you live in the body you currently inhabit, but would... See more
Attention Required! | Cloudflare
Alex Burns added
But there’s a darker, more menacing side to the preoccupation with fitness, and this is the widespread suspicion that if you can’t control your own body, you’re not fit, in any sense, to control anyone else, and in their work lives that is a large part of what typical gym-goers do.
Barbara Ehrenreich • Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer
At a moment when we’re compelled to rethink nearly every aspect of our lives, championing a simpler, accessible, and more sustainable approach to physical activity—not just exercise—could have a lasting impact on public health, beyond those who are already fit.
Joe Vennare • Fitness, But Make It Free
sari added
Okay, so exercise is paradoxical: salubrious but abnormal, intrinsically free but highly commodified, a source of pleasure and health but a cause of discomfort, guilt, and opprobrium. Why did this realization motivate me to write this book? And why might you wish to read it?