I'm linking up (a little early this week) with TOTR!
There's one kind of meme that drives me absolutely nuts. It's the "fitspiration" meme. You know the type...it's the meme with a picture of a skimpily dressed body-builder emblazoned with the words "strong is the new skinny".
 |
| Sure, let's shame ourselves and pit women of different body types against each other. Sounds like a plan. |
To me, these are barely a step away from the body shaming of "thinspiration" memes that trumpet the superiority of being thin.
Sometimes fitness memes get it right, but all too often they take on a kind of self-hating tone. They make exercise seem like punishment. They take joy in the pain of accomplishment. And personally, I don't think that stance is healthy at all.
This is the picture that started my rant today. It was posted in one of my running groups and many of the women liked it - and I get that. I understand that fitness can turn you into a new person in a way, physically and mentally. But we shouldn't be discarding the "old us" or fighting the "old us" as if she's an enemy. Why do we feel we have to hate ourselves in order to make positive changes in our lives?
How about this one, that shames your current body and basically suggests you beat it into submission because the way it looks right now is embarrassing and unacceptable?
Or this one, which normalizes the unhealthy idea that pushing yourself to the point of crying, sacrificing form, and
puking is a good, healthy way to work out? Am I a total baby for thinking that you're going overboard if you've pushed yourself to that point? (I know this is a badge of honor for some runners, but I think it's unnecessary and unhealthy.)
Here's an exceptionally bad one...it's borrowing the pro-anorexic phrasing of "nothing tastes as good as thin feels" in an attempt to make it about fitness instead of starvation, but the underlying message is still there.
Some fitspiration does it right. It promotes being healthy and working out for the right reasons, and I wish we saw more of this rather than memes that give credence to the cruel, bullying voices in our heads that tell us we deserve to suffer because our bodies aren't good enough and need to be brutalized and pummeled into shape.
See, this one gets it right. Eating healthful foods and moving our bodies should be about celebrating what we're capable of. It should be about realizing that our bodies are the only one we get, and we want them to keep working - and working
well - into our golden years.
You don't need to hate your body or yourself to strive toward making changes; in fact, I think we get further when we treat ourselves with the respect we deserve. How hard is it to do something that feels like punishment everyday, compared to something that feels like a celebration of our worth and value?
Honestly, if I never saw another one of these types of memes ever again, I'd be happy. Give me motivational blogs and running groups over this tripe any day!
What do you think of fitspirational memes?
ABK
