Disempowering Vs Exercise Culture Essay

Individuals go through a process, called socialization, by which they internalize the values, beliefs, and norms of a given society and learn to function as members of that society (Conley 118). In the essay, “Out-of-body Image” by Caroline Heldman the reader is exposed to a contemporary problem that women face in the modern world of consumerism. Heldman is effective in making her call to action in regards to the problem of self-objectification that has emerged through mass media by targeting women through an amalgamation of logical, ethical, and emotional appeals. Heldman’s purpose in writing the essay was to not only inform the reader of the current predicament that women face, but to make an effective call to action in which women

Introduction Figueroa’s framework was developed by Professor Peter Figueroa it is a tool used to investigate “issues and ideas surrounding equity, access and equality in exercise, sport and physical activity.” (Amezdroz, 2010). Equity in sport is where no matter what race or gender you are you are equal. Access is whether it is easy or hard to attend training, fields or games. There are five levels in the framework; individual, interpersonal, institutional, structural and cultural.

The human body has always been idealized in society. From cultural expectations to body image stereotypes, women of all centuries have struggled with the need to fit the idealized mold of the prefect wife, adoring mother, and even the ideal woman. Renée Cox, a photo and mixed media artist, is one of the most controversial women to incorporate the body into her work today. In Cox’s work Hott-En-Tot (Robertson 107), Cox shows the relationship between her own culture and the stereotypes that it projects onto the body.

Although these are not the most traditional workout styles, my mission is to help students see that working out can be enjoyable and to highlight the importance of

Introduction In high school, students are very outgoing and opinionated. They believe that their rights are just as equal to adults. Even though the Fourteenth Amendment connected the bridge between the school and student rights with the results of Brown v. Board of Education, it is the First Amendment that the students express more of at the high school level. During their adolescent years the students voice more opinions, express their desires, and tend to rebel.

In the essay by Yusufali, she boldly writes: "[By] reading popular teenage magazines, you can find out what kind of body image is "in" or "out"' (page 52). By this, Yusufali explains how women

With softball, gymnastics, dance, track, volleyball, basketball, and swimming, my shoulders have widened and my muscles have developed to an extent that may seem masculine to many. The fact that I’m genetically thick-boned does not help. While I will probably never be happy with the fact that I can’t be petite framed, Greer’s words are liberating to read as a break from our society’s impossible

On top of this backlash, female athletes who do not feel the need for or oppose sexualization face disapproval from fellow athletes. People and critiques argue that female athletes should just lighten up and seize the opportunity to glorify their bodies while raising awareness for women’s sports, as having such opportunities should be a source of pride rather than shame. As female athletes who oppose sexualization are confronted with criticism from society and their peers, they lose support, money, and camaraderie, seemingly leaving them no choice but to comply with the media’s actions. Because sex appeal holds such a substantial influence in today’s society, female athletes who challenge the media’s sexualization does grant female athletes more publicity, by concentrating on sex appeal instead of athleticism and skill, the media fail to adequately reflect the athletes’ accomplishments. Studies have found that although the media may be trying to emphasize the athletes’ heterosexuality and femininity along with their athleticism, they only further distance the image of women athletes from athletic competence.

The wellness of a human being has been broken down into five sections. These sections are: emotional wellness, intellectual wellness, physical wellness, social wellness and spiritual wellness. I think my strongest section for my personal wellness is my emotion, intellect and physical wellness. However, my weakest sections are social wellness and spiritual wellness. I believe that my emotional wellness is my strongest section.

The rhetorical imagery used to portray a man's body is spread throughout the fitness industry and health advertisements. These images are on the cover of well-known magazines, online websites and through television commercials. Fitness magazines and advertisements are distributed worldwide targeting men, ages 18-30. Fitness magazines give a visual rhetoric as a method of persuading beauty, body image, and the pursuit of “flawlessness”. The company’s focus on young adults due to their belief that their consumers have the money to buy products to obtain the body they want or the body portrayed on the cover of the magazine.

In Princess Culture, Orenstein claims that girls find athletics unfeminine and even claims, “ the 23 percent decline in girls participation in sports between middle and high school has been linked to their sense that athletics is unfeminine” (329). Orenstein here supports her claim with a stat saying that almost a quarter of all girls stop taking part in any sport activity because they think it's unfeminine and unattractive to them. Orenstein goes on with a survey that found that, “ School age- girls reported a paralyzing pressure to be “perfect”: not only to get straight A’s and be the student body president, but also to be “kind and caring” (329). Orenstein uses a hyperbole, when she uses the phrase “paralyzing pressure” to describe the mental exhaustion that girls go through daily to feel satisfied with what they’re doing with their time. This in turn means girls have overwhelmingly high expectations from their mindset to be flawless in every which way possible.

Fantastic Fitness is a place of “public accommodation” whose services are generally open to the public. Fantastic Fitness is demanding an exemption from the law because women have expressed a religious and private desire to exercise in a private room separate from men. Additionally, Fantastic Fitness has a policy of restricting special fitness equipment to men over the age of twenty-five so that “. . . no one is injured using the special equipment.” A three-tiered analysis will be applied to examine whether the law (1) is generally valid to businesses open to the public, (2) if the law is a legitimate use of Columbia County’s police powers, and (3) if Columbia County is obligated to exempt Fantastic Fitness from the law based on age, sex, privacy, and religious grounds.

From an early age, we are exposed to the western culture of the “thin-ideal” and that looks matter (Shapiro 9). Images on modern television spend countless hours telling us to lose weight, be thin and beautiful. Often, television portrays the thin women as successful and powerful whereas the overweight characters are portrayed as “lazy” and the one with no friends (“The Media”). Furthermore, most images we see on the media are heavily edited and airbrushed

As a student, I always find myself stressed about things like homework, tests, due dates, grades, rent, and all other sorts of college-related problems. When I start to feel overwhelmed by all of the noise of being a young college student, I turn to the one thing that gives me the greatest sense of purpose and inner piece; weightlifting. For me, a weightlifting session is a form of meditation, a time when I can be by myself and truly find inner peace. There is no better feeling to me when I enter a gym with a planned and detailed workout in mind. The feeling of anticipation and readiness to vent out my stress gives me the motivation to hit a workout hard.

Introduction “The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity” from Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body by Susan Bordo (1993) introduces the discourses around the female body, and the different perspectives that influence this body. She goes on to explain that the body is a medium for culture, from which contemporary societies can replicate itself. In addition, Bordo (1993) provides continuous insight on how women have changed throughout the years to be more within societies norms, and how they have transformed so much to manage their bodies to becoming desirable within the culture. Throughout this essay, I will be explaining how women have for centuries, used there bodies as a means to rebel against these norms that have been placed upon them, such as being a typical housewife. For years, women have been discriminated against and unable to speak their opinion.