For those of you who haven’t heard of it (you lucky souls), the term “fitspiration” is a movement started to supposedly promote fitness, mainly for women. On the surface, it seems like a positive idea. Promoting a healthy lifestyle? Posting pictures of girls working out and being healthy? Awesome! Let’s do it!
But…not so fast, ladies and gents. That’s just what these fitspiration enthusiasts want you to think.
On the surface, it seems harmless. But this movement is too similar to another internet movement: thinspiration. This movement promotes women being skinny (something new), and they encourage women to develop eating disorders to achieve their narrow perception of “beauty.” Sure, at least fitspiration encourages fitness, but it doesn’t promote a healthy lifestyle.
Fitspiration crosses the line, showing that women are, as always in advertising, only physical beings. While now the women are lean and working out, they are still only bodies, and nothing more. They work out to get attention and to feel worth something. Again, it’s the dangerous idea that women are only worth what they have on the outside.
Working out should be about health, and feeling good on the inside as well as the outside. Fitspiration is just more crap aimed at women to make them feel bad about themselves. The idea of women working out and improving their lives is great, sure, but fitspiration isn’t much better than thinspiration. Both are the same in that they both show a narrow perception of what they think women should look like. They both say, “Hey, here’s what you should look like. This girl.”
“You need to look like HER. Quit eating, (or work out for six hours a day), and MAYBE, just maybe, you can look half as good as she does. Good luck!”
How is that inspirational?
On the website The Great Fitness Movement, in an article written by Charlotte Hilton Andersen, she says, “Fitspo may be thinspo in a sports bra.” I could not agree more with that statement. Both fitspiration and thinspiration are telling women that, above all, our looks are most important. We must also devote our lives to perfecting our bodies, at all costs. These “inspiration” movements are promoting obsessive habits. Fitspiration promotes “fitness” in dangerous ways, and it continues the trend of making women feel bad about themselves. It does more harm than good.
While I’m all in favor of working out and improving your health, women also need to have a healthy self esteem. Fitspiration is doing nothing to empower women, so I think it’s a movement that should be stopped. A nonprofit online magazine called Libero Network was started to help support people recovering from eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. Libero Network promotes healthy lifestyles, and brings awareness to the dangers of the fitspiration movement. This online magazine started the “Stop Fitspiration” movement. With March being National Women’s History Month, I think it’s perfect timing to start promoting HEALTHY lifestyles for women, not obsessive-cumpulsive eating and work out habits.
Women want to be empowered and loved for their minds, not their bodies. Let’s put an end to thinspiration, fitspiration, and anything that’s out there tearing women down.
Humyn 
I don’t want the mother of my children to have a rock hard torso, bad for the babies back 😉
Jokes aside, I agree with you completely, the same applies to guys as well, there is a big push that a man with a shaved chest and six pack abs is how they come.
That’s funny! Exactly, men have to deal with the same thing. There are standards of what advertisers say people are supposed to look like.
Which really ticks me off. Then again, when that is what the ladies want, I’m at a disadvantage! Haha
Nice! It is frustrating that there is always a focus on appearance, and the media bombards us with how important our looks are.
Meh, I like being lazy 🙂
I enjoy being lazy sometimes, too! But I like to think of it as “relaxing.” 🙂
Haha I have the first picture up on my instagram, like minds;) Fit bodies are way sexier than skinny bodies.
xx
Rakhi
That’s funny! It is a good picture, and a nice idea. I think it has good intentions, as long as it’s not going too far.
Well of course not female body builder strong lol but within reasonable means
Yes, very true!
YES THIS. I’m very much over the “fittie” “fitspo” and “fitfam” movements. The behaviors are obsessive, and last time I checked real, bona fide obsessions never really get a person far. How about body positivity at all fitness levels for a change?
Exactly! I understand the idea of wanting to promote working out and being healthy, but I don’t like the obsessive habits that seem to go hand-in-hand with fitspiration. And why do we all want to look like that, anyway? As long as we’re healthy and happy, that’s what matters.
Yep, bravo at the moment fewer Americans want to lose weight while obesity rates are at an all time high. A little excerpt from a recent article: “In fact, the rising percentages of people who are overweight and obese may partly explain why so many Americans consider themselves to be at a normal weight, said Dr. Holly Lofton, the director of the Medical Weight Management Program at New York University Langone Medical Center.
Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, putting people who are in the “normal” weight range in the minority, Lofton told Live Science. (A “normal” weight range means the individual has a BMI that’s between 18.5 and 24.9.)” http://www.livescience.com/53225-americans-shifting-attitudes-weight-loss.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Livesciencecom+%28LiveScience.com+Science+Headline+Feed%29 I guess it is a great victory for Tumblr and all the Body Positive movement, The Future looks so bright every body being in his safe-space and entitled to his coomfort zone. https://youtu.be/iKcWu0tsiZM