Fitspirational - NOT!

With the popularity of Crossfit and fitness in the media, there have popped up many tumblr and other websites with inspirational pictures. The term “Fitspirational” has been coined to cover these.

But I’ve noticed a disturbing trend. While the wording may be promoting fitness, the pictures often times are not. It’s an insidious cross message that is harmful to young women and propagating the existing stereotypes of women in the media.

Here are a few examples:



While the sentiment is implying that you should workout hard, look at the girl in the picture. She is skinny and has no muscle definition. If she was really working that hard to be fit, she would build some muscle tone.

Here is another that caught my eye:



This one is especially egregious. This is just a skinny girl with some boxing gloves and fake sweat. Her legs are tiny with no muscle and so are her arms. Again, thin is being portrayed as fit. The part “This is not what fashion models look like” almost made me laugh. This is exactly what fashion models look like if you throw some water on them to look like sweat.

By using models such as these, the idea that girls must be uber thin and have no actual muscle mass is being shown as the ideal. That is what we as fitness lovers want to get away from. I don’t want my daughter to think that just being skinny is healthy. I want her to understand that it is OK to have some muscle. That she should be proud of the hard work she is doing and it is alright to have visible signs of it.

There are real fitness models out there. Think Jamie Eason or Dana Linn Bailey or Annie Thorisdottir.These women have real figures from years of hard work. (Yes, I know Jamie had a boob job, but give her a break she had breast cancer first). These are the images we should be promoting to girls. Notice Jamie has definition in her arms and back. You can't really see her legs well but her quads are awesome.




Too many are indoctrinated to the ones above and are “grossed out” by actual fit women. They have been told that being strong is manly or unattractive. It’s time to stop that ridiculous line of thought. Stop promoting unhealthy body images to our daughters.

That doesn’t even cover the fact that our sons are bombarded by the images as well and brainwashed into thinking that women should be weak, thin, and inactive.

So if you see these “Fitspirational” photos, pay attention to what they are really saying and not just the words. We need to become critics of advertising to put an end to the insanity of crazy beauty ideals.