I’m simply going to say it: It’s time to cease viewing well being and health via the lens of males. We want extra feminism in health.
Renowned American sociologist Allan Johnson stated, “A society is patriarchal to the degree that it promotes male privilege by being male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered.”
For too lengthy, well being and health narratives have been dominated by a slim, problematic perspective—one which facilities the wants and needs of white, heterosexual, cisgender males.
The time period patriarchy refers to a social system the place males management a disproportionately massive share of social, financial, political, and non secular energy.
Patriarchal methods ignore points distinctive to girls, like lack of paid parental go away and poor maternal healthcare and help. They additionally normalize gender-based violence and management over girls’s reproductive rights.
For generations, girls’s well being and health has been considered via the lens of eating regimen tradition—the assumption that having a skinny physique is wholesome and consequently, that these in bigger our bodies are unhealthy.
The roots of eating regimen tradition grew out of the patriarchy. In the late 18th and early nineteenth centuries, spiritual white Christian males publicly equated deprivation with well being and well being with morality. During the time of slavery within the U.S., white supremacy intertwined with the assumption that smaller our bodies (learn: white our bodies) equaled goodness, whereas bigger our bodies (learn: African our bodies) have been morally inferior.
Now, eating regimen tradition is perpetuated by capitalism. Think about it: everybody and their mom is promoting one thing to make our our bodies thinner, and it’s a multibillion-dollar trade.
Media and standard tradition have strengthened patriarchal norms by perpetuating gender stereotypes and objectification—particularly the assumption that for ladies, thinness is morally superior, “healthier,” and subsequently extra fascinating to males.
From a younger age, ladies are taught to pursue a bodily look that’s enticing to white, heterosexual males at any value. As adults, girls are then continually bought merchandise and applications that proceed to advertise a bodily superb moderately than selling real well being. This is how the patriarchy hijacks girls’s well being.
The Patriarchy and it Impact on the Fitness Industry
The underrepresentation of girls in sports activities media and the truth that feminine athletes, in addition to health consultants obtain much less protection—or protection that emphasizes look over achievement—has been a sizzling subject for the previous 5–10 years.
But there are a lot of covert methods the patriarchy influences the trade. Let’s take a look at a couple of.
The Patriarchy Says Positive Fitness Results Are Different for Men and Women
Look at well being and health magazines, media, and applications for males—what end result are they promoting? Now, take a look at those for ladies—what end result are they promoting?
It’s not the identical, is it? Apparently, if girls are wholesome and match, they’re lithe, dainty, and skinny. Meanwhile, males are inspired to get greater and acquire seen muscle mass. The notion that males ought to be sturdy whereas girls are small permeates many features of society, however it’s most clearly seen within the gymnasium.
When I inform somebody what I do, they often assume I assist folks shed extra pounds. That’s as a result of most of us have grown up with patriarchal, diet-culture-driven beliefs about what well being and health imply and appear like.
I used to be really rejected from a podcast interview about former authorized professionals and their new gigs as a result of the host (who didn’t know me) didn’t wish to discuss eating regimen and train resulting from her personal historical past with disordered consuming behaviors. She ASSUMED I’m a weight reduction/eating regimen coach with out ever talking to me or my web site.
And that’s the place we at the moment are—folks suppose “women’s health and fitness” means shedding weight. I get why.
Fitness magazines and advertisements perpetuate this by steadily depicting idealized, male-approved feminine our bodies, reinforcing slim magnificence requirements. Additionally, most health magazines concentrate on weight reduction for ladies moderately than muscle acquire by selling crazy-low-calorie diets and solely utilizing tiny pink weights as a substitute of consuming to gasoline your physique and lifting heavy.
This framework urges girls to shrink themselves, each bodily and metaphorically. For many, train and meals grow to be instruments of punishment and management moderately than empowerment—withholding meals and over-exercising as penance for so-called “bad” conduct.
My good friend and colleague Steph Gaudreau stated on this podcast episode:
“We have this constantly being reinforced from a very young age—that if we look the part, if we look a certain way like these body ideals and beauty ideals, we will be more worthy, that we will be better people. And it is absolutely a tool of the patriarchy.”
Women are anticipated to be each shoppers of health content material and the aesthetic show, moderately than energetic, empowered contributors.
I’ve been teaching folks for 15 years. And in all that point, I’ve by no means had a male shopper say to me:
- “I want to be stronger, faster, and fitter but I don’t want to gain any weight.”
- “Damn it, I feel great, but I’m so pissed that I’ve gained 8 pounds.”
- “I’m crushing my workouts, but we really need to cut my calories because I think I’m gaining weight.”
At least as soon as per week, I hear these statements from my feminine shoppers.
And this overemphasis on bodily transformation and aesthetics over total well being and practical power negatively impacts girls’s well being.
🔹 A 2016 research of feminine leisure exercisers discovered that just about HALF have been in danger for low power availability (not consuming sufficient to cowl day by day calorie wants).
🔹 A 2009 survey of 4,023 girls confirmed that roughly 3 out of 4 recurrently have interaction in disordered consuming and train patterns.
🔹 That similar 2009 survey additionally discovered that 53% of girls making an attempt to shed extra pounds have been already at a wholesome weight however have been nonetheless making an attempt to lose extra.
This is MADNESS.
Women, we’re holding ourselves again by listening to this patriarchal messaging.
Fitness isn’t equated with small dimension or low physique weight for males. And it shouldn’t be for us both. We deserve higher.
Men’s Issues Are Openly Discussed, While Women’s Are “Gross”
Many girls view gyms as a “man’s world.” And I get it—as a result of let’s be actual: males have been snug sweating profusely, grunting loudly, scratching their balls, and being unapologetically themselves in public health areas. Meanwhile, girls’s well being points—intervals, bladder leaks, menopause signs—are dismissed as taboo.
The patriarchal strategy to well being and health has led to the assumption that feminine our bodies are gross or shameful. As a outcome, many ladies have discovered it’s “too much information” to say their interval, bladder leaks throughout exercise, sore or full breasts whereas breastfeeding, perimenopause signs, or poor physique picture to their coach or coach.
But it ought to be your coach’s job that will help you navigate these points.
The drawback? Women usually don’t really feel protected bringing them up.
And that’s an enormous loss—as a result of all of those are actual, related elements in girls’s well being, wellness, and health. They’re not simply “normal”; they’re obstacles {that a} certified coach can (and will) aid you work via.
The longer we refuse to speak brazenly concerning the struggles girls face, the much less help girls will obtain.
Women’s Barriers to Better Health and Fitness Are Ignored
Despite the truth that girls make up two-thirds of private coaching shoppers, the well being and health trade continues to disregard the quite a few systemic points and social determinants of well being that disproportionately have an effect on girls and menstruating people.
Women usually carry the lion’s share of duty for youths, the household unit, and getting old mother and father. That makes attending to the gymnasium more durable for ladies than their male companions.
One easy means we might assist? Offer reasonably priced childcare at gyms.
Women cope with further bodily challenges, too:
- Menstrual cycles deliver shifts in power, temper, and efficiency.
- Pregnancy and postpartum restoration can contain core weak point, diastasis recti, and long-term modifications.
- Perimenopause may cause temper swings, sleep disturbances, fatigue, and joint ache which can be usually misunderstood and dismissed.
- Pelvic flooring dysfunction and urinary leaks throughout train are frequent however not often mentioned.
These data gaps in coaches and trainers are perpetuated by the truth that private trainers usually are not often educated to assist their shoppers cope with these points as a result of certifications that cowl girls’s experiences are nonetheless non-compulsory.
And it goes past certifications.
For many years, girls have been excluded from scientific research. Medical and sports activities analysis targeted nearly solely on male physiology, which implies we have now large data gaps relating to supporting girls’s distinctive well being wants.
Consider this: Erectile dysfunction therapies are simply accessible on-line—usually with out even seeing a physician. Meanwhile, girls of their 40s wrestle to search out medical professionals who perceive perimenopause, not to mention supply options for the life-disrupting signs that include it.
The Gym Environment and Culture Can Feel Hostile For Women
Unlike boys, ladies usually are not sometimes launched to the load room at a younger age. By the time they attain maturity, girls are uncomfortable in what they’ve at all times felt was a spot ”for the boys.”
Many girls additionally really feel intimidated by the hyper-competitive, masculine power of gyms. Some keep away from the free weights part altogether. I’ve even seen girls have tools taken mid-set by a person who assumed she wouldn’t want the barbell, plate clips, or different “serious” gear.
Additionally, harassment, objectification, and commenting on folks’s our bodies are nonetheless pervasive issues in male-dominated gyms the place “boys will be boys” conduct remains to be tolerated.
Meanwhile, many high decision-making roles in gyms, sports activities organizations, and well being firms are nonetheless held by males—who usually ignore girls’s views and disrespect their distinctive experiences when planning and managing gyms.
So How Do We Fix It?
If the patriarchy has hijacked well being and health, feminism is the instrument we use to take it again.
A feminist strategy to well being and health challenges and transforms the trade by addressing systemic biases and prioritizing inclusive, evidence-based practices.
What Is Feminism?
At its core, feminism is about fairness—political, financial, private, and social. It acknowledges that fashionable societies prioritize male views and that girls face systemic injustice because of this.
Throughout historical past, feminist actions have fought to:
- Break down gender stereotypes
- Improve instructional, skilled, and private alternatives for ladies
- Secure rights like voting, proudly owning property, incomes equal pay, and accessing acceptable healthcare
- Challenge societal requirements round girls’s look and bodily capabilities
- Ensure entry to contraception and protected, authorized abortions
- Protect girls and ladies from sexual assault, harassment, and home violence
Within well being and health, feminism reminds us that girls need to be seen, heard, and supported—with out being diminished to how we glance or how nicely we match into subjective magnificence requirements.
Why Does Feminism Matter in Health and Fitness?
The customary health trade strategy is one-size-fits-all.
But girls’s experiences—bodily, emotionally, and socially—are vastly totally different from males’s. It’s time we acknowledge that.
And the obstacles to well being and health are extra important for ladies than males—particularly as we age.
In addition to the problems I’ve raised on this piece, listed below are a couple of different issues that the trade sometimes ignores concerning the experiences of girls:
- Lack of female-specific teaching and applications that account for ladies’s altering wants and priorities all through their lifespans
- Limited entry to reasonably priced childcare makes discovering time to work out more durable
- Appearance strain leads girls to really feel too self-conscious to go to the gymnasium
- Women’s activewear usually prioritizes fashion over performance ( you, see-through leggings and skimpy tops)
- Limited restoration because of the stress of getting a lot on their plates—girls sacrifice relaxation, which is crucial for well being and health (no, we do NOT all have the identical 24 hours in a day)
We know higher now although. It’s time to do higher.
Our Feminist Approach
At my firm, Miles To Go Athletics, which owns Fit Bottomed Girls, we imagine everybody deserves the very best attainable customary of bodily and psychological well being—free from gender stereotypes and discrimination.
That contains transgender, nonbinary, and cisgender people—anybody who’s been harmed by the historically white, straight, male-centric lens of the health trade.
To be clear:
- We imagine trans girls are girls.
- We welcome nonbinary and trans people who menstruate, expertise being pregnant, or navigate menopause.
- We are creating house for anybody who shares these lived experiences, even when we use totally different pronouns.
Our mission – at each Miles To Go Athletics and Fit Bottomed Girls – is to shine a light-weight on the challenges girls – and people of any gender identification with comparable experiences – face and create inclusive, supportive well being and health environments the place everybody can thrive.
The Future of Fitness Is Feminist
Let’s get one factor straight: The conventional health trade wasn’t constructed for us.
It was constructed by males. For males.
We’re finished making an attempt to squeeze ourselves right into a system that doesn’t give a rattling about our lived experiences.
The well being and health trade has centered the wants and needs of males for too lengthy—whereas leaving girls and different marginalized teams to suit themselves into methods that have been by no means made for us.
We can construct one thing higher—one thing that honors the complexities of our our bodies, helps us via each life stage, and prioritizes power, well being, and pleasure over punishing and perfecting to realize male-centric aesthetics.
Feminism offers us the framework. Now it’s as much as us to make use of it.
Ready to interrupt up with patriarchal health tradition for good?
✨ Start by questioning what you’ve been taught about well being, health and success.
✨ Seek out coaches, applications, and communities that prioritize your distinctive wants—not outdated beliefs.
✨ Advocate for actual change within the areas you occupy, whether or not it’s your gymnasium, office, or dwelling.
And if you need help from a group and coaches which can be already doing the work?
Come be a part of us in our app-based coaching group, Stronger365. We’re not right here to play by the outdated guidelines. We’re right here to burn the entire rattling rulebook.
This is health programming that works along with your physique, not in opposition to it.
Fitness that truly accounts for various life levels, stress, caregiving, and the million different issues girls and marginalized of us are juggling.
Fitness that helps you get sturdy sufficient to deal with actual life—and nonetheless have power left over for pleasure.
Join us for less than $19 in your first month right here.
Because the way forward for health belongs to all of us. And it begins now. Join us! —Alison