Aesthetic/affective norms of femininity: An obstacle to women’s performance of exercise

Abstract

Aesthetic/affective norms around femininity could be an obstacle to women’s performance of exercise. Gender differences are significant: women are considerably more inactive than men. In this article we worked with the notion of body image and body affect, with the aim of reflecting on how aesthetic/affective norms around femininity could be an obstacle to women’s performance of exercise in Chile. To understand how these aesthetic/affective norms hinder physical activity, we analyzed media images using a qualitative methodology. The results show that there are four types of female body: extremely thin, thin, fat, and obese. This study explores how affectivity relates to the way in which exercise should be experienced: women must enjoy the actions in order to achieve the ideal body; indeed, they must experience them as pleasant. They should also be performed on a body that feels graceful, fragile, and small. We draw conclusions on the way in which images promote a body affect for the self and for others that becomes a barrier to the performance of female exercise.

Keywords

aesthetics affect body exercise gender media

Introduction

Women’s performance of exercise has emerged as a serious international problem, which shows that social and cultural aspects affect women’s access to, and experience of, different exercise practices (Cortis et al., 2007; McGovern, 2018). From an intersectional perspective (Crenshaw, 1989), Agnes Elling and Annelies Knoppers (2005) express the likelihood that exercise in women has been directly affected by ethnicity, language, and socio-economic position.

In terms of socio-economic position, women exercising is hardly understandable through a single explanatory factor, since there are social dynamics that maintain and promote an unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work. For instance, women perform 75% of unpaid work (Criado Perez, 2019), which is related to a gendered activity (Carini and Weber, 2017). Breger et al. (2019) suggest that spatial and safety conditions produce a gender gap in exercise, if the conditions in which female exercise takes place, and the relation to possible risks such as harassment, abuse, and rape, are of little importance in men’s sport.

In general terms, studies show that there is a transversal gap observed around exercise practice between men and women (Cortis et al., 2007; Elling and Knoppers, 2005; Kwak et al., 2016; Shervey and Diperna, 2017). In analyzing a sport fishing magazine, Carini and Weber (2017) conclude that women are presented as outsiders while men are represented as being active in the sport.

In Chile, where this study was performed, men presented a higher percentage of physical activity than women. While 41% reported that they were doing physical activity with some frequency, only 24% of women reported the same activity level. This is a difference of 17 points (Ministerio del Deporte, Gobierno de Chile, 2016).

In general, the main interpretations used to understand the lack of female exercise are the unequal distribution of unpaid work and the absence of adequate spatial conditions for the development of women’s exercise (World Health Organization, 2002). The focus of this work is on sociocultural expectations, that is, the ideals around which femininity is articulated (Walseth et al., 2015).

Understanding femininity from an aesthetic/affective approach

We understand femininity as something that is done, and not something that only is or exists (Butler, 2007)¹—in other words, as a set of practices that involves, among other things, an aesthetic canon with a particular affectivity attached. In general terms, we define this as a set of rules about the body’s appearance and the way the body should be felt and experienced.

On the aesthetic dimension

The privilege of language and writing in the production of the self has omitted the notion that in our daily practice we perform a series of aesthetic actions related to norms and values:

We stylize our bodies through clothing and fashion, through technical interventions such as piercings, tattoos, and aesthetic surgeries, among others. We decorate our intimate spaces. Although most of the time these are non-verbal actions, they are meaningful because they refer to shared values and norms and imply positions toward them. We do it as a way to identify and diversify from others. These are artistic productions that have the aesthetic effect of creating self (Larrain and Haye, 2019: 19).

Aesthetic practices are essential to the possibility of performing a gender (Butler, 2007). This means that a body must be aesthetically produced to be recognizable as a particular gender. Sandra Lee Bartky (1998) identifies three types of surveillance and body control that are specific to the female body: first, the practices of disciplining body size (mainly through diet and exercise); second, the control of gestures and movements so that they are soft and delicate; and, third, beauty practices that involve the body as an ornamental surface (such as make-up).

On the affective dimension

An interest in inquiring into affectivity has emerged in the last 30 years (Coleman, 2013). Since 1995, two notions or approaches toward affects have prevailed:

Inside-out. This corresponds to the traditional theorizing of affects; affects “are located ‘within’ the body and can be identified as discrete reactions and responses to ‘outside’ influences” (Coleman, 2013: 13). From this perspective, the body is considered as universal, and processes are traced that go from the biological to the sociocultural, where the former is decisive.

From outside to inside (outside-in). This rests importantly on the Deleuzian tradition, where Brian Massumi is one of its main exponents. In this approach, affect is relational and constitutive:

. . .this Deleuzian account of affect argues that it is through the affective relations between things that these things come to take shape, come into being/becoming. As Deleuze says, drawing on Spinoza, a body can be defined in terms of its capacities to “affect [. . .] other bodies, or [be] affected by other bodies (1992:625); it is through these affective relations that bodies are constituted. (Coleman, 2013: 32)

Although there is no consensus regarding the notion of affect (Coleman and Ringrose, 2013), what this perspective opens up is the possibility of theoretically and methodologically considering those “insignificant experiences.” In other words, studying affects allows us to understand the impact that everyday aesthetics have on our subjectivities (Hickey-Moody, 2013). For the purposes of this work, investigating the affects of everyday images, such as advertising or magazine images, allows us to understand or articulate issues that have so far been omitted or undervalued in analyses of various body shapes.

Finally, if we consider that affections mobilize and direct us toward certain objects, subjects, or relationships, they are, therefore, political (Ahmed, 2017). In other words, integrating the affective in image analysis allows us to theoretically apprehend its potential power and its ability to influence the body and its relationships (Coleman, 2013).

Aesthetics and affects in the media

Media images can be understood beyond a representational perspective and consider that they prescribe corporality types as ideal (primarily a visual matter); also, affections are indicated, in broad terms:

Other bodies and images of other bodies in the media and consumer culture may literally move us, make us feel moved, by affecting our bodies in inchoate ways that cannot easily be articulated or assimilated to conceptual thought. Here we think of the shiver down the spine or the gut feeling. Affect points to the experience of intensities, to the way in which media images are felt through bodies (Featherstone, 2010: 195).

The media proposes an ideal visual body and a body affect: those body aspects that are not visual, but which are inserted into a wider proprioceptive and movement scope (Featherstone, 2010). In other words, we propose that a rule about an ideal is installed in visual terms in images, but there are also more complex indications, such as the way that the body and gender should be lived and experienced, or, in the words of Coleman and Ringrose (2013), the way someone should become a body.

In short, we propose that the media contributes to installing a visual (aesthetic) norm for the body and an affective rule about how the body should be experienced and affect other bodies. Taking as a reference the work of Featherstone (2010), we summarize these dimensions in Table 1.

Table 1.

Body image and body affect.

Body image	Body affect
Aesthetic norm: How should a body look?	Affective norm: How should a body affect and be affected?
Mirror image/subject–object	Movement image/sensation of visceral and proprioceptive intensities
The way in which this body image is obtained is prescribed	The way in which these actions should be experienced is prescribed

Elaborated from Featherstone (2010).

We present a media analysis considering how feminine bodies are promoted in visual and affective terms. We focus on how exercise is prescribed for women in the media. Our analysis is guided by the idea that the notion of femininity promoted in its aesthetics and affective dimensions constitutes an obstacle to the physical activity of women.

Methodology

The results that are presented are part of an ongoing project, [The body in the social]. The first part of the study was guided by the following objective: describing valuations, meanings, and typical actions attributed to the various body types or volumes in the media and advertising. For the purposes of this article, we will present two results: (a) the analysis regarding feminine bodies; and (b) a focused analysis on how exercise is prescribed for women in the media. We worked with print media: magazines and photographed adverts.

Design

This is a qualitative study, with an exploratory and comprehensive scope. Considering that we sought to characterize a wide range of body types, we initially produced broad criteria data. Therefore, we selected images in which bodies appeared or were referred, for example, through an object or a text.

Image recollection and selection

We selected the images from magazines and photographed advertisements in subway stations and a shopping mall. In the data production, we included newspaper magazines, since they are free and have a more intense flow than regular magazines, which must be acquired separately.

The review and collection were conducted over a period of three months (October 2017 through to January 2018). We considered five magazines: three explicitly aimed at women (magazines 1, 2, and 3) and two aimed at the general public (magazines 4 and 5). If so, suggest Likewise, we also included different commercial-value newspapers, ranging from 700 CLP (approximately one US dollar) to free newspapers that are distributed on the street. Thus, we were able to obtain material aimed at different socio-economic levels.

All the magazines have an online version that is almost identical to the printed version, and, to ensure quality images, we worked with the materials in the online versions. The corpus translated into 408 items, including articles, advertising, and the fashion section.

Additionally, we photographed advertisements on the streets. For this, we visited the highest-flow metro stations in Santiago de Chile (Meganoticias, 2017) and also the largest shopping center in the same city (La Segunda Online, 2012). We visited the metro stations on February 26, 2018, and the Costanera Center Mall the following day. We photographed the shopping center’s second floor (“Women” stores) and third floor (“Men and Children” stores). In total, we collected 45 photographs.

Given the high volume of images, 453 items in total, we performed a pre-analysis. For this, using a database, we typified each image according to the type of image (presented below), the means of collection, sex, and, in the case of advertising pieces, the type of product or service promoted, among others.

In the project we defined six types of image to consider valuations, meanings, and typical actions attributed to the various body types. We broadly defined three types of body to consider meanings and valuations: ideal bodies, problematic bodies, and socially claimed² bodies. To analyze typical actions, we considered actions prescribed for each kind of body. However, we did not find any images that prescribe actions for socially claimed bodies; hence, this category was deleted. The images were organized in the following sets:

Images in which ideal bodies appear (e.g. clothing brands advertising pieces).

Images that problematize any kind of body volume (e.g. articles on the effects of obesity on health).

Images in which any kind of body volume is socially claimed (e.g. clothing brands advertising pieces for overweight women).

Images in which actions are prescribed for problematic bodies (e.g. magazine articles describing a diet or exercise routine).

Images in which the typical actions of subjects with ideal bodies are presented (e.g. a magazine article about an actress or model’s beauty routine).

Images that could not be classified in the typology presented above were excluded from the analysis. Therefore, we pre-selected 298 images. The pre-analyses showed that the sample presented low variability in at least two criteria: sex, where 73% of the images correspond to images of women’s bodies and types of image; and 83% corresponding to ideal silhouettes (the first type).

Initially we planned to select three images per type of image (giving a total of 15 images) but the pre-analysis showed that the first type of image was over-represented in the corpus, as shown in Table 2. Consequently, we modified the number of images for each type of image, leaving more images of the more represented in the collection and fewer of those that had little presence in the collected media.

Table 2.

Type of images.

Criteria	Frequency	Percentage	Images selected
Images of ideal bodies	248	83%	5
Images of problematized bodies	7	2%	1
Images of vindicated bodies	12	4%	3
Images prescribing actions (31 in total):
actions are prescribed for problematic bodies	9	3%	2
the typical actions of subjects with ideal bodies are presented	22	7%	2
Total	298	100%	13

Source: Elaborated by the authors.

In Table 2 the final composition of the analysis corpus is presented. Almost all of the 13 images selected correspond to illustrations of female bodies (12 images).

Analysis

As previously established, we present two types of result in this article. Each type corresponds to the following analysis:

(1) For the analysis regarding meanings, valuations, and typical actions of feminine bodies, we conducted a diffractive analysis of the 13 images selected. We modified Jackson and Mazzei’s (2018) analytical approach of “thinking texts with theory” to apply it to images. It was a highly descriptive and relational analysis, whereby we aimed to identify the multiple and complex relationships where images and bodies become. In all cases the analysis considered the images and the texts, because in the adverts the images and text interact. Furthermore, since we were considering relationships that can be done from an image and text, we collected additional material for some images. For example, where an article referred to a cookbook, we consulted the book; or in a fashion image, we talked to the producers to understand how it was produced.

(2) To analyze how exercise is prescribed in the media for women, we combined some of the quantitative pre-analysis that we had done with a qualitative analysis of all the images that prescribed exercise for women. We worked with two analyses: the first one compares female and male bodies to analyze the specificity of femininity. Second, from the 298 images, 31 prescribe some kind of action to alter the body, as can be seen in Table 2. Of this set of images only six promote exercise, and only four of these for women (the other two were aimed at men). The other images prescribe nutritional supplements, clinical treatments, or beauty routines that do not consider exercise. Of these four images, one was selected as part of the first group of images, so we did a diffractive analysis on it. We worked with Ian Parker’s (1996) discourse analysis guidelines over the three remaining images and texts, because they were magazine articles, so there were many texts that needed to be considered.

We used Atlas.ti 8 for the qualitative analysis.

Results

Feminine bodies

In the diffractive analysis of 13 images, regarding feminine bodies, we searched for patterns identifying four body types: extremely thin, thin, fat, and obese; however, for each body type we found associated meanings, common assessments, and typical ways of representing them. The type of actions that were prescribed for each body shape implied new considerations in the analysis; more than the typical actions arising from what is prescribed, they are stylized actions or they are actions that must be performed with a “correct” affect. In order to present the results, we will begin with the meanings, valuations, and forms of representation, and we will dedicate a sub-section to the actions prescribed. With actions, the focus is precisely on the affectivity of behavior, and, in that context, we analyzed the prescription of exercise for women.

Body images: four body types

Extremely thin is the first ideal body type. The face, neck, limbs, and abdomen stand out in this female body. The body type of thinness is accompanied by height and youth. It is mainly associated with elegance. In the media it is presented as positively valued and desirable (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Comparison between models’ abdomens. Right image: Fashion section “Summer at last.” Woman Magazine (R151.10). Left image: Complementary material to R350.

The thin body type differs from the previous extreme thinness and therefore retains secondary sexual characteristics such as developed breasts and wider hips, which are absent in the first body type. However, this type has less presence, and therefore the typical values and actions could not be recorded.

A socially acceptable fatness was identified by the analyses, which is associated with happiness. It is nominated as fatness, and not obesity, because its medical nature is irrelevant to the objectives of this study and the women in these ads identify themselves as fat. This body type has two particular characteristics: first, a thin face, especially the jawline; and it retains a feminine curvature, without losing the hips and waist proportions. Thus, it is a traditionally feminine body type, but thickened.

Second, these types of bodies are presented with a narrative. Hence, they are accompanied by an explanation (as they are always represented with images of bodies and text). The identified narrative structure can be synthesized in three moments:³ the first is a “requirement of losing weight” through extreme behaviors such as self-provoked vomiting, laxatives, diet pills, or extreme diets. The second stage is a turning point, which we call “reconciliation with one’s own body.” This stage is laborious and may involve therapy or other similar devices. It is also a stage that may take a long time. The third moment is “body acceptance,” where there is no longer a struggle with one’s own body, but an acceptance of it as it is.

Finally, the fourth body type is nominated as obesity, which is meant as a disease. This type of body is present in medical adverts, such as clinics or medical treatments to lose weight. It is not directly represented in magazines; rather, it is referred to through an object, for example, a chocolate cake. It is a body that is absent in the graphic media. Obesity is morally problematized (as an effect of an excessive appetite), but its solution is clinical, namely, bariatric surgery, which is presented as a first step toward a healthier life.

Body affects: On action prescription

While we initially expected to find the prescription of actions, such as diet or exercise, the analyses showed that what is prescribed is the aesthetic of an action or an affective practice. What is specified is the way in which the action must be lived or experienced.

As an example, a short article about an influencer (R131.3) is described in the following terms:

She loves taking care of herself, moisturizes her face with cream and toner, mild acids and night serums, her body with moisturizer, and always puts argan oil on the tips of her hair after bathing. She gives a lot of importance to food, it is one of the things she enjoys the most in life and, therefore, she does not deprive herself of anything. However, she has learned to prioritize a healthier and simpler diet with natural and fresh ingredients. (Supplementary material R131.3)

The influencer advert was included as part of the images in which the typical actions of subjects with ideal bodies are presented. The beauty work of an ideal body type is not experienced as an obligation, but it is affected as something that is enjoyable: the influencer likes to put on cream, toners, and serums; she enjoys taking care of her nutrition and does not watch what she eats or deprives herself, but she has learned to enjoy healthy eating. Thus, it is not only the body being shaped; there is also a certain aesthetic or particular affectivity, as something that does not require a lot of effort and which is enjoyed.

Something similar happens with fatness. In the prologue to the chef’s book presented in image R35.3,⁴ the author describes how “she became friends with food.” The actions indicated differ little from a diet plan:

The first and most important step was to eliminate white sugar, in all its forms. In the same way, I eradicated refined food and soft drinks (you cannot imagine how hard it was for me; my level of addiction was tremendous and I relapsed many times). Thus, I met again with the fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts, even with the avocados, nuts, grapes and bananas, which I had always been forbidden from for being “very caloric.” (Supplementary material R35)

What should be eliminated is described: white sugar, refined foods, and soft drinks. It also explains the foods that should replace them: fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts. The novelty is that high-calorie foods are included: avocados, nuts, grapes, and bananas. There is a healthy criterion (instead of caloric). However, the main difference is not which foods are forbidden and allowed (which is common to diets), but the way in which the action should be affected:

Thus, I began to feed myself with other ingredients, not from fear, but from love. I changed the focus of the calories to that of the nutrients and I really started to “feed myself.” That was the definitive switch change. (Supplementary material R35)

Two transformations are reported in the text. The first is that she no longer eats with fear but with love. In other words, she is not afraid of food or referring to her fear of exceeding the number of calories allowed. The second transformation refers to transferring the focus from calories to nutrients. Hence, what matters is not calorie restriction but the balance in nutrients. As an effect, the change in behavior is not the absence of restrictions or the monitoring of intake. The most radical difference is the way of understanding eating, the affectivity attached to it: as an act of love and taking care of yourself. A rule is installed whereby there are right affects (eating with love) and incorrect affects (eating with fear). A summary of these results is presented in Table 3.

Table 3.

Synthesis of body silhouettes.

Body type	Meaning	Assessment	Action type	Way in which it is represented
Extremely thin silhouette	Elegance	Positive	Thin without effort	Body images
Thin silhouette	Attractive	–	–	Body images
Fat silhouette	Happiness	Positive (and negative)	Stylized:balance and love	Body images and text
Obesity	Enormitydecontrol	Negative	Surgery	Object images and text

Source: Elaborated by the authors.

The promotion of women’s exercise

(1) The association of femininity with stillness

The analysis shows that femininity tends to be associated with inactivity and masculinity with activity. First, the promotion of exercise for women wasn’t a significant category; from 298 images only four focus on exercise. In general terms, feminine bodies do not tend to be associated with movement and exercise in the magazines.

Second, passiveness can also be considered by analyzing the gaze of the men and women in the images. Considering the images where there is only one man or woman, 181 images in total, we distinguished three kinds of gaze: directed at the camera, the lost gaze, and referred to an object. The first two types of gaze are considered passive: the person is posing. The third kind of gaze is considered active: the person is doing something. Women tend to be presented using the passive gaze: in 56% of the images women look directly at the camera; and 37% of women are presented with a lost gaze. Thus, in 93% of the images women are presented as passive, with only 7% of the female images presented as referred to an object doing something. This is in contrast with the photographs of men: in 40% of them men are presented referred to an object. Men tend to be presented as more active than women. An example of each type of gaze is presented in Table 4.

Table 4.

Type of gazes.

Gaze directed to the camera	Lost gaze	Gaze referred to an object

Source: La Tercera Magazine. Copyright Grupo Copesa. Reproduced by permission.

Third, we appreciate a difference in body densities between feminine and masculine bodies. In general terms, the ideal male body type is similar to the female in the following feature: it is a stylized body type (tall and thin).

Regarding limbs, angular postures that show thin limbs are favored. Masculine limbs are thicker and more fibrous, and the muscular structure in the arm is marked. The feminine, however, is extremely thin, where what is connoted is the bone structure (see Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Comparison between models’ limbs. Right image: Complementary material to R350.

In short, the ideal male and female body types coincide in stylized contours and the lack of body hair. The main difference is that muscles become prominent in the male bodies, while in the female, the bone structure is what stands out. Men’s bodies are associated with activity (exercise); women’s bodies, on the other hand, are associated with mastering a lack (the lack of food).

(2) Women’s exercise must be pretty

Considering that the actions prescribed for the bodies are characterized by the aesthetics or affection they promote—rather than by the action itself—in general terms, actions that are promoted affectively tend to be linked more to food than to exercise. In this scenario, we analyze four articles promoting exercise in order to directly investigate the way in which this practice is promoted: “Exercise? No excuses” (R134); “The new fitness trends” (R97); “Train with rhythm” (R160); and “Fit in harmony” (R121).

Body image: aesthetics for exercise

Exercise is promoted with an aesthetic canon in magazines, that is, adjusted to a standard on the aesthetics with which it should be performed. To analyze this aesthetic, we will focus on the outfits and on the architecture of the dance studio that is promoted in the article.

Outfits: In “The new fitness trends” (R97) article, women are presented wearing similar outfits, in a style known as urban sports. The choice of clothing is consistent with a particular aesthetic. Not only is it comfortable and functional to do exercise (for example, they all wear sneakers), but a similar color palette (black and blue) is favored, which is typical of the urban exercise style, also known as Athleisure.

In addition to the combination of outfits, women perform exercise in a coordinated way: they all perform the same movement, with an upright posture. They all have similar hairstyles and show no signs of sweating. Moreover, although their biceps are concentrically contracted, they are not bulky.

One of the articles only promotes the outfit for yoga. As can be seen in Figure 3, it is a promotion of clothing for yoga, shown on a woman walking down the street (not actually practicing yoga). The outfit includes the items used to go in or out of the class, such as sneakers and a sport coat.

Figure 3.

Fit in Harmony.

Architecture: the promoted space where the exercise is performed also participates in an aesthetic norm. If we consider the studio promoted in “The new fitness trends” (R97), this is located in an open mall. The place has two walls and two windows, as shown in Figure 4. The windows allow visibility into the enclosure that is reinforced by mirrors on the walls, which are not windows.

Figure 4.

Malú Pérez’s studio photo.

In short, the exercise is promoted as a practice that must conform to an aesthetic canon in clothing, attire, and way of performing. On the other hand, it is encouraged as an activity that is carried out in view of others.

Body affect: The fear of developing a masculinized body

The magazine articles explicitly address the fear of developing a masculinized body as an effect of exercise. In the text “Exercise? No excuses” a gym teacher explains:

In health and aesthetic terms, strength is the most important thing for the body, which brings more long-term benefits, more than resistance sports or specific exercises or a specific discipline. Many women fear that exercise might make them develop an excessive or “male” musculature, but that is impossible because they do not have the same hormonal structure as men. Your muscles will not grow naturally at those volumes—Pizarro says. (R134.4)

In “The new fitness trends”:

Today, women want to have a toned, but not thick body. In other disciplines, such as weight lifting, for example, the arm muscles only thicken. When mixed with ballet and Pilates, the body is stretched and stylized— says Malú Pérez. (R97.3)

The first extract seeks to clear up the myth that women generate “excessive or masculine muscle” by performing weights; and, in the second, although it is claimed that the weights thicken a part of the body, it is established that disciplines such as ballet and Pilates avoid this unwanted effect. This clarification shows the consistent assumption about the muscular prominence of the masculine and the bony body of the feminine. Thus, sport generates a muscular body prominence and therefore a manly body.

Discussion and conclusions

The results presented allow us to conclude that different visual body types are associated with different affects: extreme thinness is related to elegance, the thin body is construed as attractive, the fat body is promoted as happy, and the obese body is represented as undisciplined. Taking Featherstone’s (2010) distinction between body image and body affect, we can state that female body sizes and forms are visual and affective.

Second, to the surveillance practices specific to the female bodies detailed by Sandra Lee Bartky (1990), especially the actions to modify body size, we can add another dimension: these practices must be performed with a specific affect. They must be experienced as pleasant and joyful. We propose that this has two political effects: first, it omits the normative dimension of exercise. Socially, affects, especially pleasant affects, are not considered a moral issue (Energici, 2018). In other words, the idea that there are “correct” and “incorrect” affects for a given situation is not usually considered in the difficulties that women experience when exercising. Second, by stating how an action must be felt, a social problem is individualized. In other words, the discomfort or awkwardness that a woman feels when she exercises is placed on her instead of on the social rule about how exercise must be experienced. By placing these affects in the body, instead of as an inter-affection or an inter-body issue (or a social issue), a form of social violence becomes invisible.

In another study we conducted in Chile (Energici et al., 2016), we documented that fat women suffer violence when exercising. In a focus group, one participant shared an anecdote: there is a woman exercising in a park, and a passenger from a bus yells to her: Fucking fat. All of the participants of the focus group laugh. The present study opens up the possibility that women attribute this discomfort of exercising to not living it as a joyful experience, omitting the violent social conditions that they experience when exercising.

The results presented also show that in physical activity gender stereotypes are reproduced. As Carini and Weber (2017) have also documented, women’s bodies are presented in the margins of physical activities. Feminine bodies are presented as passive, associated with inactivity and mastering a lack: managing hunger. Male bodies, instead, are presented as active and produced by movement. This reproduction echoes the necessity to overcome this dual way of thinking (Coole and Frost, 2010; Grosz, 1994; Tischner, 2013). Specifically, for the matter that we tackle in this article, overcoming these stereotypes could be useful to facilitate the participation of women in physical activity.

The analysis also shows that bodies are an important issue in terms of how we perform gender (Butler, 2007). Ideal male bodies should be accomplished by exercise and become bulky and muscular, while female bodies should have a prominent bone structure and are associated with stillness and fragility. This is tackled in the analysis when articles consider how exercise does not result in a manly body. The sports experts specifically say that exercise results in a toned and stylized body and not a bulky one.

The aesthetic requirements for women’s physical activity create differences among women. If we consider that exercise must be done according to an aesthetic norm, and this norm includes a set of rules about dress code, this sets a requirement about the resources needed to do physical activity: a required outfit is demanded. In Chile, a country with a significant amount of poverty, this is an important issue to consider. Second, female exercise is promoted as an activity to be seen by others. This second requirement is tied up with the first one: bodies doing exercise must be pleasant to see. This is important because fat bodies have been associated with disgust and contempt (Vartanian and Smyth, 2013), so this rule about the visuality of exercise discriminates against some types of female body. Going further, exercise can be considered a privilege; if we consider that women who have “bodies that are pleasant to see” tend to be women of high income, white, and young, the promotion of exercise seems to be targeted mainly at those women. In other words, exercise promotion in magazines reproduces the social difference of women by social class, ethnicity, and age, among others. This is consistent with the data from national surveys showing that women with higher incomes exercise more than women on lower incomes (Ministerio del Deporte, Gobierno de Chile, 2016).

Another implication is for women for whom exercise does not feel pleasant or joyful. Exercise can be painful because of age, disability, weight, or just because it is not felt to be a comfortable activity. This affective norm is a moralization of the body and exercise, where not only is exercise indicated in the aesthetic canon, but it is also done with the correct affect. Again, another group of women can be marginalized by theses normative rules about exercise.

What these analyses allow us to postulate is that in the very constitution of gender, obstacles can be found for the promotion of physical activity of some groups. This opens up a new horizon of exploration. In Chile at least, the only factors considered to explain the low level of female participation in physical activities have been a lack of motivation and time, and work overload. This research invites us to consider sexualized moral and affective issues as relevant dimensions to understand the absence of women in physical activities.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported by National Funding for Technological and Scientific Development (Project 11170317).

ORCID iD

Nicolás Schöngut-Grollmus

Notes

References

Ahmed

(2017) Living a Feminist Life. Durham: Duke University Press.

Bartky

(1990) Femininity and Domination: Studies in the Phenomenology of Oppression. New York: Routledge.

Bartky

(1998) Foucault, femininity and the modernization of patriarchal power. In: Weitz

(ed.) The Politics of Women’s Bodies. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 25–45.

Breger

Holamn

Guerrero

(2019) Re-norming sport for inclusivity: How the sport community has the potential to change a toxic culture of harassment and abuse. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology 13(2): 274–289.

Butler

(2007) El género en disputa. Barcelona: Paidos.

Carini

Weber

(2017) Female anglers in a predominantly male sport: Portrayals in five popular fishing-related magazines. International Review for the Sociology of Sport 52(1): 45–60.

Coleman

(2013) Transforming Images. Screens, Affect, Futures. Abingdon: Routledge.

Coleman

Ringrose

(2013) Introduction: Deleuze and research methodologies. In: Coleman

Ringrose

(eds) Deleuze and Research Methodologies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 1–22.

Coole

Frost

(2010) Introducing the new materialisms. In: Coole

Frost

(eds) New Materialisms. Ontology, Agency and Politics. Durham and London: Duke University Press, pp. 1–43.

10.

Cortis

Saerikar

Muir

(2007) Participation in Sport and Recreation by Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Women. Sydney: Social Policy Research Centre.

11.

Crenshaw

(1989) Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine. The University of Chicago Legal Forum 1989: 139–167.

12.

Criado Perez

(2019) The Invisible Women. Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. New York: Abrams Press.

13.

Elling

Knoppers

(2005) Sport, gender and ethnicity: Practises of symbolic inclusion/exclusion. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 34(3): 257–268.

14.

Energici

(2018) Afectividad y subjetividad femenina: análisis de la gordura como código moral. Límite. Revista Interdisciplinaria de Filosofía y Psicología 13(43): 17–28.

15.

Energici

Acosta

Huaiquimilla

, et al. (2016) Feminización de la gordura: estudio cualitativo en Santiago de Chile. Revista de Psicología 25(2): 1–17.

16.

Featherstone

(2010) Body & society body, image and affect in consumer. Body & Society 16(1): 193–221.

17.

Grosz

(1994) Volatile Bodies. Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

18.

Hekman

(2014) The Femenine Subject. Cambridge; Malden, MA: Polity Press.

19.

Hickey-Moody

(2013) Affect as method: Feelings, aesthetics and affective pedagogy. In: Coleman

Ringrose

(eds) Deleuze and Research Methodologies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 79–95.

20.

Jackson

Mazzei

(2018) Thinking with theory. A new analytic for qualitative inquiry. In: Denzin

Lincoln

(eds) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, pp. 716–737.

21.

Kwak

Berrigan

Van Domelen

, et al. (2016) Examining differences in physical activity levels by employment status and/or job activity level: Gender-specific comparisons between the United States and Sweden. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport 19(6): 482–487.

22.

La Segunda Online (2012) El ranking de los malls en Chile. Available at: http://www.lasegunda.com/Noticias/Economia/2012/08/771708/el-ranking-de-los-malls-en-chile-el-mas-grande-el-con-mayor-numero-de-estacionamientos-y-el-lider-en-visitas

23.

Larrain

Haye

(2019) Self as an aesthetic effect. Frontiers in Psychology 10: 1–10.

24.

McGovern

(2018) “You have to have money to be good”: How capital accumulation shapes latina’s pathways to college sports. Journal of Intercollegiate Sport 11: 149–171.

25.

Meganoticias (2017) Metro revela cuáles son las estaciones con mayor afluencia anual de pasajeros. Available at: https://www.mega.cl/noticias/nacional/202109-metro-revela-cuales-son-las-estaciones-con-mayor-afluencia-anual-de-pasajeros.html

26.

Ministerio del Deporte, Gobierno de Chile (2016) Encuesta Nacional de Hábitos de Actividad Física y Deportes en la Población de 18 años y más. Santiago de Chile. Available at: http://www.mindep.cl/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/INFORME-FINAL-ENCUESTA-DEPORTES-COMPLETO_.pdf

27.

Parker

(1996) Discurso, cultura y poder en la vida cotidiana. In Gordo

Linaza

(eds) Psicologías, discursos y poder (PDP). Madrid: Visor, pp. 79–92.

28.

Shervey

Diperna

(2017) Engagement in physical activity during recess. Gender and grade level differences in the elementary grades. Journal of Physical Activity and Health 14(9): 677–683.

29.

Tischner

(2013) Fat Lives. New York: Routledge.

30.

Vartanian

Smyth

(2013) Primum non nocere: Obesity stigma and public health. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry 10(1): 49–57.

31.

Walseth

Aartun

Engelsrud

(2015) Girls’ bodily activities in physical education How current fitness and sport discourses influence girls’ identity construction. Sport, Education and Society 22(4): 442–459.

32.

World Health Organization (2002) Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health. Available at: https://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_women/en/