Reading Analysis #5: Defining and Contesting Illness- Natural Approaches and Healthism

The readings that were assigned for the week looked at the broad topic of “Defining and Contesting Illness”, with a more narrowed focus on “Natural Approaches and Healthism”. Each article that was assigned pertained to the topic of “Natural Approaches and Healthism”, however, each article had different focuses relating to natural approaches and healthism, such as aerobic classes for larger women, health and hygiene advertisements, and the issues with obesity and the “tubby hubby”.

In Jenny Ellison’s article, “Let Me Hear Your Body Talk: Aerobics for Fat Women Only, 1981-1985”, she discusses the integral part aerobics has in women’s lives and how it contributes to femininity. It is noted that “aerobics emerged in the early 1980s in the wake of the Title IX and the development of organizations… sought to advance the position of women by improving their status as athletes… [and] due to their apparent focus on femininity and feminine display, aerobics classes… [have gone from] the potential for collective gains for women to being replaced with individualistic goals”[1]. This move form collective goals as seen through a sports team, to the individualistic goals of a woman participating in aerobics classes allows women a chance to “‘break the weaker sex mold,’ to become ‘strong’ and ‘healthy’, and to fulfill their ‘physical potential’”[2], and “like makeup and clothing, dance exercises produce more prescriptions for heterosexual appeal”[3]. Even though some people thought of aerobics in a positive way, some saw negative aspects to it. “Academic feminist critics in North America first attacked aerobics from the perspective of media effects and sex roles, arguing that aerobics (in representation and in practice) reinforced unrealistic and dangerous feminine norms”[4]. Not only did aerobics classes influence the femininity of the woman, it also impacted the health of the individual. Aerobic classes for fat women only, helped with “finding ways to accept and live in one’s fat body, and to maximize the physical health of one’s fat body”[5]. This article helped us have a better understanding of health and gender through aerobics classes for fat women. It looked at the controversial ideas of aerobics on the femininity of the women, and the discusses how aerobics can be influential with the healthy body and the healthy idea of our body regardless of our size. In addition to this, the topic of healthism is very prominent in this article. This article brought to light how aerobics classes can be a topic that can help us better understand gender and health in Canadian history.

Continuing on, Thomas Wendelboe’s article, “The Heterosexual Nature of Health and Hygiene Advertisements in the Cold War Era”, looks at how advertisements link to the healthy body. “In advertisements, the healthy male body was a disciplined body, as ads depict an ideal focused on control and men who were unable to perform in either the bedroom or the sporting arena faced the fear that they could not adequately display the health of their body”[6] In terms of masculinity, “the advertisements [discussed in this article] reflected the overarching hyper-heterosexuality of the publications in which they appear… advertisers also drew from the authoritative power of sport, a disciplinary career both in its own right and as part of a larger discourse on health”[7]. “Sport was used in advertising to marginalize homosexuality through the promotion of hyper-masculine heterosexuality… Ads employed the rugged imagery of sport… that promised the power of masculinity”[8]. The use of health and masculinity and sports were beneficial techniques in the advertisement industry. It is noted that, “advertisements spoke to the believed urban desire for the combination of sport, outdoor life, and nature, creating contextual familiarity through product branding… [and] sport, and the ideals of health it was commonly associated with, became a key component of marketing strategies”[9]. This article shows us how masculinity can be displayed through advertisements and how health and the healthy body can be understood through ads. This article also give a better understanding of gender and health and its connection to healthism and natural approaches, which gives us a better understanding of these topics in Canadian history.

Finally, in Deborah McPhail’s article, “What to do with the ‘Tubby Hubby’? ‘Obesity,’ the Crisis of Masculinity, and the Nuclear Family in Early Cold War Canada”, she focuses on obesity and fat of the male body and the link with masculinity. It is noted that “fat phobia has been historically and primarily directed toward women… [however] white heterosexual men, seemingly counteracted this argument”[10] and the idea of “fat is feminine”[11]. To continue with this idea, “physical fitness plans and diets directed at white, middle-class men during the early Cold War period can be understood as tools of abjection”[12]. Fat and obesity greatly impacted the white, middle-class man’s masculinity because the “male body fat [was seen] as ‘effete’ and ‘soft’”[13] which can be seen as connections with a female figure. This article highlights how the idea of fat and its perceived connection with femininity, greatly impacts the masculinity of a “fat man”. Not only does this article display the issue of body fat and gender, but also the effects of obesity on the health of the man. Overall, this article shows many links between obesity and health and how obesity and fat can impact gender ideologies. In addition to this, this article sheds light on health and gender in Canadian history.

All three of these articles discuss the topic of natural approaches and healthism. The first article looked at aerobic classes for fat women only and how aerobics classes helped with the healthy body of the female and added to controversial ideas of femininity. The second article discussed advertisements and how they influence the ideas of masculinity and help to portray health. In the last article, it focused on the obesity of males and how men having fat can impact their masculinity and also their health. These articles discussed similar topics, but also different, however, they all related back to the main topic of natural approaches and healthism and give us a better understanding of gender and health in Canadian history.

 

Endnotes:

[1] Jenny Ellison, “‘Let Me Hear Your Body Talk’: Aerobics for Fat Women Only, 1981-1985,” in Cheryl Krasnick Warsh (Ed), Gender, Health and Popular Culture: Historical Perspectives, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011: 193.

[2] Ibid., 194.

[3] Ibid., 194-195.

[4] Ibid., 195-196.

[5] Ibid., 203.

[6] Thomas Wendelboe, “The Heterosexual Nature of Health and Hygiene Advertisements in the Cold War Era,” in Penny Light, et.al, Bodily Subjects: Essays on Gender and Health, 1800-2000, Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015: 247-248.

[7] Ibid., 250-251.

[8] Ibid., 251.

[9] Ibid., 259.

[10] Deborah McPhail, “What to do with the ‘Tubby Hubby’? ‘Obesity,’ the Crisis of Masculinity, and the Nuclear Family in Early Cold War Canada,” Antipode Vol. 41, No. 5 (2009): 1021.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid., 1023.

[13] Ibid., 1034.

 

Bibliography:

Ellison, Jenny. “‘Let Me Hear Your Body Talk’: Aerobics for Fat Women Only, 1981-1985.” In Cheryl Krasnick Warsh (Ed), Gender, Health and Popular Culture: Historical Perspectives. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011: 193-214.

McPhail, Deborah. “What to do with the ‘Tubby Hubby’? ‘Obesity,’ the Crisis of Masculinity, and the Nuclear Family in Early Cold War Canada.” Antipode Vol. 41, No. 5 (2009): 1021-1050.

Wendelboe, Thomas. “The Heterosexual Nature of Health and Hygiene Advertisements in the Cold War Era.” In Penny Light, et.al, Bodily Subjects: Essays on Gender and Health, 1800-2000. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015: 245-265.

 

Reflection:

I chose to add this reading analysis to my ePortfolio because it highlighted medical expert’s choices with health. In addition to this, these medical experts tried to tell people what is good health and how to be healthy. An example of this would be the aerobics classes for fat women only and the view of healthy women, such as being strong, feminine, and live up to their physical potential. In addition to this, other parts of my reading analysis look at advertisements that focus on hygiene which is an important part of health that experts wanted to highlight through advertisements. Overall, this reading analysis looked at one of the aspects of my argument of my ePortfolio, and it was useful evidence for my main argument of this ePortfolio.