The beginning of Alisa L. Valdes’ article, “Ruminations of a Feminist Fitness Instructor,” in Listen Up, brings up a very important way in which women are treated as inferior in today’s society: disparity of income. She writes, “Gloria Steinem pointed out that women are a permanent underclass in the United States of America” (25). She provides a few statistics that effectively back up Steinem’s claim. I do not disagree with Steinem’s claim, in fact, I wholeheartedly agree with it. However, I fail to see what significance this has in regard to Valdes’ article. Her debt has little to do with her gender. She herself says, “I realize that only the children of the rich are able to afford to be entry-level journalists for the progressive publications of our nation. The poor become, well, cheerleaders for the status quo. Give me a Y! (Why!)” (29). Valdes blatantly states that her inability to survive as an entry-level journalist has nothing to do with her gender, but rather the economic background of her family. Journalism is a field that is similarly hard to enter for young men. So while Valdes brings up an important flaw in today’s society and I applaud her for reiterating it, I fail to see its relevance to the rest of her argument.
Valdes does have a point in her criticism of the aerobics industry. Particularly when she says, “Anorexics fill my classes like worshipers in a church, and no one stares. Other instructors starve themselves and do cocaine for energy with a regularity that would surprise many of their admirers,” (31) she brings the issues with this industry to the forefront. However, Valdes passes off any benefits that the aerobics industry does bring to women as backwardly justifying what she did as empowerment (30).
Exercise is healthy. While yes, some percentage of the population may exercise to a point that it is unhealthy, that does not mean it is not beneficial to those who do not take it to that level. Some women don’t like to run. Some women get bored on the treadmill. Some women like a little variety. Aerobics is a healthy alternative to more traditional methods of exercise. It gets your heart pumping and muscles working. It provides a sense of accomplishment at the end of a long, hard hour of cardiovascular activity. I fail to see how attending a few aerobics classes is detrimental to anyone, and I also fail to see how it is in any way antifeminist. She makes broad generalizations as to what women’s motivations are for exercising. “Never mind that often those goals—to achieve a flat tummy, to fit into that tiny wedding dress, to lose ten pounds before going to Club Med to find Mr. Right—to not exactly subvert patriarchy” (30). How about to prevent heart disease or lower blood pressure so that they can live longer? To increase muscle mass and improve their stamina so that they can keep up with their children? To simply get their hearts pumping and blood flowing to give them a little more energy? Valdes had the power to promote a healthy way of helping women achieve these goals. Instead, she focused on the things wrong with the aerobics industry, saw it as a lost cause, and moved on.
“I understand now that the gym has really become just another painful way we are all distracted from the serious business of our lives,” she writes (32). Last time I checked, health was pretty serious business.
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Referring to what Missy stated earlier about Valdes dismissing the positive benefits of aerobics, reminds me of the many arguments that we have encountered in class so far, the two-sided debates that divide the second wave feminists during the porn debate. The issue clearly is, and continues to be, that women are not able to come to terms with what exactly it means to be a woman, whether it be a female who can pose naked in a magazine and own her sexuality, or those who look at porn as the most degrading and backwards thing a female can do in so far as helping out the feminist movement. It seems that there are really two sides to each story, and in the case of feminism in America, there are two teams of women. Those like Valdes who believe that aerobics serves no purpose but to promote anorexia etc. and those like Missy who believe moderate exercise is not only healthy, but a positive outlet for stress.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the story by Steinman, I agree with Missy in that i am not sure i see a direct correlation. Although the stipulation that gender and socio-economic status are wholly independent is far from the truth. It seems that both your economic status and gender both affect men and women respectively, just as much one as the other. If not, worse. I think that race is more debilitating than socio-economic status, yet those two go hand in hand. I just think that the idea of socio-economic status is something that can be seen or studied in a sociology class moreso than a womens studies class, where Valdes argument is more pertinent to the issues at hand. Again, not that I disagree with Steinman, but the correlation i have yet to see.
After reading Missy’s and Momo’s I feel like where this all lead us is to the question of where do we do draw the line between working out to be healthy and working out excessively to meet the expectation of society and the acceptance of “Mr.Right.” Like Missy says working out in gyms keeps one healthy, less vulnerable to heart attack and it may even give you more years to live. However, when women go to the gym are they doing for health or subconsciously to look like the models they saw at the Seventeen Magazine. We all exercise sometime in our lives but are we doing for the right reasons.
ReplyDeleteLooking at Momo’s comment, I realize that many times we make the mistake of categorizing something is that is too complex for dichotomies. Missy says “in the case of feminism in America, there are two teams of women. Those like Valdes who believe that aerobics serves no purpose but to promote anorexia etc. and those like Missy who believe moderate exercise is not only healthy, but a positive outlet for stress.” If we think this statement is right then what happen to the women who exercise to look good and to be healthy. Categorizing all women’s motives into two seems too simplistic and might lead us to the wrong conclusions.