Cult of wellness: The New Yorkers who exercised outdoors in apocalyptic wildfire smog have haunted my dreams
When the disordered exercise isn't even TRYING to hide in plain sight anymore...
You’re probably already familiar with my thoughts on complex relationship between fitness and actual health. As a pilates instructor who has spent a positively embarrassing amount of money on activewear, I’m clearly v into exercise. For good reason, it’s great for you!
When you can start to pick up on all the problematic leanings of exercise culture, it’s clear it’s not as simple as that. Modern day wellness is very much steeped in the “more is more” mindset. This often turns out to be more about serving aesthetic beauty standards that it actually does your health. (For more on this, I highly recommend Christy Harrison’s new book, The Wellness Trap that I hope to do a deeper dive into in a future edition—Bookshop affiliate link!)
As a reformed disordered eater myself, disgust and horror about how deluded so many in the wellness industry are about their eating and exercise habits takes up quite a bit of my brain space.
Like any other 90s baby who grew up on 100 calorie packs, Lean Cuisine, and Kate Moss Tumblr memes, I’m still working on unpacking my own cultural conditioning that thin = good/worthy/beautiful. I’ve made sufficient progress on this, though, to feel fury at the fact that disordered eating and exercising is deemed “ok” as long as it results in a “hot” body. No one making real money in “wellness” really seems to mind the the toll it can take on the body. Weakened bones, lower energy, food obsession, lack of sex drive, hair loss, GI trouble, tooth decay, depression, anxiety, malnutrition, exhaustion, overuse injuries, and overall suffering are just part of being disciplined, virtuous, wellness girlie. A good girl, if you will.
I understand this. I used to believe that too.
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