I've worked at a company that sells athleisure and I can tell you, the optimization culture is as intense on the inside as it appears in the marketing. It's a hard job that is supposed to appear effortless, and employees should feel energized and grateful that they're empowering women...by selling yoga pants. It's exhausting.
Thank you for this episode. I would love an entire episode devoted to group exercise classes like barre and aerobics. The section on Jane Fonda and 80's feminism is fascinating!
I wonder at what point spandex became a staple part of mens active wear, whether as wrestling suits or compression shorts. Personally, as A Gay I find the line between sexual and athletic to be SO THIN when it comes to incorporating spandex/lyrca for men.
That could be a bias I’ve developed from existing in a community where some men wear JUST THE TIGHTS with nothing under or over as a dual form of ‘function’ and ‘advertising 😉’
ALSO much of the way men’s active wear is cut seems to have been designed to show off as much muscle mass as possible or to hide a lean body. Very rarely do I see (as a consumer) thin or lean male bodies advertised as wearing active wear, and when I do it is often on site that advertise to gay men where thinness is presented as femininity (i’m talking about twinks). In any case, the models are almost NEVER EVER fat and message that comes through loud and clear is to get the ‘correct’ kind of as big as possible.
Only speaking as a consumer here but again, it seems as though the purpose active wear is to showcase bodies that have been worked for and maintained (thus reinforcing like patriarchy? Heterosexual masculinity? Anti-fatness?)
Loved this epp and the following essay. Please make the hat and other clothes obscure academic words 👏👏
It's funny to me that you put in the Works Cited the LitHub "article" by Petrzela, even though it's literally just an excerpt from her book! But I only noticed because it's a book the press I work at publishes (paperback out now, etc.). Anyway I loved this, thank you for writing it, and thank you for the initial episode. <3
I've worked at a company that sells athleisure and I can tell you, the optimization culture is as intense on the inside as it appears in the marketing. It's a hard job that is supposed to appear effortless, and employees should feel energized and grateful that they're empowering women...by selling yoga pants. It's exhausting.
Thank you for this episode. I would love an entire episode devoted to group exercise classes like barre and aerobics. The section on Jane Fonda and 80's feminism is fascinating!
I wonder at what point spandex became a staple part of mens active wear, whether as wrestling suits or compression shorts. Personally, as A Gay I find the line between sexual and athletic to be SO THIN when it comes to incorporating spandex/lyrca for men.
That could be a bias I’ve developed from existing in a community where some men wear JUST THE TIGHTS with nothing under or over as a dual form of ‘function’ and ‘advertising 😉’
ALSO much of the way men’s active wear is cut seems to have been designed to show off as much muscle mass as possible or to hide a lean body. Very rarely do I see (as a consumer) thin or lean male bodies advertised as wearing active wear, and when I do it is often on site that advertise to gay men where thinness is presented as femininity (i’m talking about twinks). In any case, the models are almost NEVER EVER fat and message that comes through loud and clear is to get the ‘correct’ kind of as big as possible.
Only speaking as a consumer here but again, it seems as though the purpose active wear is to showcase bodies that have been worked for and maintained (thus reinforcing like patriarchy? Heterosexual masculinity? Anti-fatness?)
Loved this epp and the following essay. Please make the hat and other clothes obscure academic words 👏👏
It's funny to me that you put in the Works Cited the LitHub "article" by Petrzela, even though it's literally just an excerpt from her book! But I only noticed because it's a book the press I work at publishes (paperback out now, etc.). Anyway I loved this, thank you for writing it, and thank you for the initial episode. <3