Insta fitness and chasing tiny

(This post doesn’t have an image attached to it because the search for “thinspiration” to demonstrate what I am getting at turned up some fucking horrific images and I don’t want to contribute to that.)

Despite being a late adopter to Instagram (as per usual; I only downloaded snapchat this week) it is easily my favourite social network for procrastination. As well as engaging with the people I follow multiple times a day, I also frequently make use of their ‘discover’ feed and randomly like/comment on other people’s photos. It’s actually a good way to find new people with similar interests (which I guess is the whole point).

Unfortunately, because I use Instagram as a half-hearted fitness log, and as such follow other fitness folk, my insta discovery feed is absolutely rammed with weight loss posts and “transformations”: picture after picture after picture of women — always women — before their “magical transformation” and after. The before pictures usually feature someone obese or significantly overweight, and the after can be anything up to and including skeletal women (that quite possibly have an eating disorder).

Sometimes the women are even the same person & it’s hilarious how bad some of the fakes are, but that’s another post for another day…

And people LOVE it. They lap it up. Thousands of likes and comments applauding the desire to shrink, to be smaller, to better fit into society’s normal. “Thinspiration!” they cry. Lots of supportive comments, but as is the norm on the Internet, a whole fuckton of fat shaming too.

Why? Why do we — women — strive to take up less space in a world that tries so hard to keep us small and meek and fearful? And I don’t mean the act of weight loss in itself: I am happy to support anyone that wants to lose weight if they so desire, whatever their motivation for doing so. I have obviously pursued my own weight loss goals to better fit the way I feel most comfortable and confident… but chasing “tiny” just for the sake of being tiny?

In a world that has us fighting to exist on an equal footing for pay, for health care, and in some countries for access to basic human rights; in a world that is led by men who brag openly about sexual assault so that we know our place? Deliberately shrinking ourselves seems so counter-productive.

Where are my insta-fitness shots of growth: growing muscles? Growing more confident? Growing competence in a discipline that pleases you? Growing more secure, or growing capacity for fitness? Growing the distance you run or the friends you make through a mutual enjoyment of a sport?

Fuck, grow your plate of cookies for all I care – just demand more. Be MORE. Not less. Never less.

9 comments so far

  1. Meggan said:
    On 21 Jun at 2:47 pm

    This is one of the reasons I LOOOOVE girlswhopowerlift on IG! They celebrate “thick thigh thursdays” and lots of the women featured are not rail-thin.

    I do think the tide is slowly changing from crazy thin to “strong” as the goal, but that might be my imagination. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  2. Rachael said:
    On 22 Jun at 7:17 pm

    That’s fitspiration. :-P

    • Jem said:
      On 22 Jun at 7:48 pm

      Nah, it’s really not. There’s hundreds of “fitspiration” people who are aspiring to fitness. “Thinspiration” is on another level entirely.

      • Rachael said:
        On 22 Jun at 9:16 pm

        Absolutely. I should have been clearer. I was responding to your question “Where are my insta-fitness shots of growth?”

  3. Kya said:
    On 06 Jul at 11:32 am

    It’s awful that so many people believe that thin = beautiful. It’s much more important to find the strength within. If that quest involves improving yourself to build muscle and have the physical strength, great. But I think it should also involve gathering mental strength and confidence in who you are.