Extra Credit: Final Project on the Fitness Industry

Dhruv Goel and Thomas Jang presented on sexism in the fitness industry. The group explored the very heternormative industry and their pressures on binaries. They argued that the industry forces consumers to choose between male and female. Their media examples included a Nike advertisement promoting a "male vs. men" fitness program. This tied into the reading from Lorber that says that we are always trapped in a dichotomy between men and women. They also showed a Muscle Milk commercial that uses Clay Matthews as the ideal "male". Next, they showed various Muscle & Fitness magazine covers that depicts males as domineering and women as innocent in docile (by way of their positioning). They tied this in with "The Egg and The Sperm" reading, depicting males and females as opposite in the physical biological realm as well as socially. This group accurately depicted the sexism in the fitness industry by employing several media examples and the "charmed circle" that the fitness industry caters to.