Gratuitous & Headless

I’m tired of #fitspo.

More precisely, I am bored to tears with the ubiquitous images of extremely lean, scantily clad, fake tanned, advantageously posed, headless body parts that keep popping up left and right, whether I’m looking at social media, glancing at magazine covers while waiting in line at the grocery store, or researching online.

This is why I absolutely, unquestionably refuse to use them.

See, I’m deeply doubtful that these carefully curated visions of “perfect” bodies are, in the end, truly motivational.

I’ll even go so far as to say that, more than anything—except the bank accounts of those using them to sell their products—they’re insidiously detrimental.

FALSE ADVERTISEMENT

Let’s face the truth here: in the vast majority of cases, the bodies being put on display have not been forged by the products that they are used to sell.

Have you noticed how much those headless bodies are used in the promotion of quick fixes, of magic bullet solutions, or of that “secret trick the fitness industry doesn’t want you to know about”?

And have you ever known one of those miracle advertised offers to actually work? In the long run?

I have the utmost respect for the fitness models who are the people to whom these conveniently headless bodies belong. They’ve put in a tremendous amount of hard work to achieve that body of theirs, often having to sacrifice a lot to get photoshoot-ready.

By objectifying them and pretending that people can get similar results without putting in the work, it seems to me that everyone loses—aside from the product companies who are laughing all the way to the bank.

IS THERE ONLY ONE GOOD WAY TO HAVE A BODY?

Images of “perfect” bodies systematically breed comparison. Make no mistake: they’re created for that purpose.

No matter where we are in our journey, they aren’t put across our path by advertisers to make us celebrate diversity; they’re there to make us feel lacking.

Advertisers are telling us that there’s a right way and a wrong way to have a body. And since obviously we’re doing it wrong, they have just the product for us!

Even when we go outside of the fitness and diet industry, bodies are still used to sell products, and to make us feel like we’re not doing it right.

How about no?

First of all, the notion that there’s a right way and a wrong way to have a body is completely false. Bodies—even fit bodies!—come in all kinds of shape and sizes.

All bodies are forged by unique genetics and life experiences, and are inherently worthy, no matter which state they’re in.

Reducing a person to the way their body looks, or even more pointedly to the way their body conforms to a dictated cultural norm, is beyond damaging.

We can do so much better.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER GOALS?

When we put the focus solely on physical goals, we’re obscuring a plethora of other goals, that can certainly forge a life not only worth living, but bursting at the seams with richness.

I am not my body. My body is nothing without me.
Tom Stoppard.

Yes, fitness can absolutely be the pursuit of physical achievement, be it in the aesthetic or in the performance aspect. That’s what it most often is defined as being.

But it can also be employed in the service of other, just as valuable life pursuits. And these pursuits require our bodies to have heads, hearts, minds and souls. Truncated images cannot do justice to what we’re yearning for.

This is why I take a stand, this is why I say down with the gratuitous & headless shots. We are whole people.

We deserve more.

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