Fitspo vs Thinspo
I’m amazed with Instagram, mostly due to the fact that I’m an incredibly visual person. I love the photos and quotes that users post. I try to post motivational things, photos that tell a story, progress of my own fitness & health, and simple things throughout my day that I find useful or interesting.
face the wall or face yourself. be strong. be confident. be fit. it’s never too late to make a change!
However, I have noticed an incredible rise in “thinspo” and other related tags. {“Thinspo” meaning inspiration to be thin, not healthy. Aspirations to see your spine instead of deltoids. Determination to restrict meals instead of eating to live well.} It makes me sad that females (some males too!) are so focused on numbers and getting “skinny.” Their pictures & posts include surreal images of waif thin models, hip bones, calorically scarce meals, and qoutes about failure & self loathing. I wish I would’ve had social media throughout my adolescence to inspire me to become healthy and fit, as opposed to turning pages in magazines and seeing images of models that have since forced society to live on a scale. This realization drives me to motivate & inspire others that fit, strong bodies are healthy are healthy bodies.
these pictures make a powerful statement…
I am followed by a few Instagram users with headings that include ED Recovery & ANA. I like that they see my images of muscle gains, motivational life quotes & robust yet healthy meals. I want them to realize that they are chasing a ghost. I can only hope that the moment they begin to understand true health, that they’ll begin to let go of the control they feel they need to have over the scale. I want them to see the signifance if “Fitspo” instead of “Thinspo.”
thigh gap or squat rack?
Stop living by numbers! Feel good in your skin. Feel healthy. Treat your body well.
you can be sitting or you can be strong. “Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.”
I often turn to pictures of strong, fit females for my “Fitsporation.” I am dedicated and work hard to gain lean muscle mass and eat healthfully. Yet I don’t beat myself up when results don’t appear overnight. I don’t self loathe if my weight fluctuates. I don’t restrict meals if I have an ‘off day.’ And I will never, ever again accept society or media pressure to be thin.
I am making it my personal mission to help social media users see that “strong IS sexy!”
*I was very picky while choosing the images for this post. I have been working on this for a while. The women I have chosen to feature all have one thing in common: HEALTH. The body was designed to be fed! The body was built to move! Muscles are meant to be developed and utilized! These women are strong and motivating! While they are models, I still find them admirable and follow these ladies through social media. These are the women that have guided me away from the ‘thin’ stereotypes.
*** THERE’S MORE TO LIFE THAN SCALES & NUMBERS ***
Don’t crumble under media pressure to be thin. If you feed it what it needs and activate muscles through exercise, your true health and inner confidence will shine through. You are better than just a number on a scale…
I love your post! It is so true how girls want to be rail thin and think that is the healthy way to be. And the fit girls are so motivating and inspirational! Thanks for sharing your post. Have a great week!
Theresa
I’m glad! I told myself that if I could reach at least one person with this post, I would be happy. And I definitely am. I put a lot of thought into it because the whole ‘thinspo’ just makes me sad and seems “outdated” with all of the various opportunities we have at our fingertips nowawdays to be healthy…
Oh my gosh, it freaks me out every time I randomly stumble upon some Twitter users that have thinspo all over their feeds. The images they post, the things they write, it seriously makes me so utterly sad for them that they don’t understand that they are killing themselves and they are striving for death ultimately. It infuriates me that there is a whole SUPPORT community for thinspo people. These people have in their headlines that they are ANA and love it and stuff like that which just blows my mind. It almost makes me want to cry that these people do not understand that they are starving themselves. They support each other’s self-loathing. They support themselves by cheering each other on for having just carrots for dinner and not binging for x amount of hours/days.
I have to say I am not fully into the fitspo thing either though although I most definitely see it as a great motivator and a great thing to inspire others to stay and get fit. The thing I dislike about it, is that it is also in the “fitspo/thinspo” -spo caterogy which encourages women to get extremely cut and get in low fat % and workout consistently. I think it may lead some women to develop orthorexia, which is an obsession with being healthy, and striving for the almost-impossible with the amazing bodies with muscles, as those things are not entirely realistic and the models in these images are usually in the midst of a special diet that should not be prolonged for health-reasons. I think women may see that differently and think that these models look like that at all times, all day every day and it may depress them when they realize that they don’t look like that. So in turn, they may push themselves harder and harder, to no avail.
Again, fitspo can be a great thing but it can be a damaging thing as well.
It all depends on the viewer.
I absolutely agree, which is why I included my note at the bottom. I hoped to make it apparent that while the models are indeed just that (models) they still have a commonality of health. While they “got into shape’ for a photoshoot or competition, they have worked hard to veer from intense societal pressure to be thin. I wanted to point out that strong is sexy and that health, in general, means to feed and treat the body well, not deprive it of the things for which it was designed. Yes, I am sadly aware that there are some people who may take this the wrong way and are possibly striving to still “look like a model.” All the while, I am simply trying to bring awareness to the realities of all the social network support for deprivation, starvation, & thinness which continues pressure people of all ages. “Eat Well, Move Often, Think Openly, Sleep Peacefully & Live Optimally.”