Women's Fitness Culture

It’s not uncommon for women to post carefully crafted exercise photos on social media to foster a culture of empowerment. But could this be causing more harm than good?

In this episode, Amelia is joined by Dr Madison Magladry and Professor Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani to discuss how we can build a more positive fitness culture that better supports women’s physical and mental health.

  • Women’s fitness culture on Instagram [0:54]
  • Why women exercise less than men [04.09]
  • Fostering a more inclusive social media environment [09:43]
  • Main factors affecting motivation [14:55]
  • Fitness influencers becoming a source of authority [18:18]
  • Broadening the discussion – experiences of non-binary people, older people and gay men in the gym [24:14]
  • How COVID-19 has impacted fitness [31:40]
  • Promoting a healthier fitness culture [36:37]

Our experts

Dr Madison Magladry: Twitter – @MagladryMadison

Professor Cecilie Thøgersen-Ntoumani: Twitter – @ecthogersen, Web –pawresearchgroup.com

Learn more

ABC: Tayla Harris AFLW photo could become landmark moment in Australian sport

ABC News: When the pursuit of fitness and exercise is a slog, how do we stay motivated?

Broad Agenda: How feminist is fitness culture
Decolonizing Fitness

Guardian: Man runs marathon on 7-metre balcony during French lockdown

Susanna Barkataki

Got any questions, or suggestions for future topics?

Email thefutureof@curtin.edu.au.

Curtin University supports academic freedom of speech. The views expressed in The Future Of podcast may not reflect those of the university.

Music: OKAY by 13ounce Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Music promoted by Audio Library

You can read the full transcript for the episode here