Challenges And Reshaping Of Women's Body In Fitness Practic

In traditional social gender discourse,women’s bodies are always in the status of objects,and they are the objects gazed and protected by men.Women’s bodies are shaped and disciplined by gendered social body views and aesthetic body views.The initiative and the right to speak of the body have been missing for a long time.Western aesthetics is constantly disseminated through mass media,and the aesthetic standards of "health and beauty" for women’s bodies have entered the public’s field of vision.With the rapid expansion of the gym industry in China,weight training,as a sport that mainly builds muscles,is also attracting more and more women to participate in it.This article adopts research methods such as literature review and interview,and interviews 12 young women who have experience in weight training for one year or more as the research objects.From the perspective of feminism,focusing on the two core concepts of "female body view" and "body movement",it focuses on the motivation of women to participate in weight training and the social construction of women’s bodies behind it,women’s embodied experience in the process of weight training and The exertion of body subjectivity,the impact of participating in weight training on the body of female individuals and the path analysis.Through investigation and research,this paper believes that:First,the purpose and motivation of women in modern society to participate in weight training include health needs,occupational needs,aesthetic needs and safety needs.Underneath these demands lies the discipline and control of women by the gendered social body concept and aesthetic body concept.Specifically,femininity under social norms strengthens the aesthetic attributes of women’s bodies and weakens women’s physical strength.The female body is simultaneously shaped as an object to be admired by men and an object to be protected by men.Second,in the process of participating in weight training,women experience a different physical experience from participating in other sports that conform to femininity.From the perspective of "body movement",the agency of women’s bodies can be fully exerted in the process of weight training.The acquisition process of body skills reflects the active selection of women’s body knowledge and physical skills on the basis of self-perception and understanding.The generative experience of weight training mirrors the self-empowerment of women’s bodies and the reshaping of self-agents in fitness practice.The experience of being with others and the reflexive experience show how the female subject consciousness is awakened by the body experience,thus actively resisting the process of social gender norms.Third,weight training has an impact on women’s original body concept.On the one hand,weight training enables women to change their weak body image,enhance their sense of control over their body and life,and get rid of the fear and dependence on male power,which is conducive to impacting the original unequal social gender order.On the other hand,the participation of weight training makes women’s aesthetic concepts more diversified,gets rid of the shackles of single and pathological aesthetic standards,provides more possibilities for realizing self-beauty,and liberates women’s bodies from the shackles of aesthetic standards.The search for a new self-identity offers possible paths.Last but not least,starting from the body experience of women participating in fitness practice,this paper explores a path of "focusing on body experience—awakening subject consciousness—reflective thinking—resisting gender norms—realizing body liberation".Women’s active perception of their own body and reflective thinking are always the most important links.Only by awakening the perception of their own body in fitness practice and constantly reflecting on and correcting past gender experiences can women’s body be truly realized at the individual level liberation.