“Military leaders … tell us that when more than one in four young people are unqualified for military service because of their weight,” the first lady says in the prepared remarks, “childhood obesity isn’t just a public health threat, it’s not just an economic threat, it’s a national security threat as well."
You know, I still have an old certificate from high school tucked away in storage proving that I had earned the Presidential Physical Fitness Award, "in recognition of outstanding physical achievement and exceptional dedication to the ideal of a sound mind in a strong body," with the Gipper himself congratulating me on this accomplishment. Yet even in those glory days of missile defense shields and Red Dawn, I can't say I recall any of my gym teachers, in between mouthfuls of Diet Pepsi and glazed pastries, urging us on to tally more sit-ups, more pull-ups and faster fifty-yard dashes in the name of being ready to beat back the commies from our sacred shores. What was it Jennifer Hecht said about this strange fetish for physical fitness...?
Through studying history, I came to believe that gyms are occupying precisely the role they did in Ancient Sparta and in Fascist Germany. Being obsessed with bodies is actually a pretty rare thing in human history and we’re in lousy company....So what is the real story with gyms and gym bodies? What does the cult of exercise really mean?Whenever it pops up in history it means the same thing. It always means: We are strong even though the peons do all the real work for us. We have special arenas marked as leisure where we get muscled at play....When we see this behavior in Ancient Sparta (where the population of Helot slaves outnumbered the Spartans) and in Fascist Germany, and we see the art of those two cultures focusing on the beauty of the toned but clean and uncallused body, we know what we are looking at. It’s more than shallow, it is military, it is deluded, it is oppressive, and a bit grotesque.
3 comments:
Yeah, those gym rats, their sinuous muscles glistening with sweat... make me sick.
You know, it's not an all or nothing proposition. People who make a fetish of the superficial appearance of health are no different from those who fetishize any foolish thing. The national security threat comes from too many unhealthy people needing care they can't afford.
The other end of the spectrum was formerly represented by Johann Hari:
Yes, I always prided myself on not caring about my appearance. I dismissed it as shallow blather, sucking time and energy away from doing things that matter, or just having fun. I saw exercise as dead time and food as fuel, to be inhaled as quickly and deliciously as possible.
I personally work out regularly, and I simply feel better when I do. I don't obsessively monitor my food with a microscope, and I don't care if I increase my lifespan in the process or anything like that, I just feel better in the here and now. As someone said recently (but I can't place the quotation right at the moment), bourgeois virtues aren't necessarily bad or shallow on account of being bourgeois virtues. Self-discipline and moderation, etc., are generally good things to cultivate.
I just thought this was funny because of Michelle Obama explicitly making the fitness/militarism connection that Hecht had pointed out before.
OK:
I am a seriously obsessive gym rat. I will admit that right up front. It's part of a personality package of obsessiveness (I also collect things to the point of bankruptcy). Still...it makes up for some bad dietary habits (I've never met chocolate I couldn't devour) the endorphins are good, and there is the vanity factor....Dammit...I look good for 47 (LOL) and I am no Spartan or Nazi! Plus...much of my exercise obsession is outdoor activity (cycling and hiking) so there is the whole scenery and fresh air thing. I don't track my miles on a computer, I don't own a heart rate monitor, and I don't "train" per se....so I'm not too over the top. Still...if there is a weekend I can't go hiking or cycling because of weather, I get very, very cranky.
Still....the whole YOU VILL BE FIT TO BE A WARRIOR VOR DER VATERLAND thing was very, very funny!
I do love Stop Me Before I Vote Again even when they devolve into their Marxist-Baptist Scold mold. ("What's wrong with living in a grim concrete East German high rise apartment module? Are you some kind of bourgeoise fetishist about houses, comrade?")
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