It is a two panel comic, the top panel has a person asking: ‘Why are so many gymbro and self-improvement spaces right wing?’
The bottom panel has a second person responding: ‘The seemingly “apolitical” values that are often reinforced in these spaces (individual success, hustle mindset, being the strongest etc.) align with common neoliberal and conservative talking points and thereby make it easy for people within these spaces to become more susceptible to classist, patriarchal, ableist, racist and other oppressive narratives.’
However I think it would be a bad idea to cede health and fitness as being inherently right wing. I believe they’ve basically “set up shop” there to install a pipeline, like they try to do to everything.
There’s a totally different perspective available for resistance training, one in which we build a supportive community that connects people from different backgrounds and disperses knowledge that can vastly improve people’s lives.
I think we should make it political, in other words
I agree with you that we should not let them just have these spaces. Also, as you said, we can change the perspective of these spaces as something to empower people.
That’s one thing that Crossfit did / does really well. It builds a community around health and fitness. Obviously there is other baggage with Crossfit that I do not like, but it provides a model for how we can come together to support each other in that aspect of health.
It is a two panel comic, the top panel has a person asking: ‘Why are so many gymbro and self-improvement spaces right wing?’
The bottom panel has a second person responding: ‘The seemingly “apolitical” values that are often reinforced in these spaces (individual success, hustle mindset, being the strongest etc.) align with common neoliberal and conservative talking points and thereby make it easy for people within these spaces to become more susceptible to classist, patriarchal, ableist, racist and other oppressive narratives.’
Tysm! Yeah I’d say I pretty much agree with that,
However I think it would be a bad idea to cede health and fitness as being inherently right wing. I believe they’ve basically “set up shop” there to install a pipeline, like they try to do to everything.
There’s a totally different perspective available for resistance training, one in which we build a supportive community that connects people from different backgrounds and disperses knowledge that can vastly improve people’s lives.
I think we should make it political, in other words
Very welcome!
I agree with you that we should not let them just have these spaces. Also, as you said, we can change the perspective of these spaces as something to empower people.
That’s one thing that Crossfit did / does really well. It builds a community around health and fitness. Obviously there is other baggage with Crossfit that I do not like, but it provides a model for how we can come together to support each other in that aspect of health.