Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Healthism, Girls’ Embodiment, and Contemporary Health and Physical Education: From Weight Management to Digital Practices of Optimization

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Handbook of Feminism and Sport, Leisure and Physical Education

Abstract

This chapter offers a critical exploration of contemporary forms of healthism within health and physical education, and girls’ subjectivities and bodies. I suggest that health and physical education (HPE) is being reshaped by a complex assemblage of health and emerges as a pedagogical site through which new health imperatives circulate. Drawing on various feminist contributions to this research agenda, I explore two contemporary public health priorities that are the result of this assemblage and are shaping the policies and pedagogies of HPE in ways that have significant implications for girls’ subjectivities and embodiment. First, whilst healthism has long held a presence in the curriculum and practices of HPE, I outline how it has been intensified by an obesity discourse (Education, disordered eating and obesity discourse: Fat fabrications, Routledge, 2008) and its accompanying moral panic. Second, I examine the shift towards digitization within HPE whereby commercial digital health technologies are increasingly being used to track and monitor students’ bodies and health. Throughout, I indicate the numerous contributions of feminist research in helping to frame the critical analysis of healthism within HPE and its impact on girls’ experiences of their bodies and subjectivities. Reflecting on these contemporary features of HPE, I argue that feminist research might be at a critical juncture in responding to these challenges and addressing the complex gendered relationalities within these contexts. As such, this may warrant future discussions focused on the exploration of new conceptual, empirical and methodological approaches.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 299.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 379.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ahmed, S. (2004). Differences that matter: Feminist theory and postmodernism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aphramor, L. (2005). Is a weight-centred health framework salutogenic? Some thoughts on unhinging certain dietary ideologies. Social Theory and Health, 3, 315–340.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ayo, N. (2012). Understanding health promotion in a neoliberal climate and the making of health conscious citizens. Critical Public Health, 22(1), 99–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Azzarito, L. (2010). Future girls, transcendent femininities and new pedagogies: Toward girls’ hybrid bodies? Sport, Education and Society, 15, 261–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bordo, S. (1995). Unbearable weight: Feminism, western culture, and the body. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brady, J., Gingras, J., & Aphramor, L. (2013). Theorizing health at every size as a relational–cultural endeavour. Critical Public Health, 23(3), 345–355.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burrows, L. (2011). I’m proud to be me’: Health, community and schooling. Policy Futures in Education, 9(3), 341–352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burrows, L., & Wright, J. (2004). New Zealand children’s perspectives on health and self. Sport, Education and Society, 9(2), 193–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burrows, L., Wright, J., & Jungersen-Smith, J. (2002). Measure your belly’: New Zealand children’s constructions of health and fitness. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 22, 39–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheek, J. (2008). Healthism: A new conservatism? Qualitative Health Research, 18(7), 974–982.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cockburn, C., & Clarke, G. (2002). “Everybody’s looking at you!”: Girls negotiating the “femininity deficit” they incur in physical education. Women’s Studies International Forum, 25(6), 651–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohn, S. (2014). From health behaviours to health practices: An introduction. Sociology of Health & Illness, 36(2), 157–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crawford, R. (1980). Healthism and the medicalization of everyday life. International Journal of Health Services, 10(3), 365–388.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Evans, J., Rich, E., Davies, B., & Allwood, R. (2008). Education, disordered eating and obesity discourse: Fat fabrications. London and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, K. (2014). Critical approaches to health education. In K. Fitzpatrick & R. Tinning (Eds.), Health education: Critical perspectives (pp. 173–189). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fitzpatrick, K., & Tinning, R. (2014). Health education’s fascist tendencies: A cautionary exposition. Critical Public Health, 24(2), 132–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fries, C. J. (2008). Governing the health of the hybrid self: Integrative medicine, neoliberalism, and the shifting biopolitics of subjectivity. Health Sociology Review, 17(4), 353–367.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gard, M. (2004). An elephant in the room and a bridge too far; or physical education and the “obesity epidemic”. In J. Evans, B. Davies, & J. Wright (Eds.), Body knowledge and control: Studies in the sociology of physical education and health. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gard, M. (2014). eHPE: A history of the future. Sport, Education and Society, 1(19), 827–845.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gard, M., & Wright, J. (2005). The obesity epidemic: Science, morality and ideology. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerbensky-Kerber, A. (2011). Grading the “good” body: A poststructural feminist analysis of body mass index initiatives. Health Communication, 26(4), 354–365.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, L., & Leahy, D. (2006). Pursuing HPE outcomes through health education. In R. Tinning, L. McCuaig, & lisahunter (Eds.), Teaching health and physical education in Australian schools (pp. 150–158). Frenchs Forest, NSW: Pearson Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, S., Gray, S., & Horrell, A. (2013). ‘I want to look like that’ healthism, the ideal body and physical education in a Scottish secondary school. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education., 34(3), 457–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jutel, A. (2005). Weighing health: The moral burden of obesity. Social Semiotics, 15(2), 113–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leahy, D. (2012). Assembling a health(y) subject. Unpublished PhD thesis, Deakin University, Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, J., & Macdonald, D. (2010). ‘Are they just checking our obesity or what?’ The healthism discourse and rural young women. Sport, Education and Society, 15(2), 203–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (2012). M-health and health promotion: The digital cyborg and surveillance society. Social Theory and Health, 10(3), 229–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lupton, D. (2015). Data assemblages, sentient schools and digitized health and physical education (response to Gard). Sport, Education and Society, 20(1), 122–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markula, P. (1995). Firm but shapely, fit but sexy, strong but thin: The postmodern aerobicizing female bodies. Sociology of Sport Journal, 12, 424–453.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markula, P., & Pringle, R. (2006). Foucault, sport and exercise. Power, knowledge and transforming the self. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • McEvilly, N., Verheul, M., & Atencio, M. (2015). Physical education at preschools: Practitioners’ and children’s engagements with physical activity and health discourses. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 36(6), 832–852. https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2013.848780.

  • Miah, A., & Rich, E. (2008). The medicalization of cyberspace. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millington, B. (2015). ‘Quantify the Invisible’: Notes toward a future of posture. Critical Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1080/09581596.2015.1085960

  • O’Reilly, C., & Sixsmith, J. (2012). From theory to policy: Reducing harms associated with the weight-centered health paradigm. Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of BodyWeight and Society, 1(1), 97–113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Öhman, M., Almqvist, J., Meckbach, J., & Quennerstedt, M. (2014). Competing for ideal bodies: A study of exergames used as teaching aids in schools. Critical Public Health, 24, 196–209.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olafson, L. (2002). “I hate phys. ed.”: Adolescent girls talk about physical education. The Physical Educator, 52(2), 67–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orbach, S. (1978). Fat is a feminist issue: The anti-diet guide to permanent weight-loss. New Yok: Berkley Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Paechter, C. (2003). Power, bodies and identity: How different forms of physical education construct varying masculinities and femininities in secondary school. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, 3, 47–59.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rail, G., & Jette, S. (2015). Reflections on biopedagogies and/of public health: On bio-others, rescue missions, and social justice. Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies, 15(5), 327–336.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, E., & Miah, A. (2014). Understanding digital health as public pedagogy: A critical framework. Societies, 4, 296–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rich, E., De Pian, L., & Francombe-Webb, J. (2015). Physical cultures of stigmatisation: Health policy and social class. Sociological Research Online, 20(2), 10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, E., & Evans, J. (2005). ‘Fat ethics’ – the obesity discourse and body politics. Social Theory and Health, 3(4), 341–358.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rich, E., & Evans, J. (2012). Performative health in schools. In J. Wright & V. Harwood (Eds.), Biopolitics and the ‘obesity epidemic’: Governing bodies (pp. 157–171). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rich, E., and Miah, A. (2014) Understanding digital health as public pedagogy: A critical framework. Societies, 4: 296–315.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruckenstein, M. (2014). Visualized and interacted life: Personal analytics and engagements with data doubles. Societies, 2, 68–84.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shilling, C. (2003). The body and social theory. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sykes, H., & Mcphail, D. (2008). Unbearable lessons: Contesting fat phobia in physical education. Methodology, 25, 66–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Amsterdam, N. (2013). Big fat inequalities, thin privilege: An intersectional perspective on ‘body size’. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 20, 155–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vander Schee, C. J., & Boyles, D. (2010). Exergaming, corporate interests and the crisis discourse of childhood obesity. Sport, Education and Society, 15, 169–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walseth, K., Aartun, I., & Engelsrud, G. (2015). Girls’ bodily activities in physical education. How current fitness and sport discourses influence girls’ identity construction. Sport, Education and Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2015.1050370

  • Warin, M., Turner, K., Moore, V., & Davies, M. (2008). Bodies, mothers and identities: Rethinking obesity and the BMI. Sociology of Health and Illness, 30(1), 97–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, N. (1991). The beauty myth: How images of beauty are used against women. New York: William Morrow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J. (2014). Beyond body facism: The place for health education. In K. Fitzpatrick & R. Tinning (Eds.), Health education: Critical perspectives (pp. 233–248). Oxon and New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J., & Dean, R. (2007). A balancing act: Problematizing prescriptions about food and weight in school health texts. Journal of Didactics and Educational Policy, 16(2), 75–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J., & Harwood, V. (Eds.). (2009). Biopolitics and the obesity epidemic: Governing bodies. New York and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J., Macdonald, D., & Burrows, L. (Eds.). (2004). Critical inquiry and problem-solving in physical education. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, J., O’Flynn, G., & MacDonald, D. (2006). Being fit and looking healthy: Young women’s and men’s constructions of health and fitness. Sex Roles, 54(9), 707–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bath, Bath, UK

    Emma Rich

Authors
  1. Emma Rich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Brunel University, London, United Kingdom

    Louise Mansfield

  2. Bournemouth University, Poole, United Kingdom

    Jayne Caudwell

  3. University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

    Belinda Wheaton

  4. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, United Kingdom

    Beccy Watson

Copyright information

© 2018 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Rich, E. (2018). Healthism, Girls’ Embodiment, and Contemporary Health and Physical Education: From Weight Management to Digital Practices of Optimization. In: Mansfield, L., Caudwell, J., Wheaton, B., Watson, B. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Feminism and Sport, Leisure and Physical Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53318-0_33

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-53318-0_33

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-53317-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-53318-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation