‘Sexercise’: working out heterosexuality in Jane Fonda’s fitness books

Abstract

This paper explores the connection between the promotion of heterosexual norms in women's fitness books written by or in the name of Jane Fonda during the 1980s and the commodification of women's fitness space in both the public and private spheres. The paper is set in the absence of overt discussions of normative heterosexuality in leisure studies and draws on critical heterosexual scholarship as well as the growing body of work theorising geographies of corporeality and heterosexuality. Using the principles of media discourse analysis, the paper identifies three overlapping characteristics of heterosexuality represented in Jane Fonda's fitness books, and embodied through the exercise regimes; respectable heterosexual desire , monogamous procreation and domesticity. The paper concludes that the promotion and prescription of exercise for women in the Jane Fonda Workout books centred on the re-production and embodiment of heterosexual corporeality. Set within an emerging commercial landscape of women's fitness in the 1980s such exercise practices were significant in the legitimation and institutionalisation of heteronormativity.

Embodying Industrial Knowledge: An Epistemological Approach to the Formation of Body Knowledge in the Fitness Industry

“…Women form the majority of customers in group fitness classes, even though aerobic classes are masculinized to try to attract more male customers (Brabazon, 2000). Mansfield (2011b) suggests that within the heteronormative framework of female fitness exercise regimes, fitness spaces are heterosexual spaces despite potential gender differences among trainers and customers. These heterosexual spaces and heteronomativity regulate fitness trainers' relationality with their customers and the way they display their bodies to class participants.…”

“…In this sense, the lived body becomes a key factor in understanding how industrial fitness knowledge is transmitted and reproduced in the performance of fitness trainers. Drawing upon empirical research on group fitness instructors and trainers (De Lyon & Cushion, 2013;Felstead, Fuller, Jewson, Kakavelakis, & Unwin, 2007;Lloyd, 2008;Malek, Nalbone, Berger, & Colburn 2002;Mansfield, 2011aMansfield, , 2011bMelton, Katula, & Mustian 2008;Smith Maguire, 2008), my analysis focuses on the businessdriven work environment that imposes demands in the form of specific skills and approaches to fitness service delivery.…”

“…By focusing on embodiment, they have considered how complex processes of social, cultural, and political differentiation proceed through bodily channels, and how power relations shape the body (Pedwell, 2010). Feminist research on female fitness has already explicated the power system underlying the work of fitness professionals and their knowledge production (e.g., Lloyd, 2008;Mansfield, 2011b;Smith Maguire, 2008). Adopting a feminist lens of intersectionality and Ahmed's concept of inter-embodiment allows me to analyze the power mechanisms of forming body knowledge.…”

The Fitness Revolution. Historical Transformations in the Global Gym and Fitness Culture

“…Fonda advocated a life where fitness is compatible with child-care and domestic work. Her videos also targeted an audience of house-wives, making it possible to exercise in front of the television at home (Mansfield, 2011). In the autobiography Fonda (2005) described her lifetime work with fitness and workout.…”

“…Her first book sold 17 million copies, and she became an important part of the international fitness industry. Fonda released altogether twenty-three workout videos and five workout books during the 1980s and 90s (Mansfield, 2011).…”