This Girl Can – A stereotype in need of a makeover?

Fitness bloggers and gym-goers have created a world of post-gym selfies, an A-Z of the best protein to be had and celebrate DOMS (delayed offset muscle soreness). With hordes of Twitter followers, Facebook likes and tons of traffic, fitness fans have given the once sweaty, unattractive workout, a fashion makeover.

The beginning of January saw the launch of a new campaign – This Girl Can – designed to get young girls and women more active.

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN7lt0CYwHg[/youtube]

Their survey found that two million fewer women than men are active, but, of that 75% want to do more. This Girl Can tackles the barriers that stop millions of women from being active.

Its campaign features “everyday girls and women of all shapes, sizes and sporting abilities that sweat and jiggle when they exercise”. This Girl Can focuses on real woman opposed to the super-fit, stylish figure we often see, does it work? Yes.

The campaign, which has had almost 7 million hits on YouTube embraces the insecurities of woman in terms of their appearance and stance and encourages them.

Nonetheless, there are aspects of the campaign which are niggling at me.

Why are we celebrating females being able to kick a football? In fact, when they say “I kick balls, deal with it”, who are they talking to? Men? Surely, This Girl Can is highlighting the stereotypes so many of us have snubbed over the years?

Personally, I don’t feel empowered by the campaign.

For me, it’s disappointing that This Girl Can focuses solely on the appearance of women and not how exercise promotes better sleep, reduces stress, and boosts self-esteem, good mood, as well as reducing your risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Surely these are the reasons we should be encouraging everyone, including the 75% of girls and women who want to do more in terms of fitness?

I applaud This Girl Can for being different and not following in the same footsteps as many other promotional campaigns but we should show positive messages too.

An example I’d like to share with you is from Nike* who teamed up with Ellie Goulding to illustrate how fitness fits into her life.

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3si_33jo5Q[/youtube]

She emphasises how keeping fit makes her happy and excited (there’s the good mood box ticked from my list).

NB* no mention of sweating like a pig, feeling like a fox or applause for kicking a ball.

Ellie might not be “sweating like a pig” and “feeling like a fox” but she and Nike have highlighted why fitness is important and have steered clear of the dreaded V word, vanity. After all, the gym is a judge-free zone.

I’ll kick off the following hashtag and hope to get it trending #JudgeFreeZoneGym.

Who’s with me?

Silvia