IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v90y2013icp63-71.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Your body is your business card”: Bodily capital and health authority in the fitness industry

Author

Listed:
  • Hutson, David J.

Abstract

Although scholars have noted the connection between appearance and assumptions of health, the degree to which these assumptions matter for establishing authority in social interaction remains less clear. Using a theoretical framework involving “bodily capital”—that is, the value generated from appearance, attractiveness, and physical ability—I investigate the role of appearance in the U.S. fitness industry. Drawing on data from interviews with 26 personal trainers and 25 clients between 2010 and 2011, I find that a trainer's fit-appearing physique imbues their interactions with a degree of moral and health authority. This corporeal credibility engenders trust among clients and allows exercise to be understood as a form of health work. The implications for academics and medical practitioners reach beyond the gym setting and extend recent research linking appearance to health, authority, and medical credibility.

Suggested Citation

  • Hutson, David J., 2013. "“Your body is your business card”: Bodily capital and health authority in the fitness industry," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 63-71.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:90:y:2013:i:c:p:63-71
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.05.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953613002700
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.05.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jutel, Annemarie, 2006. "The emergence of overweight as a disease entity: Measuring up normality," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(9), pages 2268-2276, November.
    2. Saguy, Abigail, 2013. "What's Wrong with Fat?: The War on Obesity and its Collateral Damage," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199857081.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jovanovic, Maja, 2014. "Creating the ‘dis-ease’ of high cholesterol: A sociology of diagnosis reception analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 120-128.
    2. Gutin, Iliya, 2022. "Not ‘putting a name to it’: Managing uncertainty in the diagnosis of childhood obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 294(C).
    3. Jutel, Annemarie, 2010. "Framing disease: The example of female hypoactive sexual desire disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1084-1090, April.
    4. Saguy, Abigail C. & Frederick, David & Gruys, Kjerstin, 2014. "Reporting risk, producing prejudice: How news reporting on obesity shapes attitudes about health risk, policy, and prejudice," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 125-133.
    5. Greener, Joe & Douglas, Flora & van Teijlingen, Edwin, 2010. "More of the same? Conflicting perspectives of obesity causation and intervention amongst overweight people, health professionals and policy makers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(7), pages 1042-1049, April.
    6. Vallgårda, Signild, 2015. "Governing obesity policies from England, France, Germany and Scotland," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 317-323.
    7. Gaspar, Maria Clara de Moraes Prata & Sato, Priscila de Morais & Scagliusi, Fernanda Baeza, 2022. "Under the ‘weight’ of norms: Social representations of overweight and obesity among Brazilian, French and Spanish dietitians and laywomen," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    8. Nicholls, Stuart G., 2013. "Standards and classification: A perspective on the ‘obesity epidemic’," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 9-15.
    9. Gardner, John & Dew, Kevin & Stubbe, Maria & Dowell, Tony & Macdonald, Lindsay, 2011. "Patchwork diagnoses: The production of coherence, uncertainty, and manageable bodies," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 843-850, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:90:y:2013:i:c:p:63-71. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.