Guilt, Women, and Exercise

Abstract: In this thesis I explore exercise-related guilt experienced by mid-age women. While guilt occupies a prominent place in women’s narratives about exercise, it has been largely overlooked in sociocultural research on health, fitness, and related discourses. I argue that guilt plays a significant—and often negative—role in women’s experiences of exercise (e.g., anticipation, performance, and retrospection), often manifesting in anxiety, internalised self-critical surveillance, and even depression. Mid-age women are targets of gendered societal messages and discourses celebrating and moralising an idealised fit feminine body. I draw on the concept of ‘the imperative pathway’ to show how discourses around women’s exercise, health, and bodies create an impasse that is fraught with guilt feelings: complex social forces impose a nexus of responsibilities that reduce available time and resources, while an aging body imposes physical limitations and changes. As a self-conscious emotion (e.g

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource, 333 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Preprint ; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Theologie, Christentum

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 2014
• Creator: Harman, Anita

Further information

• URN: urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-48934-0
• Rights: Open Access; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 25.03.2025, 1:48 PM CET