In the name of achievement: women’s fitness body in an era of ‘positivity’

Abstract The fitness body ideal, disseminated through the culture of fitspiration on social media, is frequently framed as a symbol of health, empowerment, and self-discipline. However, its implications warrant critical scrutiny due to its deep entanglement with body dissatisfaction and psychological distress. Unlike the thin ideal, historically linked to patriarchal oppression through Michel Foucault’s concept of the disciplinary society, the fit ideal introduces a more complex paradox. It simultaneously embodies elements of self-sexualisation and objectification while intertwining ostensibly positive discourses of strength, agency, and self-care with hidden mechanisms of control. This theoretical analysis explores how the fit ideal extends beyond the disciplinary mechanisms of the thin ideal, occupying a dual role that merges empowerment narratives with the pressures of self-optimisation. Through Byung-Chul Han’s conceptualisations of the achievement society and psychopolitics , this paper examines how the ideal of self-improvement fosters self-surveillance, body dissatisfaction, and self-exploitation. The neoliberal logic of self-optimisation, embedded in fitness culture, constructs the body as an ongoing project of enhancement, where failure to maintain the fit ideal becomes an internalised moral shortcoming. This relentless pursuit of bodily perfection may lead to cycles of exhaustion, anxiety, and, ultimately, burnout, as individuals strive to meet ever-escalating standards of self-discipline and productivity. Reclaiming the female body and embodied experiences necessitates a critical interrogation of these ideals and their intersections with neoliberal selfhood, consumer culture, and the commodification of feminism. By interrogating the power dynamics that sustain these ideals, this analysis offers a nuanced understanding of how contemporary fitness culture simultaneously engages feminist empowerment discourses while reinforcing the relentless pursuit of self-optimisation in the 21st century. Recognising and challenging these structures is essential to disrupting the insidious forms of control that masquerade as agency and empowerment.