There's no denying that "thinspiration" is out, and getting toned and fit is in. But are women really getting fit for themselves or are they just sweating it out at the gym to fit in?



The New York Post chats with a 24-year-old ex-dancer, who traded her intense cardio workouts and extreme diets for intense resistance workouts and weight lifting, gaining 20 lbs of pure muscle meat in the process. And she claims that trading her slim physique for something more fit has changed her life for the better.

But while it might seem that women are taking control of their bodies, Jezebel writer Erin Gloria Ryan thinks headlines like "STRONG IS THE NEW SKINNY" doesn't exactly send the right kind of message. Here's why:
The way the Post writes it, "strong" is just another way women can look hot for other people rather than a way to live as a physical being for herself. One ex-"skinny" woman who discovered strength now has "a toned butt and her prized cut legs." Another one brags about eating "gobs of almond butter whenever [she] want[s]!" due to faster metabolism and not having to count calories. Another helpfully points out that men like women with a little meat on their bones anyway. All of the women pictured with the article are conventionally attractive, slender women in full makeup whose expensive gym memberships have helped them to have muscular — but not, like, Williams sister muscular — bodies.

Great. "Strong is the new skinny" means "now you have to lift weights to be fuckable."

Being strong and formidable shouldn't be approached as a goal that pleases others; being strong and formidable are their own rewards. And women don't need a "new skinny." They need to be left the fuck alone and given the space to exist for themselves.
Interesting, definitely something to ponder about when you start receiving those unsolicited comments about  how "hot" you look now that you're sweating it out at the gym.