Appearance is Worth

            This week’s reading “Your Body is your Business Card,” is one that I find particularly relevant to how we see and judge bodies today.  Hudson explores the theoretical framework of  “body capital,” which is the “value generated from appearance, attractiveness, and physical ability” (63).  In the wake of the fast food industry boom and the “epidemic of obestity,” fit bodies are seen more valuable and innately healthier, which means they possess a higher “body capital”. 

There has been a huge push to appear physically fit, but not necessarily be physically fit.  The growth of the weight loss and diet industry are indicators that this is true.  They seemingly offer a way to get skinny overnight without having to put in the hard work that is associated with having a fit body.  This could be another area where we would see fat people as lazy, unmotivated, and inferior to “fit people,”  if they are trying to find a quick solution to get around the hard work that everyone else has to do on their body then they are seen as lazy and unmotivated.  Also the view that they let themselves get fat is another reason why fat people are seen as lazy.  The thinking behind this is that a motivated person would never let their body go like that.

It has become increasingly popular for doctors to talk about body appearance in relation to health.  Maintaining a fit appearing body is associated with health more now than ever before.  To increase their own credibility, physicians may have to work on their appearance before they can get their patients to believe that an active lifestyle is a healthier one.  The same is true about physical trainers at the gym.  To be the most successful trainer, a trainer would have to have one of the most fit bodies/ a high “body capital”.  They invest a lot of time and money in the gym and for food and supplements to build their “body capital” to ensure that they get a pay-off of more clients.  They are treating their body as an investment.  To be fit also implied that those trainers have the most knowledge and so they should be the ones that people trust.  This part of the article made me think of the movie Pain and Gain, with Mark Wahlberg as a body builder, who believes in fitness and that his superior body appearance made him a superior person even though he had never been to college.  He was sickened by people who did not take care of their bodies.  He believed that the world owed him something, so he decided that instead of work to make money that he would steal it from one of his rich clients, who he believed to be lazy because he wasn’t fit.  So he decided to exploit the trust that he had with his client, because he felt that his investment in his body should have paid off more. 

Bodies that are muscular and yet thin are the most sought after and the highest form of “body capital”.  The problem with this is that not all people are born with the “thin” body type, but they can still be fit, as was the case of Jennifer Portnick, who was fired because she looked too heavy but was fit enough to instruct an aerobics class. (65)  This would be an example of how “body capital” only works for people would appear to be physically fit rather than for those who are fit but do not necessarily appear to be. 

I have encountered this within the military world.  I know people who are physically fit but their body type is heavier so to fit within the military body standards they have to be taped to make sure that they are within a certain BMI.  If they do not meet those standards then they fail that portion of the fitness test, even though they may have passed the actual running, crunches, and pushups/pullups portion of the test.  Appearing fit is half the battle.