This Girl Can

There's a video that has been making the viral rounds this past week. It's the promo for a campaign in the UK to get women more active. Sponsored by Sport England, the video is remarkable for showing real women doing myriad activities, and is more inclusive than many typical fitness promotions. The intial message is to do what you love, there are plenty of options, and physical activity is for all ages, sizes, and abilities. Very positive, that.

The campaign was created because the statistics are dismal when it comes to body image affecting women's reluctance to get active. We worry too much about what others think. "Fear of judgement is stopping many of us from taking part in exercise." There are 2 million fewer active women than men in the UK, and 75% say they want to do more but cite "fear of judgement as why they keep out of sport and activity." I'm sure many of us can relate.

There are pros and cons to the campaign. First, the video:

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What's good about This Girl Can:

• It is much more inclusive than similar campaigns have historically been. Age, race, various levels of ability, and most body types are more broadly represented. 
  
• The purpose is to get women to overcome judgment and shame that they feel, to "wiggle, jiggle, and even sweat" no matter what anyone thinks.
  
• It "celebrates women in sport regardless of their physical appearance," and does not focus "on fitness being the means to achieve a certain body type." The focus is on being active without the pressure to achieve thinness.
• Sports which are often considered male dominated, like boxing or raquetball, are included. It's not all yoga and Zumba. 
• Speaking of the men, even though this campaign is aimed at women, anything which helps to show real women's bodies in a positive light benefits the guys, too. Enough with the tanned, fitness-model-sex-pose, skimpily-clad women being used to promote health. Men need to see images of "real" women just as much as the ladies do. It normalizes something that should already be normal.
• Swimming! There is swimming, prominently featured! Love that. 

Where they missed the mark:

• Refers to women of all ages as "girls" instead of, well, women. Or athletes. "Women’s sporting bodies have been subject to a long history of infantilisation, and as the American philosopher Iris Marion Young said, “throwing like a girl” is a common insult that excludes women from feeling strong, capable and respected." There are some 50 year olds who are speaking out against the campaign, because it excludes seniors and focuses on the 14-40 demographic.
• The focus is still on the flesh, on women as sexualized objects. The captions indicate that we should enjoy exercise despite how others perceive our physical flaws, which reinforces that they are still flaws. 
• I didn't see any obese bodies, only fat ones. Why stop half-way? Show people like me being as active as I am, not just the women who have a little jiggle. There was some disappointing reinforcement of what an acceptable body is, even though this campaign pushed the boundaries broader for what is acceptable.
• "It’s disappointing that a campaign to get women more physically active doesn’t focus on how exercise strengthens friendship, reduces the stress of work and care and gives us physical and emotional strength. And we suppose it would be far too much to ask to see a campaign that shows exercise as an opportunity to find an active space outside the cult of body worship and display."
• Able-bodied women are privileged in this campaign. There are no wheelchairs, canes, crutches, or obvious physical disabilities included in the video. Granted, the images move quickly. I think there is one girl with developmental challenges. It's just worth pointing out that it's not as inclusive as it's being made out to be.

Ultimately, the campaign is a really positive step in the right direction. It has caught the world's attention. It has expanded a very narrow view of health and fitness just a little bit further. And it has people talking. Where this campaign fell short, many others have not even come close. This Girl Can has raised the bar for how the media portrays and talks about fitness and sport, which has been a long time coming.

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Read more about "This Girl Can":

• This Girl Can website
• Could #ThisGirlCan be the first female health campaign that doesn't shame or exclude women?
  
• The ThisGirlCan campaign is all about sex, not sport
• This Girl Can? Sport's for us older 'girls' too, you know