Speaker
Description
In the social acceleration of modernity, the super woman ideology involves professional, familial, and leisurely obligations producing time pressure among women throughout life. Not being able to meet the obligations, such as leisure-based physical activity, generates emotional consequences which require management. Inspired by the microsociological perspective of Arlie Hochschild (1983; 1997) the present study explores emotional consequences and emotion management related to being physically active or inactive throughout life. The study comprised 25 in-depth semi-structured individual interviews with Danish women (57-71 years) who have been either physically active (N=13) or physically inactive (N=12) during the last 20 years. Results suggest that the physically active women experience exercise as a meaningful activity that helps them manage the emotional consequences of their rushed everyday lives. For example, by creating a liberating space, by involving calming natural spaces, or by enabling a space for unintentional embodied cognition. Notably, women did not express health benefits as a principal motivation for participation. Conversely, the physically inactive women understood exercise as something that should be done because of the health benefits. Due to familial and professional obligations, however, they did not participate in exercise regularly, leading to feelings of shame. Being physically inactive became an emotional burden that had to be managed to create an appropriate publicly facial and bodily display. When health benefits functions as a stigmatizing social obligation among physically inactive women and not as reasons for life-long exercising, it seems highly relevant to discuss the purpose of the health-promoting focus on physical activity.
