Fit ideals, everyday practices: How young women negotiate fitspiration through consumption.
Psychology of Popular Media, 2026 (SSCI, Scopus)
- Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
- Basım Tarihi: 2026
- Doi Numarası: 10.1037/ppm0000705
- Dergi Adı: Psychology of Popular Media
- Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, ComAbstracts, Psycinfo
- Anahtar Kelimeler: body dissatisfaction, consumption, fitspiration, Instagram, self-objectification
- Akdeniz Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet
Özet
Fitspiration on visually driven social media is frequently associated with body dissatisfaction, social comparison, and self-objectification. Drawing on objectification theory, this study employs a phenomenologically informed reflexive thematic analysis to examine how young women in Türkiye interpret fitspiration and use consumption to manage appearance pressures. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 14 women (19–24) who followed fitspiration influencers, and the resulting data were systematically examined to identify key patterns of meaning. Four themes captured how participants (a) used diet and exercise routines as short-term coping strategies, (b) treated influencers as lifestyle brands whose “attainable” bodies extended idealization beyond appearance to everyday practices, (c) moralized bodies by conflating fitness with health and worth, and (d) selectively resisted products and procedures perceived as risky or inauthentic shortcuts. Across themes, participants’ practices were shaped by structural constraints, including rising costs of “healthy” foods and limited access to fitness and clothing markets. Overall, the study conceptualizes consumption not merely as an outcome of fitspiration exposure, but as an embodied coping mechanism through which women negotiate self-objectification and moralized body ideals under economic constraint. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)