Premium
Fitness Fanatics: Exercise as Answer to Pending Zombie Apocalypse in Contemporary America
Author(s) -
Hejtmanek Katie Rose
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
american anthropologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1548-1433
pISSN - 0002-7294
DOI - 10.1111/aman.13462
Subject(s) - zombie , elite , audit , race (biology) , physical fitness , ethnography , sociology , history , gender studies , political science , politics , medicine , computer security , law , management , anthropology , physical therapy , computer science , economics
Physical fitness has a long history in the United States. Currently, functional fitness has emerged as a popular, novel method of exercising. Based on years of ethnographic research on a branded version of functional fitness, I argue this form of exercise is an audit system and culture, initiated by the creators of the brand itself, implemented in the gyms, and governed by the participants. This article illustrates that such an exercise regimen is a response to the post‐9/11 world—complete with war on terror, economic insecurity, and border security threats—and provides a window into the necropolitics of elite, white America due to an uncertain, neoliberal future. [ fitness, audit culture, race, zombie apocalypse, United States ]