‘App’y Little Dieters: Neoliberalism, Post-Feminism and Genomics in Fitness and Nutrition Apps
Date
2021-06
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Abstract
The discourse around health and wellness can be tied to neoliberal fixations on optimization, self-discipline and personal responsibility. Health and fitness apps promise to simplify this constant work, but their effect is a further responsibilization of individuals living under neoliberal capitalism, as they both profit from and reinforce the idea that each of us is uniquely responsible for our own health outcomes, regardless of social, cultural or relational factors that may impact our well-being. This health-related responsibilization, or “healthism” creates a context wherein we must work constantly to optimize ourselves, or be held at fault for any illness or infirmity we may experience. In this piece, I consider three apps—Lose It!, Fitbit and the Pam app--which offer users advice on health-related subjects including nutrition, “fitness” and sleep quality. This advice is often framed as scientifically backed, and in the case of Lose It!, even tied to the user’s unique genetic code. This scientific framing takes advantage of what Kaushik Sunder Rajan (2006) has described as “fetishes” both around science and genetic determinism, relying on our faith in science to convince us of the validity of their claims, whether those claims are truly backed by research or not. In the case of apps like Lose It! and Fitbit, collecting data on an ever-growing array of “health” metrics, and furthering the push towards the “quantified self” (Elias & Gill 2018). This quantification pushes individuals, and women in particular, to go to ever-greater lengths to surveil themselves and demonstrate their subjectivity through self-discipline, which they must show at least in part by maintaining or achieving thinness (Guthman & DuPuis 2006). Apps like the Pam app rely on the image of an influencer who performs ideal neoliberal subjectivity, which involves constant productivity, a positive affect, and of course a thin body, to attract users. All of these apps both rely on and reinforce neoliberal ideology, adding to our ongoing responsibilization and distracting us from broader cultural problems which require collective action and solidarity rather than the rampant individualism neoliberalism inculcates in us all.
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Apps, Health & Fitness, Wellness Culture, genomics, media, neoliberalism, neoliberal hegemony, Healthism, Biocapital, post-feminism, Fitness
Citation
Brown, T. (2021). ‘App’y Little Dieters: neoliberalism, post-feminism and genomics in fitness and nutrition apps (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.