Cover image for Body Language : Sisters in Shape, Black Women's Fitness, and Feminist Identity Politics.
Body Language : Sisters in Shape, Black Women's Fitness, and Feminist Identity Politics.
Title:
Body Language : Sisters in Shape, Black Women's Fitness, and Feminist Identity Politics.
Author:
Lau, Kimberly J.
ISBN:
9781439903100
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (204 pages)
Contents:
Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1: The Anatomy of a Movement -- 2: Experience: Spirituality, Sisterhood, and the Unspeakable -- 3: Performance: Negotiating Multiple Black Womanhoods -- 4: New Bodies of Knowledge -- 5: Rearticulating Feminist Identity Politics -- Notes -- References -- Index.
Abstract:
In her evocative ethnographic study, Body Language, Kimberly Lau traces the multiple ways in which the success of an innovative fitness program illuminates what identity means to its Black female clientele and how their group interaction provides a new perspective on feminist theories of identity politics-especially regarding the significance of identity to political activism and social change. Sisters in Shape, Inc., Fitness Consultants (SIS), a Philadelphia company, promotes balance in physical, mental, and spiritual health. Its program goes beyond workouts, as it educates and motivates women to make health and fitness a priority. Discussing the obstacles at home and the importance of the group's solidarity to their ability to stay focused on their goals, the women speak to the ways in which their commitment to reshaping their bodies is a commitment to an alternative future. Body Language shows how the group's explorations of black women's identity open new possibilities for identity-based claims to recognition, justice, and social change.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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