The Hard Work of Working Out
Defining Leisure, Health, and Beauty in a Japanese Fitness Club
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2348835 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Laura Ginsberg (Edwin O. Reischauer Institute for Japanese Studies at Harvard University), Laura Tracy Ginsberg (Institute of Japanese Studies, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2000 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 260-281 |
| Publication date | 2000-08-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Sport and Social Issues (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0193-7235 • E-ISSN: 1552-7638 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0193723500243004 |
| OpenAlex | W2132774774 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 19 |
The author has taken the fitness club as the institutional focus through which to explore how health, beauty, and leisure are constructed, consumed, and challenged in late-capitalist Japan. Given the cultural emphasis on effort and the pervasive and narrow standard for female beauty in Japan, the fact that most fitness club members do not want to work at working out is surprising. This grounded analysis will expose the fitness club as a contradictory space where the tensions between labor and leisure, and between health and beauty, prove to be irreconcilable
Aesthetics · Art · Beauty · Club · Focus (optics · Political science · Public relations · Selection (genetic algorithm · Sociology · Work (physics · Computer Science · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Engineering · Fashion and Cultural Textiles · Gender Studies · Medicine · Social and Cultural Dynamics
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,39 |
| Citation span | 2008 - 2025 (18) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |