Completely Meaningless Observations
Aug. 19th, 2010 12:27 pmOne of the side effects of working out frequently, on my own, is a growing familiarity with workout videos. I've got a dozen or so, which means that I'm in the odd position of becoming familiar with a decent number, but watching that same number over and over again. And I've started to notice something.
It's fascinating how the producers of these things feel the need to market to different subsets of their audience - in particular, different genders. And I've seen enough videos to realize that, as far as I can tell, these tricks are close to universal.
All of the Workout Video Women are constantly cheery and perky and happy beyond belief. They all have these huge, bright, toothpaste-commercial smiles, as though nothing in the world could be more fun and exciting and easy than doing their Triceps Tummy Toner Power Blast.
(That's another thing I've noted - workout videos aimed at women all feel the need to give their moves idiotic cutesy-poo names. Men do Crunches with a French Press. Women do Triceps Tummy Toners. It works, though I doubt they actually intend the ab workout to be from gagging at the hideosity of the name....)
All the guys in the workout videos, though, always have Serious Faces. No grins, no smiles, and usually a slightly furrowed brow or gritted teeth. Because their workout is Hard. And Serious. And Tough. And the fact that they can power through their crunches makes them buff, hardcore He-Men. Never mind that these are the same crunches that the women are prancing through with beauty-pageant faces.
And it's interesting to think about what this implies in terms of the producers' perceptions of their audiences, and how they're trying to motivate them to continue watching and playing along with their videos. Am I supposed to be spurred on by the encouragement that this is easy? Or that if I too keep on working, I can be happy and beautiful like them? Are they afraid that if guys think it's easy, they won't do it?
I'm not sure whether I should be amused or offended.... and at the same time, either way, it's not exactly stopping me from continuing to consume their goods.....
It's fascinating how the producers of these things feel the need to market to different subsets of their audience - in particular, different genders. And I've seen enough videos to realize that, as far as I can tell, these tricks are close to universal.
All of the Workout Video Women are constantly cheery and perky and happy beyond belief. They all have these huge, bright, toothpaste-commercial smiles, as though nothing in the world could be more fun and exciting and easy than doing their Triceps Tummy Toner Power Blast.
(That's another thing I've noted - workout videos aimed at women all feel the need to give their moves idiotic cutesy-poo names. Men do Crunches with a French Press. Women do Triceps Tummy Toners. It works, though I doubt they actually intend the ab workout to be from gagging at the hideosity of the name....)
All the guys in the workout videos, though, always have Serious Faces. No grins, no smiles, and usually a slightly furrowed brow or gritted teeth. Because their workout is Hard. And Serious. And Tough. And the fact that they can power through their crunches makes them buff, hardcore He-Men. Never mind that these are the same crunches that the women are prancing through with beauty-pageant faces.
And it's interesting to think about what this implies in terms of the producers' perceptions of their audiences, and how they're trying to motivate them to continue watching and playing along with their videos. Am I supposed to be spurred on by the encouragement that this is easy? Or that if I too keep on working, I can be happy and beautiful like them? Are they afraid that if guys think it's easy, they won't do it?
I'm not sure whether I should be amused or offended.... and at the same time, either way, it's not exactly stopping me from continuing to consume their goods.....