AUT Master of Creative Writing Thesis Exegesis - Scholarly ...

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AUT Master of Creative Writing 2008 Shorty © Michael Botur 2009 qualities), aren’t primarily young, but they are anxious. Queensland’s Life- Patterns project (Donald, McRobbie and Garber 2000) looked at measures taken by people to underscore their mental health, especially the struggle to achieve a balance in life activities. It was found that circumstances must be actively engaged with, and pragmatic choices made to invoke stimuli. This is why Gina goes gymming and engages with Aro, who is revealed to have her own struggle for lifestyle balance. Gina and Aro have both been successful in domains traditionally dominated by males: real estate and personal training, respectively. This is relevant to the prowess of females in the classroom (Donald, McRobbie and Garber.) It can be taken that the pressures applied against Gina and Aro are mostly internal (guilt, self-doubt) but also external in terms of their persecution by the Paradise Lots residents and Gina’s colleagues Tarariki and Mt Victor. Regarding internal pressures, the reasons that Gina fears the gym are simple – exercise fatigues the body, and Gina already works hard. Aro, on the other hand, is used to the fatigue and endurance of exercise, but cannot leave her domestic situation and move to a safe, isolated domicile, as Gina has. Gina and Aro are not as young as the Life Patterns subjects surveyed, but they are not fully matured either. Gina hasn’t learned to confront those who mock her bulimia although she has a more powerful professional position than her accusers. Aro, on the other hand, is appreciated by most people for her physicality, but is victimised at home 16
AUT Master of Creative Writing 2008 Shorty © Michael Botur 2009 by her neighbours, when she is not protected by her work. Thus, the subculture of gym prowess, and the condition of gymorexia (excessive concern for an overexercised physical appearance - Urban Dictionary Gymorexic http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gymorexic November 2008), are shown to have identifiers (physical refinement, exhaustedness, high thresholds for achievement). Prowess in a competitive gym is not social protection enough, however. Subcultural denial exists with Gina and Aro, located in their gymorexia. They come together through the personal trainer relationship which reveals what they cannot deny to themselves: Aro can’t deny those who tell her that her physical prowess is worthless without vindication; and Gina can’t deny eating binges. In comparing gymorexia to anorexia, the treatment of these women in traditionally masculine roles suggests that there are sexualised forces withholding them – ‘those who have experienced such abuse are more likely to have more serious and chronic (anorexic) symptoms’ (Carter et al 2006 pp257-69.) Aro and Gina’s story is one of withstanding social pressure in a Western cultural environment in which the pressures of physical prowess and business success are unrelenting, and must be confronted. Eating Is Cheating 17
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