Name: Zoe Barrett-Kahn

Social Justice Group: 2022-2023, Women’s Role and Representation in the Media (print/ads/tv)

Date of Fieldwork: January 12, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

We decided to interview Natalia Petrzela. She is an author, activist, and fitness expert. We heard about her through our teachers and learned about what she does through her book on the pros and cons of the fitness industry, along with the articles she has written about beauty standards and the fitness industry. She has been in the fitness industry for a while and knows all about the unrealistic standards and socioeconomic divide that goes along with it.

We interviewed Natalia about how the fitness industry’s effects on women and girls, and how it can be quite toxic, along with how she thinks this issue has progressed over time. She told us that although she thinks the issue of the fitness industry and it being toxic (ex. Making comments about how women have been “bad” just by eating or forcing women to pay large amounts of money for a class that doesn’t do much) has gotten better over time, but it is still not great. She also referred us to some other people and organizations we could possible volunteer at in the future, which was really useful. We also read her articles, which also gave us some useful information. One of her articles was about the toxicity of an idea of a “beach body” and how it restricts women and has negative effects on their body image and self esteem. Overall, it was a very useful interview and we learned a lot, it will really help us when we put together our teach-in.