Neoliberalism and the Communicative Labor of CrossFit

Abstract

This article examines the “Xtreme” fitness zeitgeist and its implications for agency beyond the gym. Specifically, we explore CrossFit, a particularly prominent fitness program, in light of the ways that neoliberal discourses and the exigencies of being self-made pointedly inform contemporary understandings of gender and the body. Drawing on data from an ethnographically inspired study, we suggest that CrossFit constructs its ideal participant through the three discursive mechanisms of (1) reclamation, (2) self-making, and (3) exceptionalism. Ultimately, we argue that the ideal Xtreme fitness participant, made possible in part by personal branding, reproduces neoliberal self-made discourse by physically wearing one’s moral choices. Moreover, although these discourses complicate gender possibilities, they ultimately reproduce hegemonic ordering that appeals to neoliberal embodiment.