![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
Abstract
The first aerobics club in Poland was opened in the autumn of 1983. Hanna Fidusiewicz, a former national team member in artistic gymnastics, was integral in that process. Her efforts brought about the aerobics revolution in its Polish version, and the glocalization of the leisure activity. Under her direction, socialist Poland adapted commercial aerobics as a global commodity in the 1980s. The pre-existing circumstances and available resources determined the female actors’ chances of successfully developing a Polish version of the aerobics workout. Women used their involvement in aerobics to negotiate their own status and to (re)define their self-understanding in an increasingly global community.
Acknowledgements
I extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my interlocutors, who agreed to share their experiences with me. Particular thanks goes to Hanna Fidusiewicz, without whom this article would never have been written. I am also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for reading previous version of this paper and greatly contributing to its improvement.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Nastazja Bloch, ‘Ćwiczymy z polską Jane Fondą. Oto trenerka, do której ustawiały się kolejki kobiet’ [We’re exercising with the Polish Jane Fonda. She is a trainer who women used to queue up to], Dzień dobry TVN [Good Morning TVN], April 21, 2021, https://dziendobry.tvn.pl/zdrowie/sport-i-fitness/hanna-fidusiewicz-nazywana-jest-polska-jane-fonda-kim-jest-trenerka-do-ktorej-ustawialy-sie-kolejki-da337381-5313995 (accessed March 14, 2023).
2 Presently, authors referring to gyms in which various workout styles and methods are propagated usually employ the term ‘fitness’. In the 1980s in the United States and Western European countries the most popular term was ‘workout’, whereas the word ‘aerobics’ was the most commonly used in the 1990s. See Jesper Andreasson and Thomas Johansson, The Global Gym: Gender, Health and Pedagogies (Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 34. In Poland the term ‘aerobics’ was dominant both in the 1980s and the 1990s. In the present article the term ‘aerobics’ is used when referring to local historical context; when referring to global trends, the terms ‘aerobics’, ‘workout’ and ‘fitness’ are used interchangeably.
3 For examples of the globalization of fitness, see Andreasson and Johansson, The Global Gym; Jennifer Smith Maguire, Fit for Consumption. Sociology and the Business of Fitness (London: Routledge, 2008); Roberta Sassatelli, Fitness Culture. Gyms and the Commercialisation of Discipline and Fun (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).
4 Jesper Andreasson and Thomas Johansson, ‘The Fitness Revolution: Historical Transformations in the Global Gym and Fitness Culture’, Sport Science Review XXIII, nos. 3–4 (2014): 91–112.
5 Andreasson and Johansson, The Global Gym, 22.
6 Andreasson and Johansson, ‘The Fitness Revolution’, 98.
7 Merrill J. Melnick and Steve J. Jackson, ‘Globalization American-Style and Reference Selection: The Importance of Athlete Celebrity Others among New Zealand Youth’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport 37, nos. 3–4 (2002): 429–48.
8 Steve J. Jackson and David L. Andrews, ‘Between and Beyond the Global and the Local: American Popular Sporting Culture in New Zealand’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport 34, no. 1 (1999): 31–42.
9 See Laura Spielvogel, Working Out in Japan. Shaping the Female Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 2003); Kari Steen-Johnsen, ‘Globalized Fitness in the Norwegian Context: The Perfect Meets the Popular’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport 42, no. 3 (2007): 343–62.
10 Mette N. Svendsen, ‘The Post-Communist Body: Beauty and Aerobics in Romania’, Anthropology of East Europe Review 14, no. 1 (2000): 8–14.
11 For examples of the gendered theoretical perspective, see Nameeta Mathur, A Sportive Matka Polka – Nationalism and Feminism in Women’s Physical Culture in Modern Poland (Saarbrucken: VDM Verlag, 2009); Honorata Jakubowska, Gra ciałem. Praktyki i dyskursy różnicowania płci w sporcie [Body play. Practices and discourses of gender differentiation in sport] (Warsaw: PWN, 2014). These publications provide information on the role and situation of Polish women in competitive and professional sports, referring to general examples and specific disciplines. Mathur focuses on the interactions between nationalism and feminism in the development of women’s physical culture in modern Poland since the late nineteenth to the late twentieth century. Jakubowska uses the history of women’s participation in the Olympic games in the 1900s as a starting point to analyze how models of masculinity and femininity, as well as gender roles, have been (re)defined and (re)produced in sports. She focuses on the concepts of difference and recognition and the associated notions of equality and justice. The subject of women’s individual experiences and historical participation in amateur sports and physical recreation is not discussed in any of these publications.
12 Smith Maguire, Fit for Consumption.
13 Nameeta Mathur, ‘Women’s Physical Culture in Poland from the Late 19th Century until the Collapse of Communism’, Człowiek i Społeczeństwo [Man and Society] XXXVI, no. 1 (2013): 25–35.
14 Martial Law was imposed in Poland on 13 December 1981 by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, in violation of the Polish constitution of the day. It was suspended on 31 December 1982, and subsequently lifted on 22 July 1983.
15 Jane Fonda, Jane Fonda’s Workout Book (London: Allen Lane, 1981).
16 Kenneth Cooper, Aerobics (New York: Bantham Books, 1968).
17 Louise Mansfield, ‘“Sexercise”: Working Out Heterosexuality in Jane Fonda’s Fitness Books’, Leisure Studies 30, no. 2 (2011): 237–55.
18 ‘Idzie wiosna, trenujcie aerobic!’ [Spring is coming, exercise aerobics!], Kobieta i Życie, March 30, 1983, 16.
19 Interview with Hanna Fidusiewicz, December 16, 2020, Warsaw, Poland, by author. Notes in possession of the author. Six in-depth interviews were conducted in 2020–2022. The interviews were both face-to-face and online, due to the epidemiological situation at the time. Three interviews were held with Hanna Fidusiewicz (December 16, 2020 – online; January 5, 2021 – online; July 23, 2021 – face-to-face). The interview with Danuta Fidusiewicz was conducted online, January 26, 2021; Grażyna Rabsztyn was interviewed face-to-face, April 6, 2022. With their consent, the statements of all three instructors are cited using their real names. Additionally, one more interview was conducted face-to-face with a woman who participated in Hanna Fidusiewicz’s aerobics class in the 1980s, June 24, 2022. In order to ensure the interviewee’s anonymity, she is referred by a pseudonym.
20 Wiesław Mrówczyński, ‘‘‘Gym – Tonic” nowe szaleństwo Francji’ [‘Gym – Tonic’. France’s latest craze], Express Wieczorny [Evening Express], January 14–16, 1983, 1–2.
21 Krzysztof W. Jankowski, Jerzy Kosiewicz, Stanisław Wanat, and Jolanta Żyśko, ‘Przeobrażenia systemowo-strukturalne kultury fizycznej’ [Systemic and structural transformations of physical culture] in Przeobrażenia kultury fizycznej w krajach Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej [Transformations of physical culture in countries of Central and Eastern Europe], ed. Krzysztof W. Jankowski and Zbigniew Krawczyk (Warsaw: Akademia Wychowania Fizycznego J. Piłsudskiego, 1997), 123–32.
22 Decision of the Warsaw City Hall no. KFST–II–555/9/86, October 14, 1986, the Private Archive of Hanna Fidusiewicz, Warsaw, Poland (hereafter AHF).
23 Jankowski et al., ‘Przeobrażenia systemowo-strukturalne kultury fizycznej’, 125–7.
24 Małgorzata Mazurek, Społeczeństwo kolejki. O doświadczeniach niedoboru 1945–1989 [The society of the queue. On the experience of shortage 1945–1989] (Warsaw: TRIO, 2010).
25 Press excerpt, s.d., AHF. Many of the press clippings held at AHF do not contain full bibliographical data. When referring to information from unidentified press excerpts, the following formula is used: Press excerpt, s.d., AHF.
26 Interview with Fidusiewicz, January 5, 2021.
27 Interview with Fidusiewicz, December 16, 2020.
28 Hanna Fidusiewicz, Aerobic (Warsaw: Polski Komitet Olimpijski przy współpracy z Agencją Reklamowo-Wydawniczą ‘Scangraph’, 1984).
29 ‘Aerobic w rytmie Maanam’ [Aerobics to the beat of Maanam], Express Wieczorny, April 16, 1984, 4.
30 ‘Chcesz być zgrabna i silna tańcz aerobic w rytmie disco’ [If you want to be strong and shapely, dance aerobics to the disco beat], Kurier Polski, February 18–20, 1983, 1–2.
31 Tomasz Bielecki, ‘Raz na sportowo’ [Once in a sports style], Kurier Polski, December 23–26, 1983, 8.
32 In the latter half of the 1970s, Olga Kuźmińska, a dancer and lecturer at the AWF in Poznań, started to promote and develop a new exercise method called jazz gymnastics. She was the pioneer of the method in Poland.
33 Tomasz Bielecki, ‘Jeśli aerobik się spodoba, będziemy ćwiczyć cały rok’ [If aerobics proves to our liking, we’ll be exercising all year round], Kurier Polski, October 7–9, 1983, 6.
34 ‘Aerobic pod Wawelem’ [Aerobics beneath the Wawel Hill], Kurier Polski, October 21–23, 1983, 1.
35 The Association for the Promotion of Physical Culture (Towarzystwo Krzewienia Kultury Fizycznej) is a mass-membership organization propagating physical culture, ‘sports for all’ and recreation. It was established in 1957 in Warsaw. See Jerzy Gaj, Wychowanie fizyczne i sport w Polsce Ludowej [Physical education and sports in People’s Poland] (Warsaw: PWN, 1987).
36 ‘Superaerobic w Hali Gwardii’ [Superaerobic at the Hala Gwardii venue], Express Wieczorny, May 10, 1984, 6.
37 ‘Grażyna Rabsztyn prowadzi dziś superaerobic’ [Grażyna Rabsztyn is conducting superaerobic today], Express Wieczorny, May 29, 1984, 12.
38 ‘Dziś pożegnanie w Hali Gwardii superaerobiku’ [Today we bid farewell to superaerobic at the Hala Gwardii venue], Express Wieczorny, June 27, 1984, 6.
39 Ewa Gajewska, ‘Jak się robi aerobik?’ [How to do aerobics?], Tygodnik Polski [Polish Weekly], November 27, 1983, 5.
40 Joanna Kwiatkowska, ‘Aerobik – gimnastyka i taniec w zawrotnym tempie disco’ [Aerobics – gymnastics and dance at a dizzying disco pace], Express Wieczorny, August 23, 1983, 4.
41 ‘Aerobik z “Przyjaciółką” i “Tonpressem”’ [Aerobics with ‘Female Friend’ and ‘Tonpress’], Przyjaciółka, November 10, 1983, 16.
42 Interview with Fidusiewicz, December 16, 2020.
43 Interview with Grażyna Rabsztyn, April 6, 2022, Warsaw, Poland, by author. Notes in possession of the author.
44 Interview with Danuta Fidusiewicz, January 26, 2021, online, by author. Notes in possession of the author.
45 Interview with Fidusiewicz, December 16, 2020.
46 Daniel Miller, Material Culture and Mass Consumption (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987).
47 Aleksandra Boćkowska, Można wybierać. 4 czerwca 1989 [One can choose. 4 June 1989] (Wołowiec: Czarne, 2019), 158.
48 See Mazurek, Społeczeństwo kolejki.
49 Interview with M.C., June 24, 2022, Warsaw, Poland, by author. Notes in possession of the author.
50 Interview with Fidusiewicz, December 16, 2020.
51 Interview with Danuta Fidusiewicz.
52 ‘Aerobic’, Kobieta i Życie, February 15, 1984, 7.
53 Press excerpt, s.d., AHF.
54 Linda K. Fuller, ed., Sportswomen’s Apparel Around the World: Uniformly Discussed (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
55 Steen-Johnsen, ‘Globalized Fitness’, 351–2.
56 Interview with Fidusiewicz, December 16, 2020.
57 Pat Griffin, ‘Changing the Game: Homophobia, Sexism and Lesbians in Sport’, Quest 44, no. 2 (1992): 251–65.
58 Precilla Y. L. Choi, Femininity and the Physically Active Woman (New York: Routledge, 2000), 8.
59 Mansfield, ‘“Sexercise”’, 22.
60 ‘Narażamy się Herkulesom’ [We’re sticking our necks out to Herculeses], Kurier Polski, April 16, 1984, 8.
61 Liv J. Kolnes, ‘Heterosexuality as an Organizing Principle in Women’s Sport’, International Review for the Sociology of Sport 30, no. 1 (1995): 61–76.
62 Fidusiewicz, Aerobic, 4.
63 Interview with Rabsztyn.
64 Interview with M.C.
65 ‘Aerobic’, Kobieta i Życie, February 15, 1984, 7.
66 Interview with M.C.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Dominika Czarnecka
Dominika Czarnecka is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. Her research focuses on the anthropology of the body, visual anthropology, and history of science.