{"id":9602,"date":"2012-02-08T09:00:51","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T09:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=9602"},"modified":"2012-02-08T09:00:51","modified_gmt":"2012-02-08T09:00:51","slug":"the-maenads-are-in-the-gym-meditations-on-80s-fitness-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2012\/02\/08\/the-maenads-are-in-the-gym-meditations-on-80s-fitness-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"The Maenads are in the Gym: Meditations on 80s Fitness Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"

The followers of Dionysus were called the Maenads – the ‘raving ones’. During worship, and through a combination of alcohol and ritualistic dancing, Dionysus would inspire in these women a state of ecstatic frenzy.\u00a0So inspired, they would roam in a state of madness, engaging in uncontrolled sexual behaviour, tearing apart animals (and sometimes humans) with their bare hands and devouring the raw flesh.<\/em><\/p>\n

And so into the Eighties…<\/h3>\n

During the Eighties, there was a Fitness Craze among the baby-boomers, who ‘from trying to improve society, [in the 60s and 70s…] turned to improving themselves<\/a>‘. There can be no more evocative symbol of this than Jane Fonda and her striped leotard, although hers was a\u00a0comparatively straight-edge style compared to some<\/a>. \u00a0Let’s pause to take a look at the opening to\u00a0Jane Fonda’s\u00a0Workout<\/strong> (released in 1982). It looks a little bit like a dark and threatening Exercise Cult. Even the music is vaguely sinister:<\/p>\n