Critique
- rather than self-empowerment, 1970s body culture at its extreme can be seen as evidence of turning away from social justice movements and promoting narcissism
- the workout trend was taken up in earnest primarily by affluent and advantaged citizens
- rise of obsession with bodily "perfection," leading to pathology: anorexia and bulimia
- claims by New Age health experts that they "discovered" the vegetarian diet and whole foods need to be tempered by an awareness of what people of color had already mastered: traditional cooking based on health, slow food, etc.
- commercialization of the workout craze: the Jazzercise empire and its spin-offs, the nutritional supplement industry, worker exploitation in the athletic apparel and shoe manufacturing industries
- self-styled gurus took advantage of the free-for-all atmosphere of spiritual subgroups and the body culture movement, experimenting with unorthodox methods, sometimes with painful consequences