Goodlife Fitness Club: The Institutional Gaze

We live our lives according to norms that are created in society, but what disciplines us to make us follow and abide by those norms ? The ‘Institutional Gaze’ is known as the ability for an institution to have a constant, metaphorical gaze over everyone, which leads them to be able to control peoples behaviours at all times. Institutions create sets of rules, and regulations that they make known to discipline people in order to keep them to behave within what society views as normal. By looking closely at GoodLife Fitness club we are able to see how they utilize the institutional gaze to discipline their members into behaving within the norms associated with being a good member in a fitness facility. GoodLife Fitness is a very popular fitness
However, another way they discipline the deviants behaviours is through the list of rules and regulations that GoodLife Fitness has developed. The list of etiquette rules provide the practices and procedures that the member must follow so that they conform to the norms of the fitness institution. They reform the member with imperfect behaviour so that they conform to the norms of fitness facility. Such disciplinary actions listed in the rules and regulations are, workout bags are to be kept locked in lockers and are not allowed on the workout floor, wear appropriate exercise clothing and proper athletic footwear when in a Club. By disciplining the deviant member to follow these rules and regulations they are able to turn the deviant member of GoodLife into a docile body. A docile body being “‘Bodies’ that conform to social norms, and socially desired and accepted behaviours”(Ahadi,2015). The list or rules and regulations surrounding fitness facility etiquette was developed by authorities in the institution who have expert knowledge on what the norms are. The have required this knowledge through experience in similar facilities, along with education in the areas of safety, and education in physical
They aim to discipline deviant members to improve and reform their behaviour to match with the ideological norms of how one should act in a fitness club, through disciplinary methods. After being made visible by being created into a case to be monitored it is the job of the institution to monitor him/her and the member to continue to be aware of the institutional gaze that follows him. In the end, the once deviant member going against the norm, becomes a model member of the facility, portraying the ideological norms that other members should strive to