Selling Fun

Chapter 3, “Selling Fun,” analyzes the trope of fun in Zumba Fitness. US fitness cultures stress discipline and endurance. In contrast, Zumba Fitness has a reputation for being undisciplined, carefree, and fun—some even question whether it should be considered fitness at all. However, Zumba Fitness has proven health benefits and instructors are fitness professionals. This chapter begins with an analysis of the idea of discipline and pain that informs fitness trends such as CrossFit and barre. It then shows how Zumba Fitness’s “Let It Move You” marketing campaign promotes having fun as key to reaching fitness goals; however, this obscures the discipline and training required of Zumba instructors. In contrast, this chapter highlights Zumba instructors’ stories of training to become fitness professionals. The trope of fun dismisses this training, instead reproducing stereotypes of tropicalized Latinness, and Latin dance, as instinctual, exotic, and primitive.