Urban segregation and body differentiation: Private gyms in Merida (Mexico)

Abstract

The urban sprawl of the city of Merida (Yucatan, Mexico) has grown in recent decades in a very prominent way, as in other Latin American cities. This expansion is clearly perceptible in its northern zone, to the detriment of its southern zone. A circumstance that ratifies the social segregation according to the socioeconomic level of its inhabitants. Such differentiation will be presented in this article through the study of private gyms distributed throughout the city; establishments that, through their facilities and the
supply and demand of physical-sporting activities, confirm this urban disparity. Dissimilarity also reflected in the conception of the body offered by the gyms and that is related to the body image normalized by their clientele.