Spoiler Thread: What do "The Fits" mean?

"The Fits" is an allegory about becoming an adolescent. Toni is a "tween," not an adolescent yet. She is drawn to the older girls who are already teenagers. The whole movie is about that time in all of our lives when we were "tweens," when we knew we would soon cross over into adolescence. Even the lines in the movie have double meanings -- "It's going to happen to all of us eventually,"
"Mine was peaceful," and "She WANTED it to happen." The girls are actually talking about the mystery of the fits, but there's also that deeper meaning.
In the end, you can totally relate to Toni pretending to have a fit, day dreaming that she is a perfect dancer. She's saying "bring it on" to growing up, the attitude most of us end up having about becoming a teenager.

I just saw the movie for the first time but this reminded me of christians talking about getting the "holy ghost" or "speaking in tongue" at church. If you are around something for a long period of time even if you see yourself as a leader instead of a follower over time you will adopt some of the "groups" ways.

I'm not sure what the writer intended but this was my take on it.

Last but not least I just loved seeing a group of African Americans who behaved like normal intelligent, respectful human beings instead of someone choosing to cast them as thugs, speaking ebonics, etc. as if AA's are incapable of behaving like normal human beings. The cast gets a ten from me. I found all of them relatable.

I think "the fits" are symbolic of both growing up and fitting in.

It's significant that Toni is joining a dance team. Her brother is interested in boxing, an individual sport. Toni, on the other hand is joining a team, and one that demands her loyalty. The team is "a family" and its members are expected to behave as such. Toni has trouble fitting in because her perspective is more individualistic than the other girls'. She's reticent to make friends with her teammates at first, and she performs small acts of rebellion against fitting in, like peeling off her nail polish and taking out her earrings. Beezy and Maia, on the other hand, want to fit in. They may be apprehensive about the fits, but they don't fear them the way Toni does, and they're more than happy to be part of the club once they've had their fits.

Of course, growing up is a part of fitting in, too. For Toni to fit in, she must grow up. At the beginning of The Fits, Toni is still a child. Her role model is her brother. He teaches her to box and enlists her to work out with him. She helps him around the gym. But Toni notices that the boys treat older girls differently than her, and eventually, she veers away from boxing (the "male" sport represented by Toni's brother and his friends) and toward dance (a "female" sport), the sport that the older girls favor. In making this choice, Toni has taken her first steps toward both growing up and toward being accepted by older girls as one of their own. She has also opened herself up to the scrutiny that focuses on women (Note how much the camera lingers on the bodies of Toni and the young girls in the Lions. Only very careful camera work and the age of the girls prevents that focus from feeling sexual. Also, several characters comment on Toni's body, which is both "skinny" and full of "muscles.")

In the end, Toni' fits are bittersweet as she both gains something (a sense of belonging, the ability to move in sync with the other members of the squad) and looses something (childhood, her fierce independence).