Gender, Fitness Doping and the Genetic Max. The Ambivalent Construction of Muscular Masculinities in an Online Community

Jesper Andreasson,Thomas Johansson

doi:10.3390/socsci5010011

Abstract

This article is based on written accounts posted on an online forum called Flashback. The purpose of the study was to explore how participants in this community negotiated the meanings of fitness doping and how such negotiations could be understood in terms of masculinity. The findings indicate that the Internet community studied in this article can be read as an example of a transformational process in which ordinary rules are questioned and partly put out of play. In the world of the bodybuilder, the marginal masculinity is, in certain senses, dominant. On the one hand, achieving a muscular and well-trained body is regarded as a core aspect of manhood within the community. Marginal masculinity is thus momentarily transformed into dominant and hegemonic masculinity. On the other hand, however, the findings also indicate that a drug-using, muscular masculinity is constructed in negotiation with other central masculine ideals, such as the employable man and the responsible father. Found within the community is a complex and dynamic interplay between intersecting discourses of manhood.

Highlights

IntroductionThe notion of masculinity has followed the imagery of athleticism like a cultural ally for centuries [1,2,3,4]
In different sporting venues, the notion of masculinity has followed the imagery of athleticism like a cultural ally for centuries [1,2,3,4]
Motivated by the rationale that illicit drug use for image enhancing purposes can be viewed as an activity performed to enhance for example a masculine identity, we argue that performance-enhancing substances (PES) is a sufficient term for our analysis on fitness doping

Summary

Introduction

The notion of masculinity has followed the imagery of athleticism like a cultural ally for centuries [1,2,3,4]. Klein [7], for example, who conducted one of the first bodybuilding studies in the early 1990s, describes bodybuilding as a predominantly masculine preoccupation. He describes homophobia, hyper-masculinity and the use of illicit drugs, such as anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS), as institutionalized phenomena in this kind of physical culture (see [8,9,10])

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Conclusion