Stronger together: towards constructive conversations about strength differences, gender, and sex

Abstract

ABSTRACT The differences in strength development processes and maximum strength levels between cisgender men and women – i.e. the ‘strength gap’ – are considerably fraught topics, with significant implications for our broader understandings of sex and gender. The polarization of exercise science and sociocultural research about the relationships between strength, gender, and sex adds further challenges. As a result of their highly diverging conclusions on the strength gap as well as the general absence of communication between the two fields, it becomes nearly impossible to have meaningful discussions that acknowledge the not-just-biological, not-just-cultural complexities of strength development and maximal strength levels. To aid in connecting these seemingly disparate academic fields, this paper engages a biocultural reading of research on the strength training body. By framing the body as the ever-developing result of inextricably intertwined biological and cultural influences, this critical reading outlines the limitations of our current understandings of strength, illuminates areas of complexity and contradiction, demonstrates shared concepts, and suggests possible topics for boundary-crossing inquiry.