Pumping Irony: Crisis and Contradiction in Bodybuilding

TLDR

Bodybuilding amplifies American ideals of the perfect body to extreme levels, and its evolving image has prompted sociological studies of deviance that call for long‑term ethnographic research. The study investigates which discrepancies stem from recent changes in bodybuilding versus those that are inherent to the subculture. A four‑year study of Southern California bodybuilding shows a gap between the subculture’s idealized image and reality, and that efforts to gain cultural respectability have introduced new problems.

Abstract

While the projection of ideal images is very important in American culture, it is in the subculture and sport of bodybuilding that it gets carried to the extreme. A 4-year study of bodybuilding’s mecca—Southern California—revealed a fundamental set of discrepancies between what the subculture projects as ideal and what actually goes on. These discrepancies are examined to determine which ones result from changes that have taken place in body-building and which are structural to it. It is shown that as the sport/subculture altered its image to achieve cultural respectability, it inadvertently created new problems. The shifts are examined within the context of studies of deviance and point to the need for long-term ethnography in sport sociology.