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

Author

Listed:
  • Jesper Andreasson

    (Department of Sport Science, Linnaeus University, SE-391 82 Kalmar, Sweden)

  • Thomas Johansson

    (Department of Education, Communication and Learning, University of Gothenburg, Box 300, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Jesper Andreasson & Thomas Johansson, 2016. "Gender, Fitness Doping and the Genetic Max. The Ambivalent Construction of Muscular Masculinities in an Online Community," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:5:y:2016:i:1:p:11-:d:64837
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Monaghan, Lee F., 2002. "Vocabularies of motive for illicit steroid use among bodybuilders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 695-708, September.
    2. Linda McDowell & Esther Rootham & Abby Hardgrove, 2014. "Precarious work, protest masculinity and communal regulation: South Asian young men in Luton, UK," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 28(6), pages 847-864, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fraser, Suzanne & Fomiatti, Renae & Moore, David & Seear, Kate & Aitken, Campbell, 2020. "Is another relationship possible? Connoisseurship and the doctor–patient relationship for men who consume performance and image-enhancing drugs," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 246(C).

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