Reconceptualising the Gender of Fitness Doping: Performing and Negotiating Masculinity through Drug-Use Practices
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- RQ1: What kinds of self-portraits and understandings of the body and health appear in the narratives, and how do they relate to the use of PES?
- RQ2: In what ways is masculinity perceived and promoted through drug-use practices? RQ3: How do the narratives relate to the cultural context in which they are presented?
2. Masculinities and the Gender Politics of Fitness Doping
3. Research Design and Methodology
4. Results
4.1. Becoming a Man and the Risk of Losing it All
“Well I guess there were some mean kids in my class who went on about me being a bit scrawny, or not very good, but I’ve never felt like I was totally bullied. (…) I think, what got me started was really, well more an inner ambition or feeling. I thought, I train hard dammit, but I’m never gonna be very good or successful in football, handball, or tennis, or whatever. But here, with the weights, I felt that this is a thing that I could do. I could be the master of my own destiny, so to speak. Back then you didn’t know if you had a talent for it, but you kept on training.”(Joseph)
“Without doping I feel more worn out, torn, and ill. With doping, I feel refreshed and rested. Anyway, there are always gonna be people who think they got it all figured out, right? They usually say things like, ‘yeah but it’s dangerous’ and ‘you’ll be tempted to use it all the time’. And maybe there are these weak individuals who can’t complete a course of treatment and don’t know their limits and when to stay clean. But me, when I do treatment courses I always follow a pattern and a structure. I can always take a break, when I’ve been on for a certain number of weeks, and see that I’ve had enough for now. If I go over this limit, it is risky and I might destroy myself.”(Robert, 37-year-old auto mechanic, engaged)
“I have this painful memory: my girlfriend is crying and hammering on my chest saying ‘I want my old Lukas back’. She saw how I had changed. I was not violent towards her, but she could not really reach me, or affect me. So it has probably been difficult for her. (…) I went behind her back there, so she took it as a huge betrayal. I can understand that.”(Lukas)
“…and then she cheats on me, with my buddy, I mean I was with her for several years. And really, I did anything for her. But then it just turned black and it kind of exploded in my head. So I really beat up my friend, and even her, unfortunately.”(Adrian)
4.2. Negotiating Fitness Doping and the Bodybuilding Body
“I’m a regular guy who likes to compete in bodybuilding. I think I like doing it and want to continue, but it’s not my whole identity, even though I’m immersed in it. But I’ve always been afraid that people will think that I am violent or something. ‘Cause you know that’s what the papers say; people think you’re totally whacked out, or look down on others’. That you only judge people based on how their body looks. Nah, that’s not me. This is something I like to do, and other people can do what they like to do. So I’ve always been a little afraid that people tend to maybe judge bodybuilders that way.”(Lars)
“Right now I’m in pretty decent shape. I am 1.9 m tall and weigh around 135 kilos, so I guess it is pretty obvious that I have been using. But I can sit down and have a conversation, and show that I’m pretty normal anyway, you know. You sit down and eat a hamburger and pizza and stuff like that. You’re not extreme or fanatical when it comes to diet. You can have a beer and still talk about alcohol problems in general, you can talk about the situation in Afghanistan, about gender issues, and things like that.”(Ted, 28-year-old unemployed, single)
“Like now after my last competition, my coach told me I should probably gain some weight, you know, bulk up during the off-season. But I feel that if I’m going to weigh like 125 kilos I’m going to be really obese. People won’t see any difference between me, a bodybuilder, and your average overweight truck driver, and I don’t like that. And it’s the same before a competition, like on the load-up day. I start at midnight: I get up and eat two burgers with fries and everything. And then I felt like, what the hell am I doing, sitting here wolfing down hamburgers! Because it is a little weird—here I’ve been eating so healthily for months and suddenly I’m supposed to totally pig out, just to stick to the plan.”(Nicholas)
“It was probably the aesthetics and the more symmetrical bodybuilders that inspired me. You know, in beautiful poses and where symmetry and muscle merge into one. It’s graceful. (...) I’m more for the symmetry aspects, the charisma. Like Bob Paris—he was very symmetrical back in the day. But I guess it was also his physical hardness, which is crucial. Plus there was a bit…not just manufactured in the chemical way, but also an incredible discipline. I mean of course it’s there, the drugs—otherwise it would never have come so far. You know, like some people think, ‘yeah, yeah but you’re just on the steroids’. Well, ok, but it’s still a lifestyle.”(Andrew)
4.3. Inclusive Masculinities and the Symbolism of Homoerotic Practices
“You can stand next to the best-looking girl in the world. She could stand there naked even, and you wouldn’t see. You don’t care either. Like when I’m there it’s to be painted, I mean getting your own body tanned or helping someone to put their colour on. So it’s a different world somehow. (…) If you look at something, it’s more like, ‘Damn, she is in good shape!’ (laughs) It’s more like that.”(Ian)
“But there’s this in-betweenness, too, when you talk about it or think about it. It’s something not male, but not female either. Or maybe it’s gay, actually. Of course you could see it as being quasi-gay.”(Alexander, 35-year-old journalist, engaged)
“I think it’s a nice feeling. I get so fucking lit. I get turned on when I see people like Joey, when he works out. I really get turned on, well maybe not sexually, but get turned on, on psychological level. I see him. It is when I see that demon, that’s when I am turned on.”(Les, 44-year-old personal trainer, engaged)
5. Conclusions
Conflicts of Interest
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- 1KRIS is an association started by ex-criminals, with the basic idea to help people who are released from prison to stay away from crime and drugs, offering them an honest and drug free social network.
- 2The Anti Doping Hot-Line is a Swedish nation-wide telephone consulting service, which you can call anonymously with questions about doping. The service is funded by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Culture.
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Andreasson, J. Reconceptualising the Gender of Fitness Doping: Performing and Negotiating Masculinity through Drug-Use Practices. Soc. Sci. 2015, 4, 546-562. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci4030546
Andreasson J. Reconceptualising the Gender of Fitness Doping: Performing and Negotiating Masculinity through Drug-Use Practices. Social Sciences. 2015; 4(3):546-562. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci4030546
Chicago/Turabian StyleAndreasson, Jesper. 2015. "Reconceptualising the Gender of Fitness Doping: Performing and Negotiating Masculinity through Drug-Use Practices" Social Sciences 4, no. 3: 546-562. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci4030546
APA StyleAndreasson, J. (2015). Reconceptualising the Gender of Fitness Doping: Performing and Negotiating Masculinity through Drug-Use Practices. Social Sciences, 4(3), 546-562. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci4030546