User:JapaneseGum/Major Assignment 5

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              Bodybuilding is more complicated than you think

Take a look at the advertisement for the upscale David Barton Gym in Manhattan and one can see “what bodybuilding is all about.” The advertisement reads “No Pecs, No Sex.” (Luciano 153) This statement pronounces a claim that without a built physique created by Bodybuilding, one cannot achieve sexual relations. Though this claim could be true, the sport of Bodybuilding, a sport that consists of promoting the human body's muscular development and general fitness, (Bodybuilding) is more complex than that. Bodybuilding is a sport that generates a lot of human thought regarding societal conventions and the process of gender construction. There are so many factors on display that regard societal conventions and gender construction in the sport of Bodybuilding such as the skimpy posing briefs shown vividly on display. But what are the deep rooted concepts behind the sport? Bodybuilding is a sport that reinforces a sense of masculinity and gender ideas about size and strength within our society. Taking a look at our cultural text, we can see this phenomenon exemplified. (Bravo Championship)

Our cultural text takes place in one of the most beauty conscious areas of the world, Los Angeles California. To add icing to the cake, the text takes place in another location where beauty is everything, a high school, a setting where one’s look can either make or break you. Bravo High school is one of the few high schools in the country which has its own bodybuilding club. Our text zooms in on the highlight event of the High school, the annual Bravo High School Bodybuilding Championships. Generating a packed crowd of 500 people, this championship is the largest event the high school puts on each year. (Bravo Championship) The bodybuilding competition is a video that displays numerous examples of how Bodybuilding reinforces a sense of masculinity as well as gender ideas of size and strength.

Muscle Muscle Everywhere. As soon as one turns on the Bravo High School special, one can see rippling muscles being displayed every other second. From the locker room backstage to the platform in front of dozens of cheering spectators, the idea of displaying muscles is the central component to this bodybuilding competition. (Bravo Championship) After all, the major criteria for being judged in a bodybuilding competition is the quality of a builder’s muscle based on a number of factors, from size to shape and form. The major goal of most men who body build is to attain the best quality muscle, however that is interpreted varies from person to person. Some men prefer big muscles while others prefer lean and toned. Whatever the case, the overall better shape the muscle is ultimate goal. Muscle development is a phenomenon that reinforces Masculinity. Achieving muscularity is one of the many ways men might preserve the traditional male model.(Pruzinsky 210) According to Neo-Victorian beliefs, men and women's different biological differences pre-destine the roles men and women play. Men are suited to be more aggressive and dominate while females are more suited to be passive, serving as guardians of home and hearth. (Messner 514) Growing muscle serves this aggressive-proning role in a very simple way. The more muscle one has, the stronger the person is. This is a scientific fact. The stronger a person is, the more aggressive and dominant he can become since he is able to assert his strength more easily. Spanish folklore and wisdom reinforce this belief. “The man who turns heads-The Hermosa man” is not visually striking (unlike a female), but is powerful, dominant and strong. Throughout the Mediterranean, men are compared to strong and thus, savage animals such as brave bulls, fierce bears and virile rams. These comparisons are reasons why one can ask a person in Spain and receive the following information: woman should be “passive and fecund (beautiful)” while it is the role of the man to be “assertive and active (powerful)” (Winkler and Cole 192) The book “Body Image” directly lays out the facts. Muscles symbolize health, dominance, power strength, sexual virility and threat which the author claims, are traditional masculine traits. Since muscular men appear to embody this traits, they may feel or aspire to feel more respected and admired. (Pruzinsky 21) The feeling to be more respected and admired is a strong impetus, that of mine personally, to spend so much time and dedication to bodybuilding. Another reference towards masculinity that can be found in the Bravo Bodybuilding contest is the competitive nature behind it.

The idea of competition, competing with fellow beings over who is superior, is a phenomenon found all over the animal kingdom. From the giraffe trying to reach the tallest tree for food to the peacock vividly displaying its feathers to attract a mate, competition is part of the natural order The sport of bodybuilding highlights the sense of competition very strongly and we can see this concept vividly in our cultural text. Throughout the video, a viewer is shown camera shots of the bodybuilders locker room. In the locker room one is introduced to some of the Bodybuilders flexing their muscles. What’s most apparent in this process of flexing is how the young men try to compare their muscles with their fellow bodybuilders. We see guys flexing muscles right next to other guys flexing the same body part in order to compare who has the more developed body part. (Bravo Championship) Whenever I go to a gym, I can always see any sort of weight lifter competing with their fellow work out buds as to who can lift the heaviest weight. Competition in sports, of which Bodybuilding is, is a concept that is highly zoomed in on in the book, “Signs of Life in the USA” The book states that Sports are “possibly the single most important male rite in modern society.” Sports are “rituals “designed to maintain the ideology and values of a competitive and hierarchical culture.” (Messner 513). Athletic competition is an expression of this need to win. Bodybuilding competitions are no exception and the need to win is something strongly associated with with the sport. Our cultural text supports this theory with the announcer of the show stating that the bodybuilders in the competition have lifted together throughout the entire year. (Bravo Championship) These bodybuilders have worked long and hard to earn the medal and their length of time training for the competition proves this. Another goal many bodybuilders try to achieve on top of quality muscle mass is size.

One of the most popular slogans I hear on the street regarding bodybuilding is “The bigger is better.” Take a look at a local magazine counter and you can see this bigger is better phenomenon right before your eyes. Adorned on numerous bodybuilder magazine covers are huge heavyweights showing off for the camera. Observing all these ultra-big men as far as the eye can see can leave someone to wonder as to why bigger men are so often posed on the covers of these bodybuilding magazines. Our cultural text supports this bigger is better notion straight on. Hailed as the winner of the Bravo Championship, Stan Mcquay is easily distinguishable from all the rest of the competitors. Stan Mcquay has the biggest physique in the competition. Described as having a great physique by one of his fellow bodybuilders in the locker room, the video displays Stan flexing his muscles as big as he can for the cameras. (Bravo Championship) By awarding Stan as the MuscleMania Class winner, the High school Championship gives support to the notion of bigger is better. “Body Image” has its own take as to what a bigger size may convey. The book states that the desire for a “Hyper masculine” body may arise from a man's growing insecurity about his gender roles. The theory of “Threatened Masculinity” plays into role here. The theory suggests that the growing equality of women in Western Culture has placed men in a harmful crisis of being threatened as men. Men must now use the one thing that will forever distinguish them from women: their bodies. (Pruzinsky 210) The way men use their bodies to overcome this “threatened masculinity” is to become more bigger and muscular, something that according to the gender norms mentioned above, is a quality not inclined for women who are suitably more “passive and fecund.” (Winkler and Cole 192) In our cultural text, we can see how assertion of masculinity and gender ideas are prominent in mating rituals.

By taking a look at the ESPN video, we can see that the majority of the audience in the bandstand is mostly comprised of one specific person, the screaming teenage girl . One of the reasons men body build is to look more attractive and thus, attract the opposite sex. As commenter “SL20” on YouTube.com on the Bravo High School competition video page so eloquently puts it, “bodybuilding in high school isn't about the sports, it's about the sex.” (Bravo Championship) Charles Atlas, one of the sport of Bodybuilding pioneers, suggests that achieving muscle is a means of “getting the girl.” (Luciano 150) Our cultural text also echoes this sentiment. As one of the bodybuilders in the competition so emphatically states as he is lifting weights in a locker room, “I just want to impress the girls.” As the bodybuilders compete on stage and pose for the audience, the girls scream wildly. (Bravo Championship) A viewer can tell that the more muscular a poser is, the louder the audience reaction is. A case in England showcases how much bodybuilders will resort to impressing women. Experts warn that Children as young as 11 are resorting to using harmful anabolic steroids when weightlifting so they can “attract girls.” (Daily Mail) This fact does not paint a pretty picture of what lengths Bodybuilding competitors will go to in order to assert their masculinity and impress women.

When the sport of bodybuilding was ranked the 35th most popular sport behind tractor pulling in the 70's, (Luciano 149) who knew such a sport can convey so many ideas. Our cultural text of a Bodybuilding High School Championship clearly exemplifies how through Bodybuilding, masculinity as well as gender ideals of size and strength are reinforced. Through Bodybuilding, male competitors assert a sense of society-constructed masculinity and adhere to deep-rooted theories on the playing of sports. Assertions of size and strength as well as mating ritual behaviors are also vividly displayed in the sport and in our text. (Bravo Championship) With all these concepts and notions, one can see why Bodybuilding has become such a popular sport today.

                                Bibliography

Pruzinsky, Cash. Body Image. New York: The Guilford Press, 2002 Lynne, Luciano. Looking Good. New York: Hill and Wang, 2001 Winkler, Mary G and Letha B. Cole, ed. The Good body. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994

Messner, Michael A. Power at Play: Sport and Gender Relations. Signs of Life in the USA. Ed. Sonia Massik and Jack Solomon. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006. 513-515.

“Bodybuilding.” Encyclopedia Britannica On line. Academic Edition. 2007

Slack, James. “ Boys of 11 using anabolic steroids to 'attract girls” Daily Mail 30 November 2004. December 2007 <HTTP://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/womenfamily.html?in_article_id=497808&in_page_id=1774>

Tabyoul8. “Bravo High School Bodybuilding Contest.” American Muscle Magazine. HTTP://www.youtube.com. October 13, 2007. December 8, 2007. <HTTP://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXYEDhQRRVk>

--JapaneseGum 08:39, 14 December 2007 (EST)