Building body identities - exploring the world of female bodybuilders

This thesis explores how female bodybuilders seek to develop and maintain a viable sense of self despite being stigmatized by the gendered foundations of what Erving Goffman (1983) refers to as the 'interaction order'; the unavoidable presentational context in which identities are forged during the course of social life. Placed in the context of an overview of the historical treatment of women's bodies, and a concern with the development of bodybuilding as a specific form of body modification, the research draws upon a unique two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, complemented by interviews with twenty-six female bodybuilders, all of whom live in the U.K. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances

Strong and hard women: an ethnography of female bodybuilding

Females with large muscles evoke strong reactions from men and women, often involving disgust, discomfort, anger and threat. The controversial nature of female bodybuilding has caused a significant rupture on feminist ground. Whilst proponents claim that female bodybuilding is a way of empowering and liberating women, others see it as a form of corporeal entrapment. This book investigates the controversy. Do women who pump iron resist physical restrictions of imposed femininity, or are they engaged in an ultimately oppressive quest for 'perfect bodies'? In an original two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, Tanya Bunsell immersed herself into the world of female bodybuilders. By mapping these extraordinary women's lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an 'empowering' radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the 'Janus-faced' nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances. This book will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of gender studies, the sociology of sport, the body and research methodology

Building body identities-exploring the world of female bodybuilders

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

From iron maiden to superwoman: The stochastic art of self-transformation and the deviant female sporting body

This paper develops a theoretically grounded account of one extraordinary individual’s journey from female bodybuilder to Strongwoman. It is set against the challenges socially marginalised sportswomen confront in seeking to forge a coherent identity amidst the competing demands of the social, practical and embodied environments that invariably impinge upon such quests. Highlighting the complexities and ambiguities of the regimes to which Sarah and other ‘gender outlaws’ dedicate themselves, we begin by suggesting that these sporting vocations constitute stochastic arts; the practical indeterminacies of which are exacerbated by both the ultimate frailty of the physical body and the social inequalities women confront in pursuing such activities. Focusing upon Sarah’s life-narrative, we then explore within this framework the pleasures and problems she encountered when participating in and switching from bodybuilding to Strongwoman competitions, and identify what is at stake in this sporting route to self-transformation

The female bodybuilder as a gender outlaw

This paper is a sociological exploration of the female bodybuilder as a 'gender outlaw', a figure who is stigmatised not because she has broken a formal law, but because she has disregarded so flagrantly dominant understandings of what is aesthetically, kinaesthetically and phenomenologically acceptable within the gendered order of social interaction. Illustrating our argument with reference to a two-year ethnographic study of British female bodybuilders, we begin by explicating the contours of this deviance - associating it with multiple transgressions manifest in terms of choice, aesthetics, action/experience and consumption - and explore the costs accruing to these stigmatised women. In the second half of the paper, we attend to the motivations and experiences of female bodybuilders themselves in explaining why they remain engaged in an activity rendered perverse by dominant gendered norms. Exploring their commitment to an interaction order based upon muscle rather than gender, our conclusion suggests these women offend the most fundamental 'collective sentiments', possessing no authorised place in the cultural consciousness of society

Outside and Inside the Gym: Exploring the Identity of the Female Body Builder (Chapter 5)

In recent years the 'body' has become one of the most popular areas of study In the arts, humanities and social sciences. Bodybuilding, In particular, continues to be of interest to scholars of gender, media, film, cultural studies and sociology. However, there is surprisingly little scholarship available on contemporary Bodybuilding. Critical Readings In Bodybuilding is the first collection to address the contemporary practice of Bodybuilding, especially the way In which the activity has become increasingly more extreme and to consider much neglected debates of gender, eroticism, and sexuality related to the activity. Featuring the leading scholars of Bodybuilding and the body as well as emerging voices, this volume will be a key addition to the fields of Sociology, Sport Studies, and Cultural Studies

Women in a man’s world: Coaching women in elite sport

Underpinned by critical feminist psychology and in response to repeated calls to explore how the dynamics of gender inform coaching practices, this study aimed to explore the experiences of men and women coaches to better understand the role of gendered expectations in elite sports environments and how these are reproduced within a Western European country’s elite sport system. Data were collected over 18 months via fieldwork observations and semi-structured interviews with 10 elite coaches, from five Olympic and professional sports. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Using the concept of hegemony as a theoretical lens to interpret the data, macro (i.e., wider socio-cultural norms), meso (i.e., organizational practices), and micro (i.e., coaches experiences working with women athletes) levels were identified. The findings demonstrate that each level plays a role in actively producing and reproducing the broader power relations between genders within and beyond the sporting environment. ‘Moments of intervention’ are offered to coaches and sports personnel to create more inclusive environments to provide optimal support for women athletes.  Lay summary: Over an 18-month period of observations and interviews, this research explores elite coaches’ perceptions of working with world-class women athletes across a range of sports. Underpinned by critical feminist psychology, the importance of using a holistic approach to understand how multi-level factors impact the support elite women athletes receive was identified