Sociology of Health & Illness Vol. 23 No. 3 2001 ISSN 0141±9889, pp.

330±356

Looking good, feeling good: the embodied

pleasures of vibrant physicality
Lee F. Monaghan
Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University

Abstract Social scientists of medicine have largely, although by no means

exclusively, focused their research on illness and sickness thus
obscuring social scientific investigations of positive health and
wellbeing. Undoubtedly, important reasons exist for this but
the relevance of studying `healthy' bodies requires emphasis
and wider acknowledgement within the newer (embodied,
non-dualistic) sociology of health and illness. This is necessary
because the concrete corporeal manifestations of `health' in
everyday life ± components of and preconditions for embodied
social practice ± may, paradoxically, erode bodily capital while
simultaneously contributing to it. Using qualitative data
generated during an ethnography of bodybuilding subculture,
this paper contributes to the sociology of `healthy'
(transgressive) bodies. It describes the somatic representation of
health and youth, the so-called erotics of the gym and the
perceived benefits of anaerobic exercise for everyday pragmatic
embodiment. Contra critical feminist studies, it furthers an
appreciative understanding of `risky' bodywork in post- or late
modernity and underscores the value of bringing healthy lived
bodies into medical sociology.

Keywords: embodiment, risk, health, youth, pleasure, bodybuilding, steroids,

drugs.

Introduction

Embodiment, emotions, consumption and risk are key themes within the
newer sociology of health and illness and, as stated by Williams et al. (2000:
4), they are as `central to health as they are to mainstream social theory'.
However, this important point about social theorising and `health' (rather
than illness) must be reiterated, emphasised and more widely acknowledged.
Discourses on health, while certainly identifiable within recent and not so
recent medical sociology and anthropology (e.g. Parsons 1951, Schulman
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd/Editorial Board 2001. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road,
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 Looking good, feeling good 331

and Smith 1963, Herzlich 1973, Crawford 1984, Frank 1991), need to be
extended and sustained in a thoroughly corporeal and empirically-grounded
light. That is, studying health necessarily entails incorporating and grappl-
ing with recent body theories in a manner that combines detailed ethno-
graphic understandings of bodies in everyday life (c.f. Nettleton and Watson
1998). Health, after all, is a social and thoroughly embodied construct that
takes a myriad of forms according to social context; it is far more than a
(peripheral) adjunct to social studies of illness and disease (Radley et al.
1997: 5).
Following recent body-centred sociological work and the rapidly expand-
ing social scientific literature on health (e.g. Glassner 1990, Saltonstall 1993,
van Hooft 1997a), this paper underscores the need for an explicit and
empirically informed attempt to bring `healthy' bodies `back in' to medical
sociology. This is necessary because, even among those medical sociologists
who stress the importance of theorising the body, primary emphasis is given
to sickness, disability and death as opposed to vibrant physicality and
associated embodied pleasures (see, for example, Williams et al. 2000: 8±11).
Such emphasis is common (Saltonstall 1993: 7), reflecting a more general
bias within medical sociology and public discussion of health issues. For
example, as stated by Hart and Carter: `Although lip service is made to the
notion of positive health status, and the need to avoid a pathologising bio-
medical perspective, much writing on ``health'' is in fact concerned only with
disease' (2000: 249).
Such negativity is understandable (Hart and Carter 2000). Following
Gadamer (1996), health could be described as an enigma. Similar to the
taken-for-granted body that disappears from (sociological) view (Leder
1990), health, for the most part, `is a state of being which is absent from
consciousness and experienced only in its negation by disease and injury'
(van Hooft 1997b: 245). Moreover, there are important moral and political
reasons for medical sociology's long-standing concern with illness or health
defined in negative terms. As evidenced by medical sociologists adopting a
collectivist approach, illness is not merely a disease of the body but a social
crime. However, and as will be argued below, concerns about illness, while
extremely important, should not obscure the sociology of positive health
and wellbeing. This is because the concrete corporeal manifestations of
`health' in everyday life ± components of and preconditions for embodied
social practice ± may, paradoxically, erode bodily capital while simul-
taneously contributing to it.
Using data generated during an ethnography of bodybuilding subculture,
this paper contributes to the growing sociological literature on health, well-
being and embodiment. It describes the representational and sensual pleasures
that muscle enthusiasts derive from their vibrant physicality. For individuals
embroiled in the positive moment of bodybuilding, such activity is beneficial
to mental, physical and/or social health. From a Foucauldian perspective,
gym culture consists of `practices' or `technologies of the self' which are
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332 Lee F. Monaghan

exercised by normalised subjects in pursuit of self-improvement, happiness

and healthiness (Foucault 1988, Gordon 1991). And, lest one considers this
peripheral to medical sociology's concern with illness, disease and suffering,
it is worth noting that the `health'-promoting bodybuilding lifestyle is
commonly associated with `anomalous' activities such as illicit drug use.
Hopefully, in offering a grounded analysis of strong, fit and healthy-
looking bodies, this paper will further understanding of why many gym
members are willing to engage in potentially health-damaging practices.
In pathologising individual commitment to bodybuilding and steroid use,
sociologists have explained these activities in terms of personal and gender
inadequacy (Klein 1993, 1995). More recently, contributors to the `psy-
sciences' have medicalised commitment to bodybuilding and potential steroid
`abuse' as the unfortunate consequence of reverse anorexia or `muscle
dysmorphia' (Pope et al. 2000). However, without denying the `addictive'
potential of bodybuilding, more positive readings are possible1. Somatic
representations of health and youth, as well as sensual bodily pleasures and
pragmatic benefits associated with anaerobic exercise, contribute to the
sustainability of `risky' bodywork. First, an overview of the research is
provided after describing the paper's theoretical perspective and empirical
focus.

`Fit for postmodern selfhood'

As stated by Frank (1990: 131) `bodies are in, in academia as well as popular
culture'. According to social theorists, the bodies valorised within popular
culture are overwhelmingly `lived' and active; they are young, sexually
attractive, fit and healthy-looking bodies (Featherstone 1991, Glassner 1990).
However, within recent empirically-grounded body discourses ± as formu-
lated within the sociology of health and illness ± the bodies that are `in'
are typically dis-eased and dys-functional (e.g. Lawton 1998, Twigg 1999,
Williams 1999). Empirically and theoretically, what is therefore needed is an
approach that brings socially inscribed and lived-bodies ± in all their various
states, guises and (dis)abled manifestations ± back into medical sociology.
For body theorists and medical sociologists (e.g. Crossley 1996, Watson
2000), analytic focus upon embodiment provides a useful way of studying
bodies in everyday life. Here bodies are socially constructed and experi-
enced, objective and subjective, specular and sentient. Viewed from this
perspective, the body, self and culture are intertwined: bodies have social
meanings conferred upon them and bodies confer meanings that are consti-
tutive of selfhood in post- or late modernity (Giddens 1991, Glassner 1990).
Various overlapping, conflated and complementary meanings such as
health, youth, social status and sexual attractiveness, may be ascribed to
both men's and women's exercised and dieted bodies. In discussing the
symbolism of the fit-looking body, Glassner (1990) claims exercise has
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 Looking good, feeling good 333

become a postmodern activity, a pastiche borrowing from diverse imagery,

styles and traditions. Within postmodernity the fit-looking body, cultivated
through ascetic training and dietetic regimens, is not simply a common
resource for judging the adequacy of self and others. Rather, the strong-
looking, fat-free body is `a mosaic of physical, economic, and aesthetic
transformations, a pastiche of ends and means' (Glassner 1990: 233).
Employing an embodied phenomenological perspective, I have stated
elsewhere that `Sizeably Muscular Bodybuilding Physiques' transgress the
normative features of fit-looking or `Athletically Muscular/Toned Bodies'
(Monaghan 2001). Nevertheless, bodybuilders' (variable) subcultural somatic
standards arise out of wider cultural values and dispositions even if at some
juncture they become different values. A corollary is that male and female
bodybuilders may locate their own and other gym members' muscular
bodies within culturally familiar discursive and representational space
(Schulze 1990). Indeed, participants may account for their activities by
merging perceptions of `outlandish' bodybuilding physiques with culturally
idealised fit-looking bodies without there necessarily being any subjectively
experienced logical inconsistencies within their belief systems (similarly, see
Converse 1964). Certainly, visibly accomplished bodybuilders may complain
about social stigmatisation, only later to contradict this with reports of
positive affirmations. However, because bodybuilders are rarely in compe-
tition shape (`Sizeably Muscular and Exceptionally Lean'), and most appear
acceptable/impressive/desirable to non-gym members when fully clothed, it
may be relatively unproblematic for narrators to maintain their supportive
beliefs.
In contributing empirical understandings to the social study of vibrant
`healthy' bodies, and in also critically engaging a particular strand of
feminist literature (e.g. Klein 1993), this paper extends Glassner's (1990)
postmodernist interpretation of the `fit-looking body' to the symbolism of
the abstracted and homogenised `muscular body'. Admittedly, there are
problems associated with the notion of postmodernity; sociologists, quite
rightly, are often inclined to stress the enduring importance of modernity
(Williams et al. 2000: 3). Here I would agree that bodybuilding displays
important continuities with the modern cultural world; aspects of the
activity, without doubt, lend themselves to a modernist reading. Alongside
many drug-using bodybuilders continuing faith in biomedicine (Monaghan
1999a: 717±22), there is, contra Glassner's (1990) postmodernist interpre-
tation of fitness, much about bodybuilding subculture that effectively
reinforces rather than dissolves principle dualities such as male and female
(Lowe 1998, Mansfield and McGinn 1993). My argument here, however, is
that the postmodern imagery of muscle is a possible idea-element rendering
`transgressive' bodybuilding visibly rational and reportable. Correspond-
ingly, contra those studies dismissing possible postmodernist interpreta-
tions, it will be argued that appeals to health and youth are permissible
even among bodybuilders engaged in `physiologically detrimental practices'
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334 Lee F. Monaghan

(Klein 1993: 148). Importantly, the crucial point of overlap between `risk-
inducing' bodybuilders and `health conscious' fitness enthusiasts more
generally (e.g. weight trainers, joggers, participants in step aerobics) is a
shared attempt to embody and display a sense of empowerment and self-
mastery.
In constituting a postmodern pastiche, the various representational
features of muscle discussed below are conjoined, hybrid and ambiguous
(c.f. Glassner 1990: 230). From a postmodernist perspective, bodybuilders'
body configurations represent the polysemic nature of cultural texts, the
blending and blurring of various insignia (Bolin 1992: 87). As an organising
principle, however, representations of health and youth are discussed sep-
arately. This is heuristic since, in the semantics of postmodernity, `looking
healthy' is synonymous with `looking young' and, one may add, `looking
sexy' (Monaghan et al. 1998). Furthermore, in broaching the postmodern
imagery of muscle, as understood by reflexive body-subjects, the following
highlights some possible reasons for consuming bodybuilding technologies.
Different spatially, temporally and contextually located actors will give
different and sometimes mutually incompatible reasons for adorning their
bodies with muscle. From a postmodernist perspective, such complexity and
contradiction is accepted and expected (Glassner 1990: 225).
In reading the `normative' features of muscle the following analysis
transcends Cartesian dualism. Rather, an embodied understanding of the
external representation of the physical body is provided where the object-
ified body is one manner in which the lived-body shows itself (Turner 1992).
When referring to the social meanings of the sensible body (object of
perception), data pertaining to the sentient body (perceiving subject) are
frequently contained in members' accounts. Just as respondents in Watson's
(2000) study linked health as physical appearance to health as wellbeing,
my contacts often associated `looking good' with `feeling good'. However,
while the lived-meaning of muscle is central in understanding the ongoing
attraction of bodywork, teasing out the `objective' significance of exercised
and dieted bodies serves a useful analytic purpose. This facilitates critical
engagement with other constructivist studies that explain bodybuilding in
terms of gender inadequacy caused by a masculinity-in-crisis and a wish to
embody the physical trappings of hegemonic masculinity (e.g. Klein 1993).
Centrally, it will be argued that (a) hegemonic masculinity is not the only
meaning that may be ascribed to the muscular body's surface, and (b) taken
by themselves, particular meanings attached to muscle partially as opposed
to exhaustively account for the ongoing appeal of bodybuilding.
The partiality of constructivist analyses, which accord central significance
to the external, representational, socially inscribed masculine body, is under-
scored in the latter part of the paper. Here, explicit empirical attention is
given to the sensuous bodily experiences of anaerobic exercise and the per-
ceived benefits for everyday pragmatic embodiment. While such aspects
cannot be divorced from gender considerations, it is argued that theories
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 Looking good, feeling good 335

explaining bodybuilding and drug-taking in terms of antecedent inadequacies

caused by a `masculinity-in-crisis' are not sufficient and perhaps not even
necessary (similarly, see Becker 1963). The embodied pleasures and per-
ceived psychosocial benefits of anaerobic exercise, alongside the postmodern
imagery of muscle, may be more directly relevant in sustaining the ongoing
consumption of (risky) bodybuilding technologies.

The research

A two-year qualitative study was undertaken in South Wales between 1994

and 1996. The research explored the supposed bodybuilding-steroids-violence
connection through detailed ethnography grounded in gym culture. How-
ever, rich data pertaining to other sociologically relevant issues were also
generated (c.f. Monaghan 2001). Research consisted of 16 months of field-
work conducted at a range of sites (bodybuilding gyms, leisure centres,
service agencies catering for steroid users). Fieldwork was firmly anchored
in four `hard-core' bodybuilding gyms, meaning they had the requisite
equipment for creating `the perfect body'. Participant observation was com-
plemented with 67 audio-recorded depth interviews using a semi-structured
schedule. Interviews usually took one-and-a-half-hours, but, depending upon
the respondents' interests, sometimes lasted in excess of six hours and were
conducted over several days.
Interviewing was a particularly useful and efficient research tool given the
work-oriented nature of bodybuilding gyms. Pre-arranged face-to-face inter-
views, which often took a very informal and loosely structured format, pro-
vided an important opportunity to take `time-out' from respondents' more
immediate pragmatic concerns. Most respondents were recruited through
ethnographic contacts, though approximately a third were contacted through
other means (e.g. visiting a local men's prison offering weight-training equip-
ment, placing posters in needle-exchange facilities, advertising in a body-
building magazine).
The sample largely consisted of men, though six women, representing nine
per cent of the interview sample, provided depth interviews. Respondents
varied in terms of their orientations to gym culture and steroid use: some
competed as bodybuilders at the national and international level and often
used steroids; others lifted weights on a very casual basis and were usually
more loath to use physique-enhancing drugs. Of the 67 interviewees, 40
reported using or ever using steroids (60 per cent) and 27 claimed to have
never used. Bodybuilders comprised a significant proportion of the sample
(N=40 or 60 per cent). Three quarters of all bodybuilders interviewed
(N=30) said they used or had used steroids. The mean age of the interview
sample was 30. The oldest respondent to give their age was 53, the youngest
18. Only 16 per cent (N=11) stated they were `officially' unemployed. The
majority of those officially employed were in skilled manual or clerical
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336 Lee F. Monaghan

positions (Mechanic, Architectural Technician) and a few in the professions

(Solicitor, Computer Programmer).
Given these demographics, the significance of modernist divisions such
as class and gender could be explored. However, in primarily offering a
postmodernist reading, I do not detail the impact of these social divisions.
Suffice to say here, and in following Williams' (1998: 449±50) work on
health pursuits, corporeal concerns qua moral performances often traversed
various `traditional' social strata. For example, conceptualisations of health
as creation and accomplishment ± as evidenced among middle class Americans
(Saltonstall 1993) ± were common among my contacts irrespective of socio-
economic status and gender. Similarly, a concern with health as physical
appearance, although latently feminine, was a universal concern among
various types of male and female gym member. Certainly, respondents
differed in many important respects; however, all participants ± regardless
of whether they were committed bodybuilders or casual weight trainers ±
were motivated by a shared interest in looking and feeling `good'2.
All the interview transcripts and ethnographic field notes were indexed
with the assistance of coding software: `Ethnograph' (Seidel and Clark
1984). This facilitated systematic data analysis, developing analytical
propositions which apply to the entire universe of data carrying particular
indexed codes. This approach is variously termed `analytic induction' or
`deviant case analysis' (Bloor 1978). Finally, all data extracts are rendered
anonymous through the use of pseudonyms and/or interview numbers.

Fit bodies and the somatic representation of health

And the thing is about bodybuilding is that you can look fit even if you're
not. That's the thing about bodybuilders. They look tremendous
(Interview 12. Female bodybuilder).

There has been widespread interest in fitness since the early 1980s (Glassner
1990, Klein 1993). Exercise, or more specifically aerobic/cardiovascular
exercise such as running, cycling, and swimming, is often touted as healthful
where `health' and `fitness' have become synonymous in everyday usage
(Glassner 1990: 216). It would appear that a crucial factor in the increasing
public acceptance of bodybuilding in recent years is its connection to the
contemporary health movement (Klein 1993: 147). No doubt, the rising
popularity of nutrition and exercise render bodybuilding attractive to many
health conscious people. A male bodybuilder, who also reported experi-
menting with steroids, remarked: `It's a healthy lifestyle, working out
regularly as opposed to sitting in front of the telly eating bags of crisps and
drinking cans of beer all the time' (Interview 16).
Although bodybuilders have been touted as proponents of a healthy life-
style (Klein 1993: 147), many participants know lifting weights is primarily
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 Looking good, feeling good 337

an anaerobic as opposed to aerobic activity. Bodybuilding requires

relatively little cardiovascular fitness which health promoters consider so
important for physical health. Indeed, the primary goal of bodybuilding is
`the look' ± to change one's bodily appearance so that it more or less
approximates idealised images of health, youth, fitness and beauty
(Featherstone 1991) ± rather than to confer any direct benefit on internal
physiological functioning. Certainly, bodybuilders possess a type of fitness,
rendering them more `healthy' than sedentary people, but most agree that
this is not the raison d'eÃtre for bodybuilding. Consider the following extract
which also illustrates that `traditional' aspects of women's daily `health'
practices ± a concern with bodily appearance and diet ± are of central
significance to male bodybuilders:

R31: It's all to do with looks, and I would rather look good on the
outside. That's what bodybuilding is. It's not for fitness reasons,
it's all visual.
LM: I suppose it is easy to associate [bodybuilding with fitness] because
you eat low-fat foods to get a good physique.
R31: I don't eat low-fat food because it's good for you. You're eating
them because you know it's what you have to eat to look like
you want to look. It's not the health.
LM: [. . .] If you could eat chips and were guaranteed to put on muscle,
would you?
R31: Yes, I would be in my element, I would love it. I'd be round the
fish shop every night (Interview. Male Bodybuilder).

For most bodybuilders the health of the `inner body', derived from exercise
and eating a nutritious diet, is secondary to the healthy look of the `outer
body', and is considered an `added bonus'. Indeed, the look of the outer
body is so central that during contest preparation possible adverse effects to
health are accepted in order to improve the appearance of the body (as
judged by ethnophysiological or subcultural aesthetic criteria). For instance,
body-fat is depleted to extremely low levels to enhance muscle visibility:

Alan: When I was competing I got down to 2.6 percent body-fat. It's
not healthy but it's good. It feels good to look like that. My fat
got so low though. Ha, I've got this leather sofa at home. It's
normally quite comfortable but when I was ripped [displayed no
body-fat] I had to put a cushion under my backside if I wanted to
sit down. It was so painful if I didn't as I had no fat there to act as
a natural cushion.
Jack: When [professional bodybuilder] competed I heard his body-fat
was so low he got blisters on the soles of his feet when he was
walking on and off stage. He didn't have any fat on his feet to
cushion them (Field Diary, 21st January 1995: Al's Gym).
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Critical feminists argue that because bodybuilding involves a range of

practices that are physiologically detrimental, bodybuilders are not driven
by the same impulses as fitness enthusiasts (Klein 1993). In following
Glassner (1990), however, bodybuilders are similar to fitness enthusiasts
(including other weight trainers) because both are motivated by the power
of the image. The crucial point is the symbolism of a strong looking, fat-
free body which signifies health, rather than whether a fit-looking body is
healthy.
Importantly, Glassner (1990), following Baudrillard (1983), states that in
postmodern culture, images have become more real than the `real' things
they reference. Given the power of the image, `what fitness participants
achieve on the Nautilus [weight-training] machines and fat-free diets is an
image of healthiness (c.f. Klotz 1984; Doubiet 1984). They reshape their
bodies to exhibit the visual indicators of health demanded by the photo-
graphs in the glossy magazines . . .' (Glassner 1990: 227, emphasis in original).
As stated above, bodybuilders often look fit even if they are not. It is this
look of fitness, the imagery of the fit-looking body, which contributes to
bodybuilding's appeal. Many bodybuilders openly exclaim that they are
primarily concerned with bodily aesthetics rather than health per se;
however, it is to be recognised that within popular culture health is often
conceived in representational rather than instrumental terms (Wachter
1984). Consequently, in stating that they `look good' bodybuilders are also
able to claim that they look fit and healthy. The somatic representation of
health thus becomes a sign to the self, which may be interpreted to mean
that the body is in good working order. As shown below, for some partici-
pants this results in the postmodern disintegration or disavowal of dualities
and a short-circuiting of the polarity between `looking' and `being' healthy.
If, semiotically speaking, a culture is a capacity shared by a whole group
to recognise, interpret, and produce signs in a similar way, then it is appar-
ent, within contemporary society, that the athletic body is a social symbol
denoting health and fitness. Certainly, such an image may be rejected by
many people, men in particular, for being an artificial creation requiring
a selfish act of discipline (Watson 2000). However, at the level of cultural
signification, male and female athletic bodies have popular currency as
symbolic modes for transmitting positive social values such as health (Bordo
1993). By extension, bodybuilders' strong-looking, low-fat physiques ± con-
structed through disciplined exercise and self-controlled or `civilised' dietary
practices (c.f. Lupton 2000: 213) ± may be placed in this normative regime.
Following Wachter (1984), and Glassner (1990), it could be argued that
notions such as narcissism are therefore inappropriate when accounting for
bodybuilding. Acts that earlier predicated either `vanity' or `health' become
interchangeable (Glassner 1990: 233). Since the fit-looking/muscular body
functions as a social symbol of health, and perhaps more importantly a
`healthy existence' (Wachter 1984: 56), it is unsurprising that many body-
builders derive a sense of wellbeing from this aspect of their body's imagery:
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I know guys who were in school with me and we were the same
[physically] when we left school, and I've gone this way [taken up
bodybuilding] and you ought to see the state they're in now. And
they've got high blood pressure and their cheeks are flushed and things
like that, pot bellied as well. I think, well, you know, I wouldn't want to
look like it. I think I take too much pride in myself because you have to.
I think you have to take pride in yourself, in your appearance and that
sort of thing. And, I couldn't look like it [old school friends]. I'd hate it.
I'd hate myself for looking like that full stop. So I think that's what
keeps me going [to the gym] as well (Interview 16. Male bodybuilder).

And:

You look fit. People always remark how fit I look even when I'm tired.
They always say `you look really fit and healthy' and they used to say
that to me when I was dieting [for a bodybuilding competition]: `you look
great, your eyes are shining, your skin is clear' (Interview 11. Female
bodybuilder).

There is the sense in which bodybuilding dissolves dualities where the inner
and outer body become conjoined: enhancing the appearance of the outer
body helps maintain the inner body and vice versa (Glassner 1990: 233).
Except for those occasions when bodybuilders strictly adhere to pre-contest
diets, or when physique-enhancing drugs are taken `incorrectly' (Monaghan
2001), bodybuilders (similar to fitness enthusiasts) claim looking healthy
(muscular, low-fat) equals feeling and therefore being healthy. As stated by
interviewees in response to the question: `which is more important to you,
looking or being healthy?'

They're both important, but looking healthy I think is the key rather
than being healthy [. . .] But one complements the other. Because if you
look healthy you're going to feel healthy. You're going to feel healthier
anyway aren't you? (Interview 30. Female bodybuilder)

Hmm! Looking healthy! [. . .] I'm one of these fatalistic people. If it

[bad health] is going to come, it's going to come, and rather than put too
much emphasis and worry onto [being] healthy. I'd love a healthy body
actually, everybody would, but put too much emphasis on that and you
neglect the outer body, depression comes in doesn't it? I mean if you're
depressed you feel ill and you worry and disease starts to appear. So
I think if you appear with a good physique and look after your
physique and get back into your training, you look good, feel good and
I think that wards off quite a few problems. But it is more important to
look good, feel good, because that relates then doesn't it? (Interview 3.
Male body-sculptor).
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340 Lee F. Monaghan

And, as stated by a competition bodybuilder who felt that he had slightly

compromised his health by taking steroids:

I would always like to think that people always come up to me and say:
`well, fair play, you look fit sort of thing'. And going to my doctor, he
says: `well you're fit' [. . .] But you know, like I say, it [looking and being
healthy] is combined. It's a mixture of the two (Interview 18).

In sum, while health and fitness are not necessarily central reasons for
bodybuilding, in achieving an image of healthiness many participants are
able to interpret this as a sign that they are also healthy. No doubt, this
contributes to the ongoing appeal of bodywork, independent of antecedent
insecurities and inadequacies caused by a masculinity-in-crisis (Klein 1993).
Postmodernity entails creating what Glassner (1990) terms a `post-dualistic
selfhood' where there is a merger of such oppositions as inner and outer:
service of the outer body confers benefits on the inner body and vice versa.
Even if bodybuilders accept that (some of) their activities are physically
harmful, contrary to Klein (1993) this does not mean they are dissimilar to
fitness enthusiasts. As noted, bodybuilders are akin to other fitness trainers
because both achieve positive health conceived in representational rather
than instrumental terms. Certainly, bodybuilders' `healthy-looking' bodies
may digress from normative images of embodiment given their size, pro-
portions, muscle mass and leanness. However, bodybuilders' physiques are
not radically dissimilar from athletically muscular bodies; the former are
an exaggeration and extension of the latter (Monaghan 2001: 84). Body-
builders, similar to weight trainers, may therefore account for their activities
on health grounds given the gender-wide symbolic meanings attached to
lean, strong, athletic bodies.

Youthful bodies

Well, there's a saying isn't there? `You don't stop training because you
grow old, you grow old because you stop training' (Interview 38. Male
bodybuilder).

The ageing individual, who experiences severe bodily decline through dis-
ability, to the extent that the body imprisons and masks the inner self, is one
representation of ageing. This contrasts with images of `the ``heroes of
ageing'', those who adopt a positive attitude towards the ageing process and
seem to remain ``forever youthful'' ' (Featherstone 2000: 609). Bodybuilding
is an activity clearly aligned with positive representations of ageing.
The concept of `muscle maturity' is familiar to most bodybuilders. This
refers to the quality and condition of muscle following years of continuous
exercise and diet. Similar to vintage wine, the trained body reportedly im-
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 Looking good, feeling good 341

proves with age. In noting this aspect of the subculture, Klein (1993: 147)
quotes an excerpt from an indigenous magazine: `bodybuilding is one of the
few sports ± and possibly the only sport ± where athletes can honestly say
they are finally reaching their peaks in middle age'. A male bodybuilder
aged 37 remarked:

I've spent all my life with what I consider to be a good physique and as
I'm getting older I find it even harder to fade away to obscurity. And
I'd like to surpass what I've done in the past. I'd like to be better than
what I've been (Interview 24).

If the linearity of human life assumed in modernity (Baudrillard 1987) is

frequently breached in postmodernity (Glassner 1990), then bodybuilding
is a postmodern exemplar vis-aÁ-vis the somatic representation of youth.
Indeed, while `genetics' may be a limiting factor for successful bodybuilding
(c.f. Monaghan 2001: 68±72), age is not necessarily an impediment. Through
bodybuilding it is certainly possible for old bodies to display youth as well as
health (similarly, see Glassner, 1990: 225, on running and fitness):

Bodybuilding careers can go on indefinitely really. I know guys in their

60s and 70s who've got a hell of a physique. I know a guy who's 60 who
could stand in among 20-year-olds and apart from the neck [upwards],
you'd never know the difference. And you've got guys in their 60s who are
not that spectacular, but for their age, they're fantastic. They're
absolutely ± I hope ± I know a friend of mine who's 68 and he hasn't got
the genetics to have a nice physique, but his body is so toned and so fit
and so healthy-looking, given that he's got bad genetics. I hope that when
I'm 68 I can look half as good as he does (Interview 24).

The postponement of ageing by sport, the body beautiful and the main-
tenance of a youthful appearance are major societal concerns for both men
and women and are themes addressed in the sociology of the body literature
(c.f. Featherstone 1991, Turner 1991). Importantly, since self-mastery and
the ability to hold onto youth are dominant societal concerns, bodybuilding
is well placed to take advantage of this interest in the body (Klein 1993:
147). Below a female bodybuilder talks about her wish to improve her body
over time:

R30: In like five years' time I'll be 34 and if I can achieve something like
that [looking at a photograph of a competitor's physique] I'll be
happy [. . .]
LM: So as you get older you're body's going to be getting better in
your view because that's what you want to achieve. And a lot of
women when they're sort of approaching 30 and they think it's
pretty much downhill from there on but . . .
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342 Lee F. Monaghan

R30: Well, when I got to 29 I stopped and thought: `my God, I'm
going to be 30 next year and I want something to aim for'.
Because as you say, a lot of people think `30, oh my God'! You
know? `It's downhill'! I wanted just to get, I wanted to better
myself (Interview 30).

As far as retarding or reversing the ageing process is concerned, interview

extracts are replete with references to the perceived benefits and associated
pleasures of bodybuilding. Interestingly, these data from male and female
respondents support recent sociological claims that the impact of ageing is
often seen as unrelated to gender (Hepworth and Featherstone 1998: 291).
As suggested below, however, the negotiation of gendered obligations may
be central among women wishing to postpone ageing through exercise.
Finally, the following data reiterate issues addressed above concerning
somatic representations of positive health. In a `healthist' culture such talk,
comprising self-other judgements, reflects `a general moralization of health
under the rubric of self-responsibility' (Crawford 1983: 70):

Well, they [non-bodybuilding friends] used to think that I was a bit

daft. You know? And like, `where's all this going to go one day? What are
you going to do with it all? Surely you're wasting your time'? Now see,
I really feel that I'm the smarter one out of all this, because I look at them
now we've moved on five years and they're physical-looking wrecks.
They've aged and deteriorated in their face, their skin. Um, basically
generally everything. Their posture. And I look at myself and I look
younger and fitter than I did when I was like six years ago. I feel
brilliant. On top of the world. They look at me now and they envy me
(Interview 18. Male bodybuilder).
Forget about the kids and the cooking and the husband, go and have
an hour of exercise for yourself. 'Cause as you get older you start to
fall apart [. . .] Bodybuilding boosts everything (Interview 11. Female
bodybuilder).
Well, bodybuilding's about feeling good in yourself basically, body
awareness, the older you get the worse you look. As I said, parts
disintegrate like your hair, your features, your collagen in your muscles
start wrinkling, as I said, the breakdown of the collagen etcetera. You just
start looking better in yourself [with bodybuilding]. You walk in [to a
place] and you get noticed. Even though you're getting older you still
get noticed (Interview 14. Male bodybuilder).

While at an analytical level the study of the body may demand a trans-
cendence of dualistic thinking, at the experiential level dualistic thinking
may be perpetuated (Bendelow and Williams 1995: 88). Indeed, since body-
subjects are able to conceive of themselves as objects, it is possible for
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 Looking good, feeling good 343

embodied beings to experience themselves in the same manner described by

Descartes. That is, where mind and body are separate. Wachter discusses the
logic of what she terms `somatic culture' in the following terms, and is
particularly relevant in understanding members' accounts when describing
their battle against the ageing process:

There is some truth in the old Cartesian mind-body dualism, corporeal

existence is a profoundly alienating experience of duality. In growing
bald, or ugly, or old, or sick, I live my immersion in nature. Nature
mercilessly goes its own way, contradicting my human dream of self-
mastery, autonomy and subjectivity (1984: 39).

In referring to the comments offered by the bodybuilders quoted above, it is

clear that through exercise and diet, there is a realisation of this contempor-
ary human dream. Wachter continues:

The dream of differentiation and self-identity is the dream of realized

subjectivity and self-command, which is the dream of being causa sui or
the unmoved mover, the dream of being like unto God. The athletic
[muscular] body fascinates because it represents this dream where it is
utterly impossible, the realm of finite corporeality (1984: 59).

For Klein (1993: 147), bodybuilding contradicts the health movement which
is supposedly geared towards longevity. The use of drugs in bodybuilding is
considered anomalous; it seemingly counters the sport's public declaration
of holding onto youth and the desire for physical immortality. However,
given the foregoing discussion one may appreciate why bodybuilding regimens
and the use of physique-enhancing drugs often prove attractive. Training and
diet, as well as carefully planned steroid use (see Monaghan 2001: 95±128),
enable participants to look and feel younger, fitter and more healthy over
longer periods of time. The potentially health-damaging practice of drug-
taking for purposes of looking healthy takes on dimensions of rationality
within postmodernity. By blurring certain dualities (e.g. old and young,
mortality and immortality, inner and outer body) it reflects the contempor-
ary human dream to control corporeal existence (Glassner 1990, Wachter
1984). Fitness in its postmodern guise, which is attainable through body-
building, offers an intimate and holistic marriage between self and body:
`the twin victims of Cartesian culture reconcile their differences at long last.
The self ``in touch with'', ``caring for'', ``in control of'' the body, no longer
need experience the body as but another object out in the world (Mead 1934:
164)' (Glassner 1990: 221).
A final point should be made concerning the use of bodybuilding drugs in
countering the ageing process. It is reasoned that for all the benefits exercise
and nutrition may confer on physical appearance, this aspect of ageing can
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344 Lee F. Monaghan

only be effectively retarded with the assistance of steroids. Especially for

men, endogenous testosterone production diminishes over time, making it
increasingly difficult for the aged athlete to maintain lean body mass and
thus the semblance of youth. The following exchange, which occurred while
interviewing a bodybuilder aged 36, points to the subcultural use of steroids
as a form of male Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT):

LM: But do you think now, as you get older, your muscles do go, even if
you carry on training?
R29: Of course they do. You've seen Freddy training [in his 50s] and
a lot of guys my age. Now, unless you're banging in, you know,
testosterone replacement [i.e. steroids]. You know, your hormone
levels drop don't they? Drastically.
LM: They're supposed to drop after 20 aren't they, after 20 they start
going down?
R29: And after I think after 30, 35 they really take a nosedive
(Interview 29).

Even without steroids, bodybuilders claim a relatively youthful appearance

can still be maintained. The bodybuilder above, who said he no longer used
steroids, added:

Old age! Well, you're fighting a losing battle really. But you are putting it
off. Well, even if you look at guys about 40, you know, they take their
shirts off in the swimming pool and you think: `fucking hell, I don't
want to be like that!' You don't do you! And that's what you'd be like
without the weights. So the weights do you a favour (Interview 29).

In sum, maintaining a youthful appearance through sport is a major societal

concern (Featherstone 1991, Turner 1991). This cultural interest contributes
to the visibility, popularity and sustainability of bodybuilding. According
to experienced bodybuilders and ethnographic observations, age is not a
limiting factor in constructing a muscular body: as a postmodern activity,
bodybuilding breaches the linearity of human life assumed in modernity.
Chronological age, in and of itself, is not an impediment to successful body-
building; indeed, age is in some respects advantageous given the phenom-
enon of `muscle maturity' ± the ongoing, gradual improvement of bodily
aesthetics. Admittedly, steroid use may be necessary for the ageing athlete if
muscle mass is to be improved or simply maintained. For those abstaining
from chemical assistance, it is nevertheless possible to derive pleasure from
the fact that at least some control is being exerted over the ageing body.
Hence, the contemporary human dream of realised subjectivity and self-
command is partially achieved in the realm of finite corporeality (Wachter
1984).
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 Looking good, feeling good 345

The erotics of the gym and pragmatic embodiment

Hart and Carter (2000: 249±50) bemoan the absence of a discourse on

pleasure from public discussion of health and risk consumption; the failure
to address local contexts of immediate, physically sensed wellbeing. Quali-
tative sociology goes some way towards redressing this lacuna, furthering
our understanding of `deviant' subcultures in general (e.g. Becker 1963) and
popular gym culture in particular. The following excerpt, where explicit
reference is made to the pleasures of experiential and visceral embodiment
(c.f. Watson 2000: 119), illustrates hyperbolically what Mansfield and
McGinn (1993: 66) term the `erotics of the gym':

The greatest feeling you can get in the gym or the most satisfying
feeling you can get in the gym is the Pump. Let's say you train your biceps:
blood is rushing into your muscles and that's what we call `the Pump'.
Your muscles get a really tight feeling, like your skin is going to explode
any minute. You know it's really tight like somebody is blowing air into
your muscles. It just blows up and it feels different, it feels fantastic.
(pause) It's as satisfying to me as coming is, you know, as having sex with
a woman and coming. So you can believe how much I am in heaven?
(Arnold Schwarzenegger, cited by Wacquant 1995a: 176)

Lifting weights, and attendant bodily experiences, is not intrinsically satisfy-

ing. Indeed, anaerobic exercise can be extremely painful. Muscle-cramping,
the immediate engorgement of muscles with blood, temporary disability and
muscle stiffness lasting several days, are feelings likely to discourage neo-
phytes unless they learn to enjoy these sensations during social interaction
with more experienced participants. Although such processes are evidenced
in non-athletic subcultures (Becker 1963), a clear parallel may be drawn here
between bodybuilders and joggers. Both groups tend to think of their
activities as solitary endeavours. However, it is only through conversations
and folk-lore that both groups learn to experience the `highs' of exercise
(Glassner 1990: 222).
For critical feminists and sports sociologists, socialisation to voluntary
pain is dismissed as an insignia of masculinity that inhibits emotional
expression (Sabo 1989: 159). However, this critical observation does not
necessarily correspond with the lived experience of bodybuilding. Among
bodybuilders, non-injurious, self-inflicted and self-controlled `pain' is
embraced and re-interpreted as enjoyable. Bodybuilders' `culture of pain'
± similar to the culture of pain among the mutual whipping male and
infibulated (circumcised) female Hofriyati of Sudan (Boddy 1998) ±
certainly underscores gendered ideals of personhood, but it is also a well-
spring of positive emotionality. Psychological self-efficacy was reported by
respondents because pain endured during training is instrumental; it is
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346 Lee F. Monaghan

constructive of both the specular and the sentient body and is grasped
retrospectively as a worthwhile experience:

LM: Talking about the workout and the pain involved in training. . .
R24: Yeah, I suppose in one way the end justifies the means, you know,
that the pain is something that has to be endured to get the end
[a muscular body]. But I enjoy, I enjoy pushing myself through
that threshold of pain. I find it gives me ± maybe it strengthens the
character. Maybe you feel that you can then take on lots of things
in the world. If you can just do this to yourself without anybody
really making you do it, then I think it gives you great depth of
character [Yeah?] Enables you to take on other problems ± I know
that when I'm training 100 per cent other problems they pale
compared to if I'm not training and I feel able to take on things
and to sort out things much better when I'm in top shape
(Interview 24. Male bodybuilder).

For this bodybuilder, the emotions associated with physical and experiential
embodiment directly impact upon what Watson (2000: 118-19) terms
`pragmatic embodiment': a functional rather than representational mode
of bodily construction. This point is concordant with a gender analysis
of bodybuilding. For example, pragmatic embodiment (the immediate
everyday social body) is implicated in the construction of masculinity in the
public world of formal employment. (Similarly, see Lyons and Willot 1999:
295±6, regarding the significance of the `health as productivity discourse'
vis-aÁ-vis masculine identity, power and class.) Of course, the performance of
gender may be independent of biological sex. Women bodybuilders may also
embody competence and force i.e. traditional masculine attributes (Connell
1983), which has perceived benefits for the pragmatic and experiential body:

LM: Why do you enjoy the pain?

R12: I don't know. It's being strong isn't it? It's overcoming a barrier
isn't it? Every time you hit the weights. That's why it's so good.
It gets your aggression out. Barriers that you come up against in
life that you can't necessarily overcome, but in the gym you can.
I think it gives you so much more confidence (Interview 12.
Female Bodybuilder).

Problems and barriers ordinarily encountered in everyday life are often a

source of frustration (Klein 1992: 327). According to Glassner (1990: 218),
the loss of control and splintering of selfhood attributable to modernist
activities underscores the significance of exercise as a postmodern activity.
Importantly, it is here that exercise serves as an alternative `to an alienated,
inactive stance towards one's physical and emotional reality (c.f. Freund,
1982)' (Glassner 1990: 218). To be sure, anxieties and insecurities ± in
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 Looking good, feeling good 347

contrast to the learnt capacity to enjoy strenuous anaerobic exercise ± do

not constitute a necessary condition for bodybuilding. As suggested above,
however, bodybuilders may be distanced from possible sources of anxiety
because they are provided with a sense of empowerment in the gym. The
work-out ± which is the basic unit of bodybuilding ± maximises a feeling of
psychological centeredness, promoting self-mastery by constituting a pre-
arranged series of exercises (Klein 1992: 327):

When I go down to the gym, I go there with a goal in mind, and when
I come out of there I nearly always feel that I've had a brilliant
workout. `God, that was brilliant'! I feel powerful, I feel strong, I feel
energetic. It's just a nice feeling. But I don't know any other sport that
you can get that sort of rush every workout almost (Interview 33. Male
bodybuilder).

Contributors to the medical literature claim that the psychological benefits

associated with exercise in general (McAuley et al. 1991), and bodybuilding
in particular (Palmer et al. 1995), may be attributed to mastery. For example,
by experiencing strength gains, participants in bodybuilding are provided
with indicators that they are mastering their physical regimen (Palmer et al.
1995: 528). The `rush' mentioned above, however, also suggests that body-
builders experience more immediate bodily sensations comparable to those
described by `substance abusers' (c.f. Palmer et al. 1995: 529).
In referring to Williams' (1992) ethnography of a Crack house, Wacquant
(1995a: 176) states: `there are many similarities here between the sensuous
experience of bodybuilding and that of chronic drug addiction'. Certainly,
some gym members assent to this interpretation. The following statement,
where emphasis is given to the sentient body, is illustrative:

Um, it's probably like a drug addict. It's, they say it's a needle going in
which, you know, they're addicted to. With me, it's, I get addicted to
the resistance I'm pushing against. And when I overcome it, it gives me,
you know, a lot of satisfaction (Interview 29. Male bodybuilder).

Another man claimed the feelings experienced in the gym surpass those
associated with psychotropic drugs: `I feel high as a kite when I come out
of the gym [. . .] It's better than drugs. It's better than a drug and that's the
truth' (Interview 36).
The comparison with drug addiction, however, may also carry negative
connotations, possibly undermining selfhood. It would appear that the
similarity between bodybuilding and drug dependency, for those embroiled
in bodybuilding, is not a literal comparison. Although competition body-
building entails health risks, some participants maintain that bodybuilding
is less dangerous than chronic drug addiction. A male junior competition
bodybuilder and steroid user said: `I suppose training is [like a drug]. It gives
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348 Lee F. Monaghan

me a buzz. I suppose it gives me a buzz that's similar to what heroin addicts

get when they shoot up. But bodybuilding is a bit safer' (Interview 22).
The pursuit of muscle may also be contrasted with chronic drug addiction
because body-building is constructive rather than destructive in conception;
for many it is constitutive of the physical and everyday pragmatic body.
Consider the following excerpt recorded while interviewing a former heroin
addict turned steroid-using competition bodybuilder. Significantly, this man
told me later that he was now more home and family oriented given his
positive `addiction' to bodybuilding:

R43: I got into heavy drugs and things [heroin] so I used bodybuilding
to change the people I was hanging around with. Anything,
because like, if you're a junkie [and you want to give up the drug]
you've got to understand [. . .] you've got to change your whole
lifestyle. So I thought I'd go from one extreme to the other. Go
from abusing my body to rebuilding and putting something back
into my body and that's what I did. I cut everybody out and
just went to the gym and trained and trained and trained until
I was . . . Now I could stand in a room with these people [heroin
injectors], I can watch them do what the hell they like and it
wouldn't affect me, whereas a few years ago, I couldn't have. I'd
have been tempted [. . .] it's taken me five years to get here you
know so, that was my first reason for doing it, to swap my
addiction from being a junkie into a bodybuilder basically.
LM: So when you say addiction, do you think bodybuilding's almost
like a drug?
R43: Of course! [. . .] Bodybuilding, running, anything. If you take it
on strong enough it will be such a big part of your life that you
won't be able to do without it, so that to me is an addiction.
LM: To you it's better than being addicted to heroin?
R43: Oh definitely. I'd rather go in the gym and press weights than go
into my house and press needles in my arm at the end of the day.

In summary, ethnographic focus upon the sensual bodily pleasures of

anaerobic exercise, the so-called erotics of the gym, alongside the perceived
benefits for everyday pragmatic embodiment, furthers sociological under-
standing of popular gym culture. This may also partially explain the affinity
between bodybuilding and drug use. Indeed, some steroid users claim bodily
sensations experienced during exercise are intensified while using synthetic
testosterone. The `steroid pump', as it is known in gym argot, is an ex-
tremely intense experience treated with almost mystical reverence. These
ethnographic understandings ± supporting sociological theorising on the
body where it is maintained purposeful activity comprises emotionality and
feeling (Turner 1992) ± are attainable without adopting a pathologising
biomedical perspective. Certainly, experiential embodiment can be most
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 Looking good, feeling good 349

problematic for the health professional because it is here that the social
and physical boundaries of bodies touch (Watson 2000: 119). However,
describing the experience and wider impact of emotion and hidden visceral
processes, which are associated with intense physical exercise, does much to
explain the sustainability of `risky' bodywork. Here the often chemically
enhanced `healthy' bodies actively participating in gym life experience a
positive sense of wellbeing. Bodybuilders, similar to weight trainers and
others engaged in regular vigorous exercise, are able to state that they not
only `look good' but also `feel good'.

Discussion: bringing `healthy' bodies back in

`Sociologists and anthropologists of medicine have largely focused their

research on sickness and illness, thus obscuring social scientific
investigations of health and healthiness' (Saltonstall 1993: 7).

To medicalise and pathologise bodies is commonplace among clinicians,

`psy-scientists' and some sociologists. The vocabulary of risk is the most
pervasive and powerful moral technology for bringing `transgressive' bodies
under a scrutinising academic and/or clinical gaze. Such discursive practices
often construct the individualised objects of inquiry in wholly pejorative
terms. As noted by Williams et al. (1995: 120) concerning conceptualisations
of risk in the health field, there is a tendency to label social action according
to stereotyped constructs of personal inadequacy. One technique for bring-
ing bodybuilders' `risk-inducing' bodies to academic and public attention is
to characterise them as wholly inadequate. Here, bodybuilders are con-
sidered `dangerous' bodies that pose a risk to their own health and the
health of others in the form of drug-induced violence (Pope and Katz 1990;
for a different understanding of the supposed steroid-violence connection
see Monaghan 2001: 156±80).
This pathology discourse is congruent with medical sociologists' long-
standing concern with illness, disease or potential (disease) risk rather than
positive health, wellbeing and vibrant physicality. This is not to say that the
sociology of health and illness is, or has been, totally blind to issues of health
in everyday life. However, medical sociology's overwhelming focus on pain,
injury, suffering and deterioration often obscures social scientific work on
health and healthiness (Saltonstall 1993). Such bias clearly warrants and
legitimates the investigation of `risk-inducing' bodybuilders in sociological
and other `health' oriented work. Here bodybuilders are thoroughly path-
ologised given their apparent willingness to abandon their own and other
people's health in their `narcissistic' quest for bodily perfection. However,
such representations (e.g. Klein 1993, 1995) are not grounded in rich quali-
tative data where recent non-dualistic theorising about the body is drawn
into the frame of everyday experience.
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350 Lee F. Monaghan

The importance of embodiment is now widely recognised within soci-

ology, and theoretically informed research on active, `healthy' bodies is
emerging independent of the sociology of health and illness (e.g. Wacquant
1995b). Medical sociology, with its long-standing empirical interest in
`broken' bodies, is also beginning to listen to those voices emanating from
`healthy' bodies. This work, however, is quite recent (Williams 1998: 452),
and is therefore underdeveloped. Indeed, despite a burgeoning interest in
bodily matters, there is, within medical sociology, a relative neglect of
`healthy' bodies as lived, experienced and understood by embodied social
agents within their contexts of everyday life. Certainly, this neglect is not
absolute (e.g. Crawford 1984, Saltonstall 1993), but the relative neglect of
healthy bodies must be explicitly recognised and redressed by undertaking
relevant social scientific research. This is important because the vibrant
physical/social/experiential/pragmatic bodies obscured in medical sociology,
somewhat paradoxically, may contribute to their own erosion while pursu-
ing bodily perfection, happiness and healthiness. Indeed, as recently stated
by Williams (1998: 451), it is from the `unproblematic' corporeal site of the
taken-for-granted `healthy' body that `transgression' of various kinds occur,
including illicit drug use.
Using qualitative data, this paper has taken a small but necessary step in
bringing `healthy' lived-bodies back into the newer and more fully embodied
sociology of health and illness. In accord with interpretative sociology,
detailed reference was made to the voices emanating from socially em-
bedded, reflexive and active body-subjects. Hopefully, these ethnographic
data also help redress the `theoreticism' that characterises recent social
scientific writings on the body (c.f. Nettleton and Watson 1998). To be sure,
social theorising is significant; studying the body in everyday life must be
theoretically informed not least because everyday embodied experience is
articulated through cultural categories. Correspondingly, in contributing to
substantive theory, the above analysis has explored the overlapping, com-
plementary and often blurred categories of health and youth as signified by
fit-looking (muscular) bodies (Glassner 1990). This `postmodernist' reading
facilitated an alternative interpretation and critical engagement with existing
theoretical work on bodybuilding and drug use.
Critics may object that many bodybuilders, by virtue of their `obsessive'
behaviours, are deeply `troubled' or `in crisis' (e.g. Pope et al. 2000). It may
also be added that bodybuilders simply do not look healthy. Undeniably,
bodybuilders' `excessively' muscular and dieted bodies may overstep the
mark ± to many observers such bodies are grotesque or `sick' ± but body-
builders, similar to `athletically toned' weight trainers, may discursively
place their highly disciplined muscular bodies within culturally normative
space (Schulze 1990). Stressing the pleasures and benefits of bodybuilding,
the embodiment and somatic representation of `health' and `youth' as
valued within post- or late modernity, renders such activity visibly rational
and reportable. Undoubtedly, bodybuilding may entail physiologically
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 Looking good, feeling good 351

detrimental practices, especially among `hard-core' physique competitors.

Nevertheless, courting health risks in order to embody an image of
`healthiness' is understandable if positive health is conceived in represen-
tational rather than instrumental terms. The situated rationality of body-
builders' activities is underscored given the socially constructed pleasures
attendant on their ascetic lifestyle: their sense of physical and emotional
wellbeing derived from achieving `the look', their learnt capacity to enjoy
intense physical exercise and the perceived benefits for everyday pragmatic
embodiment.
Such observations, which relate to the multifarious, complex and contra-
dictory constructions of `health' in everyday life, have implications for
health professionals as well as social scientists. `Transgression is pleasurable'
writes Williams (1998: 451) and `health promoters may, therefore, as embodied
practitioners, need to reinsert their rational minds in their sensual bodies,
and reorientate their policies and practices accordingly'. Especially within
today's fitness-oriented cultural context, the active/sporting/disciplined/self-
controlled body ± which is also often chemically/nutritionally/pharmaceuti-
cally enhanced ± has become a central site for sensual embodied pleasure
and the construction of subjectivity. Without doubt, popular gym culture
is a domain where experiential and emotional bodies (irrespective of class,
age and gender) come to the fore. Thus, while it is common for the ageing
physical body to become increasingly marginalised, given the social
imperatives of gendered role practices (e.g. being a father, mother, husband,
wife or employee), possibilities exist within the gym for all participants to
experience hidden visceral processes and vibrant physicality. Watson (2000:
120) observes that it is only in the context of acute or chronic illness and
disability `that the visceral body penetrates both the levels of pragmatic and
experiential embodiment to constrain the social self'. Conversely, it could be
argued that in an increasingly sedentary post-industrial society it is only in
the context of sport, exercise and active lifestyles that the visceral body
penetrates the pragmatic and experiential body to enable the social self.
In that respect, and despite critical feminists' claims to the contrary, (drug-
using) bodybuilders and weight trainers ± similarly to fitness enthusiasts
more generally ± are `fit for postmodern selfhood' (Glassner 1990).

Conclusion

Shilling (1993) observes that the body has had an `absent presence' within
sociology. The burgeoning social science literature on the body since the
1980s partly counters this neglect but it does not go far enough. Wacquant
(1995b), for example, complains that one rarely encounters actual living
bodies of flesh and blood within recent social studies of the body. Similarly,
Watson (2000: 51±60) bemoans the fact that the sociology of the body
is theoretically driven and empirically lacking. It is also hamstrung by
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352 Lee F. Monaghan

bracketing out the individual and by ignoring the practical experiences of

embodiment. The sociology of health and illness, however, can be partially
excused. As indicated in recent studies of the body in everyday life, medical
sociology does throw important light on corporeal issues. Nevertheless, in
making this point, emphasis is immediately given to illness rather than
healthiness:

. . . the lack of empirical data on the body as it is experienced is in

marked contrast to a number of related areas of study, prime amongst
which is the sociology of chronic illness and disability. Clearly the work in
this field offers important insights into our understanding of the body,
it has been dominated by research into the experience of chronic illness
and disability, and as such has yielded rich empirical data (Nettleton and
Watson 1998: 2±3).

Undoubtedly, medical sociology is to be congratulated for this focus. The

exceptional work on chronic illness can be taken to rebuff any suggestion
that social scientific discussion on `the body' is totally abstract and sterile.
However, whether medical sociologists are dealing with individual bodies
or collective bodies disadvantaged by social structural arrangements, the
focus, as evidenced in the study of chronic sickness and disability, is over-
whelmingly upon sick bodies rather than bodies displaying and experiencing
vibrant physicality. Certainly, important reasons exist for such bias but the
asymmetry that characterises the sociology of health and illness should not
marginalise the sociology of healthy bodies. At the moment, and to slightly
modify Wacquant (1995b: 65), medical sociology offers precious few insights
into the actual representations and experiences that constitute `healthy'
human bodies within specific embodied social worlds.
Paradoxically, it is by undertaking concrete empirical studies of `healthy'
bodies in the context of daily life that medical sociologists may be better
placed to gain a more intimate, detailed and grounded knowledge of em-
bodied social practices that contribute to and possibly erode bodily capital.
It is hoped that this paper is a case in point, providing much needed em-
pirical data. Such grounded analyses, as demonstrated in Watson's (2000)
recent study of male embodiment, also have implications for public health.
Certainly, easy solutions for professionals who try to promote health are
not forthcoming from such research. However, and crucially, clinicians
engaged in such enterprises may need critically to reappraise their goals
and expectations in light of grounded studies of embodiment and health
(Watson 2000: 143). To attribute bodybuilding and associated `physiologi-
cally detrimental' practices to a lack of education, risky selfish behaviour or
other inadequacies is to ride roughshod over complex social reality. Even
worse, such a stance is likely to have the unintended consequence of
alienating a population who may otherwise be receptive to interactive health
promotion.
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd/Editorial Board 2001
 Looking good, feeling good 353

Address for correspondence: Lee F. Monaghan, Cardiff School of Social

Sciences, Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue,
Cardiff CF10 3WT
e-mail: MonaghanLF1@cf.ac.uk

Acknowledgements

This is a modified version of a chapter first appearing in an unpublished PhD thesis.

I am extremely grateful to my ethnographic contacts, Michael Bloor and Russell and
Rebecca Dobash for their input into that work. The idea to reformulate the original
manuscript in order to address issues of health, well being and pleasure emerged
following discussions with Graham Hart and Joanna Latimer. Finally I would like to
thank Gareth Williams for bringing some relevant literature to my attention and the
anonymous referees who offered invaluable advice.

Notes

1 Following a recent paper on the normalisation of drug use among those attend-
ing the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, such readings are also necessary.
As stated by Southgate and Hopwood (1999: 303): `. . . cultural and subcultural
constructions of pleasure, lifestyle and health need to be considered if the
demand for illicit substances is to be adequately accounted for'.
2 Of course, what actually constitutes an aesthetically pleasing body, and thus what
serves as a source of personal satisfaction, varies between and among types of
gym member (Monaghan 1999b). Such variation, it should be added, is only
analytically relevant relative to one's particular research questions. Elsewhere such
heterogeneity has been of central analytic concern (Monaghan forthcoming).
However, in this paper, I have different aims; namely, to explore what is actually
a basis of commonality within popular gym culture.

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