The history of doping is also a history of modernity and the plastic and changeable body. Through ideas about performing bodies, various sports have been successfully modernized since the mid-1800s (Dimeo, 2007). Within this modernization process we also find the use of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs). In the 1930s, different types of drugs […]
Gym Culture and IPEDs: The pre-history of IPEDs and the golden era of bodybuilding, 1900-1980s
Transforming from a subcultural enterprise that began in greasy, masculine, exclusive basement environments, gym and fitness culture has broadened and developed into a multibillion-dollar global industry. It now welcomes both men and women, young and old, and individuals with a range of goals.
“Oh my, the bigger and more fuller clit is amazing”: Reclaiming the female body through a women-only forum
Introduction Historically, muscles and muscular bodies have been connected to men and masculinity. As a consequence, women´s engagement in muscle building has often been considered a threat to the “natural” gender order (e.g., dominant men, deferential women) and met with resistance and attempts to curb their participation. This might be particularly true in relation to […]
Anti-Doping: Producing Health or Harm?
Anti-doping can ignore the fact that strict policies against steroids may structure use environments in ways that result in greater potential risk. And these risks don’t stop with the physical. Rather, laws impact the entire use environment, including social, economic, and political risk factors.
Dude, make some space – Women’s experiences in an online steroid community
Historically, the use of steroids has more or less been a question of men, muscles, and masculinity. This “holy trinity” has long prevailed. By the 1970s, for example, we saw the bodybuilding icon Arnold Schwarzenegger and his bodybuilding buddies hitting the weights in the documentary Pumping Iron. At that time, and outside the sphere of […]