Performing the Muscular Freak and Monster

Muscular Otherness: Performing the Muscular Freak and Monster John Paul Staszel A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2009 Committee: Dr. Scott Magelssen, Advisor Dr. Lesa Lockford Dr. Eileen Cherry-Chandler i Abstract The historic “freak show” presented human difference as a popular form of entertainment, which both fascinated and repulsed. While voyeuristically consumed to look at on stage, freak show performers were often alienated from the rest of society, stared at, and called “freaks” and “monsters”—terms connoting repugnance and physical disorder. Today, the muscular body is a newly emergent form of physical bodily difference inviting our stares, and the gaze at its difference is still very much informed by the historical mode of staring at the freak and monster. However, these terms, when applied to muscular identities in popular discourse, no longer only have negative connotations associated with disgust and disgrace. The muscular bodies and public personas of famous bodybuilders, and their performances as war heroes, crime fighters and sports stars, have had a tremendous impact—inspiring millions, including myself, to take up a bodybuilding lifestyle for health and aesthetic reasons. The inspiration we get from these muscular identities, however, lies in more than their standardized performances as hero or athlete. These performers have also modeled positive, empowering images of the “muscular freak” and “muscular monster,” new character types that invite idolization and admiration. In this manner, images and performances featuring the muscular body have altered our social understanding of terms normally associated with the classification of the deformed and ostracized human body into terms of honor, veneration and praise. The muscular body has had a transformative power over the terms freak and monster, and it is in this power that I place its foundation. To articulate the particulars of this transformation, I look to pivotal historic events in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and recent case studies in film, television, and magazines, as well as my own participant and scholarly findings of bodybuilding expositions. ii Dedication For Mom, Dad and Joe who have supported me from afar, and for all of those friends who have stood by me during my disappearance. iii Acknowledgements Writing a master’s thesis is very much like building a fit muscular body; neither is a requirement for individual success in life—they are life choices. In most circumstances, it is an individual’s choice to enter a training facility and build a muscular body. The same type of choice compels individuals to continue their higher education. Whereas the health and fitness industry provides an established network of gyms, nutritional supplement companies, fitness literature, and experts to guide an individual on their fitness quest, a university provides the same type of network, ensuring access to the tools necessarily for academic success. It is important for me to acknowledge the health and fitness industry for the subsidiary assistance it has provided in this project. It is, however, more important for me to thank the friends, family, peers, mentors, departments and professors that have stood by and aided in my academic journey. First and foremost, I would like to thank my parents, Donald and Emma Staszel, and my much younger brother Joe. They have provided me with unconditional support in the unorthodox journey that has been my life, never second-guessing my final decisions. Dr. Michael Slavin, Dr. Michele Pagen, my undergraduate theatre professors at California University of Pennsylvania both earned PhDs from the theatre department from Bowling Green State University. They are responsible for igniting the flame and adding fuel to my academic fire. Without their early and consistent guidance, and the support from many within the theatre department at California University of Pennsylvania, I would not proudly be pursuing my master’s and eventually a PhD from such a great school as Bowling Green State University. It is the outstanding individuals from Bowling Green State University whom I would like to thank the most. Dr. Scott Magelssen gave me exactly the type of direction I needed with this project. His remarkable patience has truly been a gift, while his desire and enthusiasm toward iv my subject has motivated and challenged me more than I could have imagined. His guidance over the past two years has continued to drive personal excellence in my academic pursuits and he has guided this project to its fruition. As I continue my academic quest for excellence, Dr. Magelssen’s direction has been a leading force in fostering my academic growth as a writer and scholar. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Lesa Lockford and Dr. Eileen Cherry-Chandler, for their work on this project, as well as the role they have played in my overall progress as a theatre scholar. Dr. Jonathan Chambers and Esther Iverson have also cultivated my growth as a scholar over the past two years. All of the people mentioned above have played a pivotal role in my master’s education and I hope they would see this thesis as a synthesis of my lessons learned in my time here at BGSU. I would also like to thank my fellow students for the support and friendships that have been forged. Stephen Harrick, Andie Markijohn, Matt Lamb, Hephzibah Nicky Dutt, Scott Boston and Rob Connick have not only provided outstanding academic sounding boards to vent and bounce ideas off of, they have also become friends that I hold near to my heart. I wish them the best of luck in their academic careers and all other directions life has in store for them. Finally, I would like to conclude by thanking my close friends Jim Overly, Dr. Mark Vaitkus, Dr. Ed Duling, Earl Tucker and Donnie C. Stepp Jr., all of whom have been enormous inspirations in my scholarly pursuits. I would like to thank each one of them individually for the unique roles they have played in my life. They have helped me to persevere through times of personal defeat and have played key roles in many of my successes. Without the help, guidance, support and friendship from those mentioned above and many others, I would not be where and who I am today. Thank you again—more than you will ever know. God bless you all, as He has already blessed me with your presence. v Preface Visible body difference has always been a fascination of mine but I did not really know or understand why as I was growing up. Looking back, I realize that I was constantly surrounded by human difference. My maternal grandmother, one of the most important figures in my life, was stricken with polio at a young age. As she grew older, the disease hampered her mobility, which eventually led to substantial weight gain. My paternal grandfather was born with an extra finger. I assume my great-grandparents did not have it medically removed, either because they did not have the money or did not want to draw unwanted attention to the deformity. His physical condition and appearance also changed with age due to diabetes and poor circulation. By the time I was ten, both of his legs had been amputated at the knee. Then there was my Great Aunt Rosie: while she was always just Aunt Rosie to me and my family, to most everyone else she was known as “Jim.” As I grew older, I slowly began to understand that Aunt Rosie looked, sounded, dressed and acted more like a male (Jim) than a female (Rosie). I do not think I fully realized until I was a teenager how and why she was different. Today, I look back and recognize that all three of these important individuals in my childhood could be classified under an unattractive category. To me, they were just family. They were not physically different or deformed. They were simply Gram, Pap and Aunt Rosie. Yet the memories of the looks, the stares, and the glares that I can vaguely recall while with them in public all make more sense now. I cannot really blame anyone who might have stared, because, as a young man, I often wondered about their differences. It has taken until this point in my life to realize that many of those stares were directed in way similar to the stares that would have been directed towards the “fat lady,” “the legless wonder,” and “the hermaphrodite/ half vi man- half woman” characters popular under the banner of “freak show.” Indeed, they could have easily been oddities of interest to the paying audience of the freak show days of old. As a child, possessing a physical difference was always a fear of my own. For this reason, growing up, I was always fascinated by the muscle and fitness subculture. Bodybuilding offered an escape from my fears and I began to develop a deep personal appreciation for health, fitness and the muscular body. Over the past fifteen years I have developed and molded myself into a muscled, six-foot one-inch, two hundred and twenty-five pound body in an attempt to resemble the muscular images in the popular media. However, in my youth, my body started at a very different level. Along with growing up with human difference constantly in plain sight, I possessed my own personal difference. Growing up as the only child on the family farm, I considered myself fat. Saying I was overweight, plump, or pudgy would be an understatement. I can still remember feeling uncomfortable looking at myself in the mirror at age ten.

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