MUSCLES, MEN AND MASCULINITY MURRAY DRUMMOND Paper presented at the AARE conference Newcastle November 1994 According to popular lore, Australia was built through the efforts of male muscle. Legend depicts Australia’s formative years to be a period where rugged outback settlers battled nature and the odds, in a struggle for survival. Men were revered and held responsible for this pioneering and forging of new land. Similarly, the development of Australian industry is deemed as being the product of male initiative, although not displaying the same brawn qualities of its pioneering predecessors. Exercise, vigor, and the building of strength and physical power are ways in which contemporary men have brought some of this image back into their lives. Sociologists and anthropologists argue that now, more so than any other period in history, muscles have become an important part of masculine identity in western culture. However in the quest to attain this muscular physique, men must work their bodies in a physical manner. Therefore, muscles have become synonymous with sport and exercise. However, many men abhor physical activity, often as a consequence of bad childhood experiences with sport, and there are men who simply do not have the time to exercise due to work commitments. For men such as these, life can involve a constant battle with their own conscience as they struggle with their decision not to exercise in the face of negative social regard and criticism. The benefit of muscularity is instilled into boys from an early age. Boys may suffer if they can’t or won’t accept the obligation to develop a “manly” physique. Muscular, athletic boys are generally well accepted by peers and have a positive self-concept. They are often paid more attention by teachers at school as a consequence of their outgoing, confident personalities. They are also popular with girls. A muscular, athletic physique can lend to many positive outcomes and boys learn this quickly. This paper will investigate the importance of muscles in the development of masculinity throughout the lifecourse of men. It will examine the lives of twelve elite level sportsmen, from the sports of bodybuilding, surf lifesaving and triathlon, to discover what emphases these men place on the size, shape and muscularity of male physiques and the way they perceive masculinity, including their own. The data is derived from interviews with twelve elite level athletes involved in my Doctoral research. An analysis of the information provided by the athletes indicated that self-esteem was the ultimate underlying factor these men regarded most highly. The importance of a positive self-esteem was paramount to each group of athletes and it appears the men I interviewed chose sports which would help them develop a positive self-esteem. The athletes tended to emphasize aspects of their sport that provided them with personal positive outcomes. Examining each group collectively, differences became apparent. The bodybuilders relied on the visible appearance of their muscles, that is the hyper-muscular development, and body image to create their positive self-esteem whereas the triathletes regarded competition and their race results as a primary influencing factor. Living the life of a surf lifesaver and immersing oneself in the surf lifesaving sub-culture appeared to be a significant factor in the development of the surf lifesavers self esteem. However, almost every triathlete and surf lifesaver interviewed made reference to their lack of physical size in comparison to bodybuilders. They also inferred a desire to attain a larger physique at some point in their life, most likely once they have finished competing in their respective sports. It was made clear that the triathletes and surf lifesavers did not approve of the hyper-muscularity displayed by bodybuilders although, they did envy the manner in which the sport allowed these men to attain such a size. Triathletes and surf lifesavers do not develop a large physique due to the excessive amounts of aerobic activity involved in their training and racing, nor would they want to carry such a heavy weight over many kilometres. According to the triathletes and surf lifesavers, bodybuilders can afford to be muscle-bound because they are not “real athletes” since it is not a “real sport”. These sentiments were reinforced by Terry, who is a professional triathlete with a very lean, but extremely well toned, physique. Jokingly he claimed that most of his friends regard him as “scrawny”, a fact that I would argue heightens the insecurity surrounding his lack of muscularity by drawing attention to this physical deficit. Yeah I s’pose. I mean I s’pose there is something. Yet I know myself that I'm good at what I do, so, I don't need to look like the way they look....I s’pose there is some sort of thing "oh gee it'd be good to be as big as that" but yet if I was as big as that I couldn't do what I do. People say when, you're in the gym, "Oh look, you wanna put a bit of beef on or something" and I say ....I've just gotta say, "well I don't need to because I'm an endurance athlete..I do sport.. I don't wanna be carrying around a 120kg frame like you've got" ....but I s’pose if I gave up the sport I'd probably want to look a bit more muscle bound than I do. If muscularity is a major factor in the development of a man’s self esteem, one would imagine bodybuilders to have a positive self esteem as a consequence of their large physique and the hyper-development of a perceived masculine attribute. This does not appear to be the case. The bodybuilders seemed to be insecure about their physiques claiming that they do not have good bodies particularly in regard to size. They seemed content with the shape and symmetry but it was size which was most important to them. Losing size was a major fear that each bodybuilder acknowledged and learning how to cope with this loss of size was a battle. The deep seated insecurities held by these men concerning their physiques did not simply occur over a short period of time. They all lacked a positive self image from an early age therefore these feelings of inadequacy have had time to develop over a significant period. Mark has been a bodybuilder for seventeen years and is grateful to bodybuilding for changing his life. For years he was small and weak with little self confidence: I used to play football for East Perth, used to play cricket, always good at all the sports. I was always up, like running for fairest and best and things like that, but mainly coz I was always like the underdog. I always tried that much harder than everybody else, you know to sort of prove a point....I didn’t take up bodybuilding as a sport, I took up weight lifting so that I could....first of all, I had asthma very, very bad. When I was 21 I weighed 42 kilos so I started training so that I could, you know, get healthy and sort of you know improve my breathing capacity. No intentions to sort of become a bodybuilder whatsoever. There are times in these men’s lives when they are comfortable with the way they look, though the feeling of impending doom rests heavily on them with the fear of losing physical size through injury or illness. Be that as it may, it is the word “plateau” which bodybuilders fear most as this signifies a cessation in growth. Anything less than what they are doing at present to maintain their physique will amount to a decrease in size. In his autobiography Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder, an outstanding account of the world of serious bodybuilding, Sam Fussell recounts the horror of facing up to the human reality of bodybuilding and admitting to being a victim of the “plateau syndrome.” But by September of 1986, two years after I had first embraced iron, something went wrong. I ignored it at first. After all, the Medco (weighing scale) was frequently unreliable. I upped my food dosages and supplements, but without effect. The cruel fact was that my body had stuttered, then stopped growing. My training diary recorded the problem, the tape measure confirmed it. I was stuck with 17-inch arms, a 17-inch neck, 16-inch calves, a 48-inch chest, and 26-inch thighs. Months passed without a gain of even 1/16 of an inch. In an agitated state, I confessed my problem to Sweepea. He looked at me sympathetically, then bit his lip. “Plateau,” he mumbled. It is the word bodybuilders fear most. Somehow, some way I had to break through it (Fussell, 1991, p.85). The only way for the body to begin growing again is to change elements of their training regime. Usually this would mean changing the exercises the bodybuilders were performing or changing the amount they were lifting or even changing their diet. However, in many instances it meant changing to a cycle of steroids. Paul, a bodybuilder, suggested that the most important aspect of his sport was constant improvement and he believed he had remedied the problem of the dreaded “plateau”: Constant improvement. If I don’t see improvement I ask myself “what am I doing this for ?”....You always go through periods of improvement and then go through periods of plateau where there is no improvement. After a plateau you forget the improvement you had, you forget the weights you were lifting, the size you were, unless of course you keep records of all this, which I don’t like to do.