Pose for Thought: Bodybuilding and Other Matters

Abstract

Bodybuilding has become big business in recent years. Most cities and towns now boast at least three or four gymnasiums which incorporate all the latest technology of weight training. There are also numerous magazines such as Bodybuilding Monthly, Muscle and Fitness and Flex which give advice on diet and training as well as keeping the reader informed of the increasing number of competitions which he or she may enter. Of course bodybuilding has been around a long time but in the past it was linked to displays of strength like the circus strong man’s ability to bend iron bars or pull heavy weights using only his teeth and a rope. The attraction of the circus strong man however lay in his being different, even somewhat freakish; his very costume, the traditional leopard skin leotard, signified his being closer to primitive rather than modern man and so the spectacle he provided reassured his audience of their sophistication at the same time as it entertained them. Outside the circus ring bodybuilding was aimed at those who did not want sand kicked in their face. The implied promise of Charles Atlas and others was that by following a prescribed course the purchaser would never again suffer intimidation. Bodybuilding was thus seen as a way of dealing with a hostile world and to that extent it had a rationale, however questionable.