Little Big Men: Bodybuilding Subculture and Gender Construction

by Alan M. Klein

Overview

Little Big Men is a study of competitive bodybuilders on the West Coast that examines the subculture from the perspective of bodybuilders' everyday activities. It offers fascinating descriptions and insightful analogies of an important and understudied subculture that has risen to widespread popularity in today's mass culture.

Alan Klein conducted his field study of bodybuilding in some of the world's best-known gyms. In studying the social and political relations of bodybuilding competitors, Klein explores not only gym dynamics but also the internal and external pressures bodybuilders face. Central to his examination is the critique of masculinity. Through his study of "hustling" among bodybuilders, Klein is able to construct a social-psychological male configuration that includes narcissism, homophobia, hypermasculinity, and fascism. Because they exist as exaggerations, these bodybuilder traits come to represent one end of the continuum of modern masculinity, what Klein terms comic-book masculinity. This study is a rare foray into the critique of contemporary American macho.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791415603
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	08/24/1993
Series:	SUNY series on Sport, Culture, and Social Relations
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	326
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Alan M. Klein is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Northeastern University. He is the author of Sugarball: The American Game, The Dominican Dream.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

PART ONE: THE WORLD OF THE BODYBUILDER

Introduction

1. Breaking and Entering: Presupposition and Faux Pas in the Gym

2. Caste and Class in a Western Gym

3. The Good, the Bad and the Indifferent

4. Muscle Moguls: The Political-Economy of Competitive Bodybuilding

5. Little Big Men of Olympic

PART TWO: SUBCULTURE ANALYSIS OF BODYBUILDING

6. Pumping Iron: Crisis and Contradiction in Bodybuilding

7. Sally's Corner: The Women of Olympic

8. The Hustler Complex: Narcissism, Homophobia, Hypermasculinity, and Authoritarianism

9. Comic-Book Masculinity and Cultural Fiction

Appendix A

Appendix B

Notes

Index

Editorial Reviews

"Alan Klein's splendid ethnography is a vivid description of the bodybuilding cult, but is far more as well. It gives us important lessons about masculinity and men's bodies, about tangles of identity and sexuality, and—above all—about the contradictory character of gender in the contemporary world. Fascinating reading and a notable contribution to knowledge." — Bob Connell, University of California, Santa Cruz

"This is an important work that will make a significant contribution to sport sociology. I like its readability, its use of vivid, rich portraits, and its location within a scholarly body of literature on the body. In the best tradition of ethnography, we are provided a 'portrait of the people,' while at the same time adding to our theoretical knowledge about culture and society." — Peter Adler, University of Denver

From the Publisher

Sociologist/anthropologist Klein ( Sugarball: The American Game, The Dominican Dream ) spent seven years hanging out at four elite West Coast bodybuilding gyms, and his observations of this strange, hyper-masculine subculture, though sometimes shackled by academic jargon, are telling. He tracks bodybuilding's roots in Charles Atlas ads and the film Pumping Iron , then offers a taxonomy of gym characters, from onlookers to professional bodybuilders. He savvily analyzes ``the political economy of bodybuilding,'' describing how a few entrepreneurs and promoters control the sport, and how competitors find jobs--as bouncers, bodyguards and the like--at which they can put their muscle to use. Klein finds much irony in the view that one's body is entirely in one's control, since genetics affect potential, and steroids destroy more than they add. Moreover, though bodybuilding is enshrined in the minds of its practitioners as heterosexual, large numbers of competitors survive by homosexual hustling. In contrast to male bodybuilders, female ones see the sport more as a means than as an end in itself; and many male bodybuilders, Klein suggests, find support for misogyny and homophobia in their barbell world. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In a study conducted on the west coast, Klein (sociology and anthropology, Northeastern U.) explores the daily life, gym culture, and external and internal pressures of competitive bodybuilders. He finds "comic-book masculinity," which includes elements of narcissism, homophobia, hypermasculinity, and fascism. Paper edition (unseen), $16.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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