Strong and Hard Women: An Ethnography of Female Bodybuilding

199 Pages·2013·2.49 MB·English

by  Tanya Bunsell

‘In Strong and Hard Women, Tanya Bunsell has delivered an outstanding
ethnography of female bodybuilding. The book is a rich portrait of becoming,
being, and having a muscular female body. By investigating the question of
whether female bodybuilding can be an empowering transgression of hegem-
onic standards of feminine embodiment, Bunsell offers an important book that
deserves to be widely read and debated.’
Brett Smith, Editor of Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health and
Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University, UK.
‘As one of the first sustained ethnographic studies of the subculture of female
bodybuilding, Bunsell’s energetic thesis focuses on the lived experience of female
bodybuilding and the actual process of building and sculpting muscles during
all those hours of dedication to the gym. This book will be an essential read for
researchers of sport, exercise and the body, scholars of feminism and gender
politics and anyone who has ever known the lure of the gym, its clang of metal
weights and the exquisite pain of pumped muscles.’
Niall Richardson, Senior Lecturer in Media and Film, University of Sussex, UK.
‘This remarkably insightful ethnography examines the women who inhabit the
subculture of bodybuilding, an activity which she presents as both transgressive
and troubling. Bunsell’s approach is made all the more poignant by showcasing
the lived experiences of not only the female bodybuilders whom she interviews,
but also herself, hence offering an unusually intimate investigation of both research
and researcher.’
Adam Locks, Programme Co-ordinator of Media and Cultural Studies, University
of Chichester, UK.
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Strong and Hard Women
Females with large muscles evoke strong reactions from men and women, often
involving disgust, discomfort, anger and threat. The controversial nature of
female bodybuilding has caused significant rupture on feminist ground. Whilst
proponents claim that female bodybuilding is a way of empowering and liberat-
ing women, others see it as a form of corporeal entrapment. This book investi-
gates the controversy. Do women who pump iron resist physical restrictions of
imposed femininity, or are they engaged in an ultimately oppressive quest for
‘perfect bodies’?
In an original two-year ethnographic study based in the South of England,
Tanya Bunsell immersed herself in the world of female bodybuilders. By mapping
these extraordinary women’s lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and
essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women
appear to be embarking on an ‘empowering’ radical body project for themselves,
the consequences of their activity remain culturally ambivalent. This research
exposes the ‘Janus-faced’ nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in
which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more
orthodox and feminine activities and appearances.
This book will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of gender
studies, the sociology of sport, the body and research methodology.
Tanya Bunsell is a Lecturer in Sport Sociology at St Mary’s University College,
Twickenham. She has been teaching since 2003 and was awarded her PhD in
Sociology from the University of Kent in 2010.
Routledge Advances in Ethnography
Edited by Dick Hobbs
University of Essex
and
Geoffrey Pearson
Goldsmiths College, University of London
Ethnography is a celebrated, if contested, research methodology that offers
unprecedented access to people’s intimate lives, their often hidden social worlds
and the meanings they attach to these. The intensity of ethnographic fieldwork
often makes considerable personal and emotional demands on the researcher,
while the final product is a vivid human document with personal resonance impos-
sible to recreate by the application of any other social science methodology. This
series aims to highlight the best, most innovative ethnographic work available
from both new and established scholars.
1. Holding Your Square
Masculinities, streetlife and violence
Christopher W. Mullins
2. Narratives of Neglect
Commonity, regeneration and the governance of security
Jacqui Karn
3. Families Shamed
The consequences of crime for relatives of serious offenders
Rachel Condry
4. Northern Soul
Music, drugs and subcultural identity
Andrew Wilson
5. Flashback
Drugs and dealing in the golden age of the London rave scene
Jennifer R. Ward
6. Dirty Dancing?
An ethnography of lap-dancing
Rachela Colosi
7. Crack Cocaine Users
High society and low life in South London
Daniel Briggs
8. Builders
Class, gender and ethnicity in the construction industry
Daniel Thiel
9. City, Street and Citizen
The measure of the ordinary
Suzanne Hall
10. Changing Lives, Changing Drug Journeys
Drug taking decisions from adolescence to adulthood
Lisa Williams
11. Sport, Difference and Belonging
Conceptions of human variation in British sport
James Rosbrook-Thompson
12. Boy Racer Culture
Youth, masculinity and deviance
Karen Lumsden
13. Strong and Hard Women
An ethnography of female bodybuilding
Tanya Bunsell
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Strong and Hard Women
An ethnography of female
bodybuilding
Tanya Bunsell
First published 2013
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2013 Tanya Bunsell
The right of Tanya Bunsell to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bunsell, Tanya.
Strong and hard women: an ethnography of female bodybuilding /
Tanya Bunsell.
pages cm. – (Routledge advances in ethnography)
1. Bodybuilding for women. 2. Bodybuilding for women–Social
aspects. 3. Femininity. 4. Self-perception in women. I. Title.
GV546.6.W64B86 2013
796.41082–dc23
2012040233
ISBN: 978-0-415-62441-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-82437-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-10475-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Sunrise Setting Ltd, Paignton, UK
Contents
Acknowledgements xii
Preface: Alice down the rabbit hole: my research journey
through the fascinating world of female bodybuilders xiii
1 Introduction 1
Storying myself 1
The context 4
Female bodybuilders: the scope and aims of the research 6
Chapter outlines 9
2 Researching female bodybuilders 10
Fleshing out the theory 10
Why ethnography? 12
Overview of the study: research sites, access, sample, interviews,
profile of the women 13
Confessing the ‘ethnographic self’ 16
Negotiating the field: body work and blending in 17
Relationships in the field 19
Conclusion 24
3 The history of female bodybuilding 26
The birth of female bodybuilding 27
The 1980s: the golden era of female bodybuilding 29
Contentious issues in the 1990s: inconsistencies
and contradictions in placing 30
More controversy and changes in 2000 31
The British scene 32
The decline of female bodybuilding?: Fitness, Figure and
Bikini competitions 34
Conclusion 38