ABSTRACT

This chapter has provided a broad introduction. It defined the terms drug ‘use’ and ‘abuse’, reviewed some relevant literature, outlined the research, interview sample and epistemology. Chapter 2, the first empirical chapter, introduces the ‘demonised’ bodybuilding subculture. It describes orientations to lifting weights and bodybuilding, normalised instrumental drug use and bodybuilders’ ‘symbolic style’ (Hebdige 1979). Chapter 3 identifies parameters for ‘successful’ bodybuilding: knowledge, dedication, finance and genetic potential. This subcultural system of relevances, instrumental in body-and identity-building, extends beyond ‘risky’ drug-taking patterns and behaviours (Augé and Augé 1999). Chapter 4 explores the spatially and temporally contingent task of creating ‘the perfect body’. It questions critical feminist studies of bodybuilding and drug-taking, studies which label these ‘risk’ behaviours according to stereotyped constructs of personal inadequacy. Attention shifts in the next two chapters to bodybuilders’ self-reflexively monitored use of physique-enhancing drugs. Focusing first upon the management of steroid risks, Chapter 5 describes bodybuilders’ sophisticated ethnopharmacological knowledge and drug experimentation. Chapter 6 extends the analysis, detailing bodybuilders’ knowledge and use of steroid accessory drugs and the subcultural exploration of competency, culpability and responsibility. Chapter 7, the final empirical chapter, explores bodybuilders’ critical understandings of the ’Roid-Rage phenomenon. Chapter 8 concludes the book by underscoring the significance of preceding ethnographic observations in the social construction of ‘appropriate’ bodies and identities. It also underlines the rationale for bringing bodies back into social theory and identifies some possible policy implications vis-à-vis tertiary healthcare provision for steroid users.