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"Holding back": Negotiating a glass ceiling on women's strength

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"Holding back": Negotiating a glass ceiling on women's strength

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“HOLDING BACK”: NEGOTIATING A GLASS CEILING ON
WOMEN’S STRENGTH
by
Shari Lee Dworkin
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment o f the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIOLOGY)
August 2000
Copyright 2000 Shari L. Dworkin
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UMI Number: 3054866
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY PARK
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90007
This dissertation, written by
under the direction of h Dissertation
Committee, and approved by all its members,
has been presented to and accepted by The
Graduate School, in partial fulfillment of re
quirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Dean of Graduate Studies
Date
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
Chairperson
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Acknowledgments
There are many, many people to thank, and I hope I have remembered all who have
helped make this project doable, bearable, and many times, downright enjoyable.
Thanks to the women from all the fitness sites who let me into their lives. Thanks to
the Holmdel High girls’ track team who inspired me to have high baseline expectations
o f “girls.” Thanks to my dissertation group for making me think, laugh, and feel sane.
Thanks to my mother and father for their incredible emotional and financial support,
and for never once doubting that I would see this through to its end. Thanks to my
friends for their incredible laughter and support and for not often asking why I’m not
done yet. Thanks to Aimee Ellicott for shining a flashlight down several critically
important personal paths. Special thanks to Faye Wachs for her friendship, humor,
collegiality, brilliant ideas and quips, and mean bench press which still inspire me every
day. Thanks to my committee: Mike Messner, Barry Glassner, and Judith Grant for
their support, pushes, and encouragement. Thanks to Mary Jo Kane, Leslie Heywood,
Don Sabo, Jim McKay, Mike Messner, Mariah Burton Nelson, and all the other
women and men who write and think about sport/fitness/bodies/gender critically--you
all inspire me to continue on this path. And o f course, exponential extra thanks to
Mike Messner, the chair o f this project. His continual lively engagement, insights, and
strategic nudges coupled with intense support around this entire project were
profoundly appreciated. Every ounce of his generous energy was noticed.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
List O f Tables
Abstract
Foreword
Introduction: Gender and Paradoxes of Muscle
Chapter One
Gender and the Gym: Believing is Seeing?
Historical View of Gender, Sport, and Fitness
“Fixing” Sport/Femininity Conflict
Modem Fitness, Gender, and the Body-Constraint,
Empowerment, or Both?
Media/Commercial Ambivalence o f Strong Women
Female Bodybuilding and Weight Lifting
Nature/Culture, Sex/Gender, Bodies
Muscle Gaps and the Overlapping Continuum of Difference
Gender Structures Sexed Materiality?
Research Questions
Chapter Two
Methods
Rationale for the Study
Rationale for Methods
The Research Process
Negotiating and Maintaining Site Access
The Analysis
Researcher Impact on the Setting and Self-Reflexive Critique
Interconnection Between Individual and Structural Forces
Simultaneous Insider/Outsider Status
Limitations of Study
Sample Skew
Assumptions and Implications
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iv
Chapter Three
The Two Fitness Sites-“Elite Gym” and “Mid-Gym” 71
Elite Gym 73
Mid-Gym 86
Map o f Gendered Spaces 98
Material and Corporeal Privilege 99
The Third Shift 102
Chapter Four
Gendered Spaces and Bodies in Motion 107
Mid Gym 107
Elite Gym 113
Proportion of Women/Men in Weight Room 117
Weight Practices-The Number of Sets, Repetitions, 118
Pyramids, Ladders, Supersets
Weight Room Practices by Gender 122
Gender Transgression Zones (GTZ’s) 123
Support and Encouragement 125
Qualified Encouragement 130
Sexualization and Trivialization 134
Ambivalence and/or Managing Embarrassment 13 5
Reframing, Renaming 140
Summary 143
Chapter Five
‘ Holding Back”: Negotiating the Glass Ceiling 146
on Women’s Musculature
The Glass Ceiling on Women’s Strength 148
Non-Lifters 149
Fear of “Masculine” Bulk and Desire for Lean, Curvy “Femininity” 150
The Economy of Value Among Fitness Practices 15 3
Moderate Lifters 15 6
Simultaneous Desire for Strength and Fear of Bulk 158
Backing Off 163
Keeping the Weight the Same 166
Holding Back 167
Summary 175
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V
Chapter Six
Breaking Through? The Few, The Powerful Heavy Lifters 177
Pride, Satisfaction, Independence 184
Lifting as Strategic Self-Defense 192
Bodily Responses, Societal Circumstances 198
“Adjusting” to Femininity 199
Summary 206
Chapter Seven
The Personal Training Industry:
Gatekeepers of Bodily Knowledge 209
Personal Training Certification 211
Muscles and Hormones 213
Body Fat and Body Composition 219
Health Screening and Client Assessment 225
Personal Trainers’ Narratives 230
Women Can’t Get Big 232
Just Hold Back 235
Metabolic or Medical Mandate 240
No Pain, No Gain 243
Summary 246
Chapter Eight
Conclusion 250
Agency, Constraint, and the Glass Ceiling 252
Fitness as an Industry 256
Moving Beyond Individualized Bodily Politics 264
The Wider Tapestry of Gender Relations 267
References 272
Appendix One 284
Appendix Two 289
Appendix Three
292
Appendix Four 294
Appendix Five 295
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vi
List Of Tables
Page
Table 4.1 Proportion of Women/Men in Weight Rooms 117
Table 4.2 Weight Room Practices by Gender 122
Table 8.1 Bodily Ideologies, Practices, and Experience 255
Table 8.2 Trainers as Paradoxical Gatekeepers of Gendered Bodily Knowledge 259
Figures
Figure 8.1 An Historical Overview of the Glass Ceiling and Emphasized 261
Femininity 1940-1990's
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“HOLDINGBACK”: NEGOTIATING A GLASS CEILING ON WOMEN’S
STRENGTH
ABSTRACT
Using a combination of participant observation and in-depth qualitative interviews
with women in two Southern California fitness centers (one upscale and one
midrange), this dissertation explores how a glass ceiling or upper limit on strength is
central to understanding women, bodies, and fitness practices. Numerous women
within fitness shape and find their bodily agency shaped not by biology, but by
ideologies o f emphasized femininity which structure an historically defined (and
shifting) upper limit on women’s strength. Results showed that 3/4 of women on
these two sites had an awareness o f this upper limit, and that non-lifters, moderate
lifters, and heavy lifters uniquely and strategically negotiated this limit on musculature
by avoiding, holding back on, or adjusting weight workouts, respectively. Next, I
examine discursive exchanges surrounding women who venture into one gender
transgression zone (GTZ) within fitness centers, core free weight spaces. Results
revealed several cultural practices which actively manage evidence of a continuum of
overlapping performance in a manner which erases challenges to categorical gender
difference. Lastly, through the use of textual analysis and interviews with personal
trainers, I examine the role that the fitness industry plays in disseminating gendered
bodily knowledge and whether or not and how this plays a role in setting or cracking a
glass ceiling on women’s strength. The implications for future research surrounding
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“holding back” so as to adhere to standards o f emphasized femininity are considered
for women in male-dominated occupations such as firefighting, construction work, and
the police force.
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Foreword
On a hot, humid summer day in 1982, in a small town in suburban N.J., right before
entering high school, I found a warm, comfortable spot on the steep black driveway to
my family’s house and sat down to act out some adolescent rebellion. Matches in one
hand, cigar in the other, I lit up a stogie I had “landed” with a friend of mine.
Coughing and feeling like a true adult, I then lit a small pile of finger-sized sticks on
fire and slowly added a few leaves— and a few ants— to the pile. I sat back. Life was
good.
Much to my surprise, my tall, lean, intensely driven father headed out the back door
of the house and down the driveway to go off on his daily five mile run. When he
found me on the driveway, he looked a little confused, but he handled it casually and
strategically.
“Hay Shari, what are you doin’, you smokin’ a cigar???!” he asked.
“Yep” I said, feeling caught and guilty, and pretended it didn’t matter.
“Mann if you do that, your lungs will be shot, and your old man will be able to
outrun you!!”
“No way!!...Never!!!!” I yelled back, laughing, knowing he was trying to “get
my goat.” He laughed with me. And then he replied with an offer that changed my
life.
“Come on, I’ll race you today! I bet you can’t keep upppp!!!” His voice trailed
off as he began to run away. I watched him go for awhile and then something deep
inside went fiery, warm. Putting out the cigar and the tiny stick bonfire, I ran after
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him. Eventually, I caught my father and kept pace with him, but my young, untrained,
prepubescent thirteen year old body only held out for a few miles. I walked home fully
dejected. When my dad arrived back home, he immediately lifted my spirits.
“W ow Shar, you did really well!! You kept up for a few miles the first day out!
You should think about going out for cross country for sure. You’re a natural runner!!
You’ll be able to beat me in no time!”
Ten years after the passage of Title IX, this “natural” ended up on the green rolling
hills and grassy fields of Holmdel, N.J., training for cross country and track races with
the high school girls’ team. In addition to running every day, the women’s team lifted
weights three days a week, and I recall how our coach insisted on it. I can still hear his
voice: “What do you think drives the legs? Especially when you’re tired at the end of
the race? The arms drive the legs. You’ve got to work the upper body.” The Holmdel
girls’ team had an unusual number o f top five places at the regional, state, and even
national level for such a small school. The women on the team were strong, lean, and
powerful, and loved to lift weights. Without our coaches’ input, we planned weekly
contests on pull ups and dips which require one’s body weight to be pulled or pushed
up and down. My 7-10 pull ups were never enough to win the pull up contest, but my
eventual 15-20 “dips” sometimes did.
At Penn State, in 1986,1 quit the cross country team in the first month due to
(another set of) tom ligaments in an ankle and piles of schoolwork, and soon, I no
longer had access to the team weight room. Accepting the drop in status, I entered the
public weight room, and did my usual workout, but the scene was very different. It
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was dizzying how many people made comments every time I lifted weights, such as:
“Wow! You’re pretty strong for a girl!,” “How’d you get so strong?,” “That’s pretty
impressive!! !,”or “You trying to show up the guys??!” At first, I smiled and felt proud
that I seemed to be stronger than most o f the female population. This felt good after
getting so used to being beaten by my teammates (and competitors from other teams)
on numerous pieces of weight equipment and at so many running events. When I
thought about it more, I became a little angry and confused— after all, I was also
beating quite a handful of the guys in the gym and didn’t understand why I was being
tagged as strong “for a girl.” I thought to myself, how strong do I have to become to
be plain old strong— or will I always just be strong “for a girl?” I eventually felt a
looming “uh oh” sift through me. Some people seemed to give me alien status as they
looked at me and declared “I’ve never seen a girl do that!!!” I began to wonder why so
few people had “seen a girl do that before,” how strong I was, how strong was “too”
strong, and why so few women seemed to find themselves in a similar position. When
I arrived at USC for doctoral work in 1994,1 met Mike Messner, a prominent sports
sociologist. His work, along with other pro-feminist women and men made sense of
the women’s sporting and fitness lives I had witnessed all these years. I didn’t know it
at the time, but a dissertation was brewing after that first day in the public weight
room at Penn State. However, after countless ankle injuries and far too many days of
graduate school ahead of me, I became less interested in the answers to the above
questions for myself— and much more interested in these answers for numerous other
women who engage in sport and fitness activities. This dissertation is for my father
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who didn’t even blink when he declared that it would only be a short time until I beat
him, and all the women who will ever dare to venture into a weight room.
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Introduction: Gender and Paradoxes of Muscle
There’s a black mat, upstairs, in “Elite Gym,” an expensive, luxurious health and
fitness center that feels like a cross between a fantasy cruise ship and an upscale
shopping mall. Soon after stretching on the black mat upstairs, I notice a small team o f
four people approaching. One is a photographer, two appear to be models, and a third
soon pats the models’ bodies with thick, white towels in hand. The photographer
proceeds to look into his camera lens, spins dials around, and sets up for what
becomes a photo shoot. A white, male model looks to be around 5'10,” has short
brown hair, sharp angular facial features, and substantial muscle mass. He pulls down
his long, black, shiny gym shorts and whisks them to the black mat beneath him.
Underneath his shorts, silver, skin tight, mid-thigh length tights cling to his legs. He
has no shirt on, emphasizing his huge arms, bulging chest, and a wide, pronounced
upper body that contrasts sharply with his thin, lean legs. The white, female model
next to him appears to be around 5' 7." She also has sharp, angular facial features,
long straight, brown hair that is tied up at the top of her head in a pony tail holder, and
sports black, short tights which ride high up on her backside. She occasionally looks
behind her, sees the revealing nature o f her clothing, and stretches the cloth down over
her butt cheeks. She is wearing a tiny crop top and I wonder to myself, judging from
her tiny shoulders and arms, petite, lean, and toned lower body, and very lightly
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distributed body fat, if her huge breasts are implants. When she turns around, her lips
reveal black lipstick, her face is caked with heavy makeup, and her long fingernails are
painted red.
The photographer juxtaposes the two models by having the man stand directly in
front of the woman with his back to her, and the woman stands with her front facing
him. Each o f them are then asked to flex their left biceps. Soon, there are two flexed
biceps before me, one very small, striated, and toned, looking like a little ball, while
the other is more dense, wide, and sizable, with a higher-peak. The photographer asks
them to each turn their head to the left and again flex their left biceps. Two biceps.
One big, one small. Man. Woman. The camera man steps forward, and pushes up
slightly on the models’ elbows to raise their biceps. He steps back. The camera clicks
several times.
The photographer then picks up two shiny, silver chrome dumbbells, hands the five
pound dumbbell to the woman and the ten pounder to the man, and proceeds to ask
the models to flex again. He steps back, looking through the lens. At one point
during the flex, the woman hides her well painted thumbnail by tucking it into one of
her other fingers. The photographer says “no,” walks up to her, takes her thumb out
from hiding, and says: “take it out, show the nail.” He then places her thumb outside
the other fingers so the nail is visible to the viewing eye. They flex again, and the
shutter opens and closes wildly, over and over again.
As the glowing sun begins to creep downward to meet the horizon, I overhear
some concern about the quality of the available light, and soon most of the small
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crowd begins to slowly drift away together, and downstairs. As I watch them leave,
the female model stays behind for a short time, and picks up all the nearby weights.
She picks up two chrome 5's, and then two chrome 10's, and finally, a wooden
stand-and proceeds to walk downstairs, carrying everything.
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Chapter One: Gender and the Gym: Believing is Seeing?
Current work within gender studies points to how “when examined closely, much
o f what we take for granted about gender and its causes and effects either does not
hold up, or can be explained differently” (Lorber, 1994, p.5). These arguments
become especially contentious when confronting nature/culture debates on gendered
bodies. This is because common sense frequently tells us that flesh and blood bodies
are about biology. However, bodies are also shaped and constrained through
cumulative social practices, structures of opportunity, wider cultural meanings,
interactions with others, and more (Butler, 1993).
Since bodies, bodily performances, and their meanings are at the core o f sport and
fitness, these sites provide particularly fertile ground for exploring gender myths and
paradoxes. For instance, superficial glances at pictures or televised sportscasts might
seem to prove categorical gender difference, yet researchers argue that media images
and coverage can be structured so as to avoid the overlapping continuum o f
performances, bodies, and muscularity between women and men (Fausto-Sterling,
1985; Kane, 1995; Lorber, 1994). Taken together, the above challenges might begin to
work to dispel the myth that all men are naturally bigger, stronger, and physically
superior to all women.
Sport sociologists (Kane, 1995; Willis, 1982) and others (Lorber, 1994) have long
questioned how mediated reality potentially reaffirms assumptions o f natural,
categorical physical gender difference. However, not just in the photo described at the
outset of this chapter, but right there before me in the materiality of his/her flesh, was
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a big muscular man holding a ten pound dumbbell juxtaposed against a small, toned
woman with a five pound dumbbell. It is difficult to take what one sees and reprogram
oneself from responding automatically with the cultural assumption that all men are
indeed categorically physically larger and stronger than all women. After all, there was
one big bicep and one little bicep, with years o f fieldwork, fitness centers, sports fields,
and media coverage full of so much of the same. He was bigger, she was smaller, and
the difference was “undeniable.” Wasn’t it?
While observing that there are often average differences between men and women,
not all men are bigger and stronger than all women, and in fact, as my fieldwork
progressed, I noted that there was a good deal o f variability in size and strength among
men and women in fitness sites. Moving to consider how the photographer’s picture
won’t help to reveal the reality of a continuum of overlapping performances and
bodies by gender (Kane, 1995), I noted how the picture wouldn’t capture the woman
scurrying away, carrying all the weights. The snapshot also didn’t show whether or
not she was busy carrying out a gendered division of labor at home (and whether this
affects the time she has for workouts), nor could it come close to revealing what the
two models have or have not eaten all these years to contribute to their size. Soon,
my mind focused in on the fact that the picture also didn’t reveal how many years each
model has trained, how they’ve trained, what mix o f cardiovascular and weight
activities they do, what bodily ideologies might shape why they do what they do, or
whether or not they attempt to reject or comply with dominant bodily ideals.
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As fitness memberships boom and the more muscular millennium is here, we are
presented with a timely juncture in which to examine one popularly acquired paradox
of gender— muscles. On the one hand, common sense ideologies tell everyday women
in fitness not to fear the weight room since natural difference from men prevents them
from getting “too big.” At the same time, many women can and do experience gains
in muscle mass when lifting weights, particularly women who do so regularly. The
tension that results from the difference between common sense and knowledge of
one’s own body is compounded when considering widespread bodily ideologies
concerning what women’s bodies should do. Given these current paradoxes of gender
and bodies for women, how do women actively negotiate these tensions? What do
women in fitness do? Why do they do it? Fitness centers provide a particularly useful
arena in which to examine key debates in gender studies around bodies, agency, and
constraint since women in these sites are actively shaping, containing, and building
their own bodies. What might an exploration of patterned social practices in the gym
tell us about the agency and constraint of women in fitness and how fitness sites
interact with the gender order at large? In order to understand more about the present,
it is necessary to first lay out a historical understanding of the past.
Historical View of Gender. Sport, and Fitness
In the U.S., success at certain sport and fitness activities signify masculinity, and
particular sport and fitness activities are linked to the “right” kind of masculinity for
men. Connell (1987) calls this kind of masculinity hegemonic masculinity, the most
valued form o f masculinity, which is defined hierarchically in relation to what is
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7
feminine and to subordinated masculinities. At the turn o f the 20th century, changes in
men’s and women’s roles challenged social ideologies o f male physical superiority.
Competitive team sports were popularized in the United States partly as a means for
symbolically reaffirming elite males’ physical superiority over women and socially
subordinated men (Crosset, 1990;Kimmel, 1990; Messner, 1988).
From these early influences, modem sport has evolved as a bastion of masculinity
in which one particular form of racialized and classed masculinity (white, middle-class)
that is physically dominating is constructed as the most highly valued (Connell, 1987,
1990; Davis, 1997; Messner, 1988). While football, basketball, and baseball are
generally understood to represent those sports which affirm and construct hegemonic
masculinity, numerous non-hegemonic men participate in these sports.1 Within the
world of fitness, team sports and weight lifting are generally considered to be symbolic
of hegemonic masculinity to the point where muscle and masculinity are nearly
synonymous (Dutton, 1995; Klein, 1993; Wacquant, 1995; 1995a). Due to the
Western triad which often automatically assumes links between sex, gender, and
sexuality, muscles on men (sex) can easily get erroneously conflated with masculinity
(gender) and heterosexuality (sexuality) (Lorber, 1994).
While sport, fitness, and muscles have historically affirmed men’s masculinity and
heterosexuality, for women, the relationship has tended to work in the opposite
It is important to understand that men who are members of a subordinated race and/or class group
can still “do” and reinforce hegemonic masculinity, while members of either dominant or
subordinated race and/or class groups may not actually act in accordance with the ideals of
hegemonic masculinity.
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8
direction. That is, sport, fitness, and muscles have not affirmed female athletes but
rather, have worked to call their femininity and heterosexuality into question (Cahn,
1994; Hargreaves, 1994; Lenskyj, 1986; Kane, 1995; Vertinsky, 1994). While one
might think that the history of women partaking in physical activity is simple and
simply celebrational, this is not the case.
At the same time that there may have always been numerous enthusiastic
proponents of exercise for women, there have also been forces which are protectionist
and exclusionary, those which define women as physically inferior, and those which
fear that physical activity will masculinize women. In the nineteenth century, two main
cautionary fears surrounding women’s physical exertion emerged. First, using
ideologies of female frailty, rigorous exercise was thought to harm or even ruin a
woman’s reproductive organs and capacities (Cahn, 1994; Lenskyj, 1986). Under
vitalist theory which claimed that bodies have a limited amount of energy, it was
literally thought that it was necessary to build up energy for women’s reproductive
functioning. Some pro-exercise proponents assured the public that exercise in fact
built up these energies, while others purported that women’s ability to bear and raise
children would be hurt. Concern over female reproductive functioning and the ability
to mother was in part due to the “cult of true womanhood” which prescribed a notion
o f ideal middle-class femininity predicated on staying home and taking care o f children
(Smith-Rosenberg, 1985). Based on the assumption that individuals were white,
middle class, and heterosexually coupled, many men and women were excluded from
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9
this ideal given their material circumstances (or family norms) that prevented work and
leisure behavior consistent with dominant ideologies.
A second fear which cautioned women to not do sport or rigorous fitness activities
involved a fear o f masculinization. Here, not only was it feared (even by some pro-
fitness female educators) that the aggressiveness and competitiveness o f men’s sport
would taint women with the male “evils” and “perils” of sport (Cahn, 1994), but also
that physical activity would masculinize women. Numerous researchers explore how
social fears circulated widely that sport and fitness would physically literally
masculinize women and make them into men (Cahn, 1994; Lenskyj, 1986; Vertinsky,
1994). For instance, while many supported women’s fitness activities during the
bicycle craze of the late 1800's, others warned of “bicycle face,” a condition acquired
from the strain bicycling which reputedly hardened the facial muscles (Cahn, 1994).
At this time, ideas about women, masculinity, and sport were not explicitly linked
to accusations o f lesbianism, but worries about “proper” womanhood were mounting.
One fear was that physical activity would change women’s sexual desires from passive
to more active— active desire was considered to be “like a man” and was therefore seen
as deviant for women. Later, in the early 1900's, ideas about masculinity became more
explicitly linked to deviant (non-heterosexual) sexuality (Cahn, 1994). Not only was it
feared that female athletes might have active desire, but that her sexual object choice
would be the same as (heterosexual) men’s— women. This more masculinized
stereotype of the female athlete was referred to as “mannishness” or the “muscle
moll,” more analogous to the modem stereotype of the butch lesbian athlete (Cahn,
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1994). These ideas still hold in several variations on a theme, for numerous researchers
have shown how strong or athletically competent women are accused of lesbianism
(Blinde & Taub, 1992; Blinde & Taub, 1992a; Griffin, 1998; Kane, 1995; Kane &
Lenskyj, 1998; Nelson, 1994), or are renamed as men (Kane, 1995).
Since the cult of true womanhood and “proper” sports for women were defined as
those which met standards o f the white middle class, working class and minority
women both challenged and reinforced notions of sports’ masculinizing possibilities.
Minority and working class women were rejected from dominant ideals o f womanhood
which ironically may have freed them to do sports such as track and field which white
women were cautioned to not do (Cahn, 1994). Further, material circumstances
constrained which sports some could afford to do. However, those women who
“chose” sports associated with minorities and/or members of the working class were
rejected for participating in “unladylike” sports. This contributed to the “othering” of
working class and minority women while protecting images of white middle class
femininity. For example, track and field grew in popularity for white middle class
women during the 1920's, yet these women soon faced organized opposition,
depression-era money woes, and brutal media coverage in the 1930's which mounted
harsh critiques on their femininity. As this occurred, increasing numbers of white
women fled the sport, and African-American women continued to enter the sport in
increasing numbers during the 1930's and 1940's (Cahn, 1994). These events served to
reinforce racialized and classed notions of sport, reserving sports with “proper”
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femininity for white middle class women, while also reinforcing “othered” definitions
o f womanhood for those who excelled in those sports that were considered
masculinized.
The decision as to what is masculine and what is feminine in sport and fitness is
rather arbitrary and historically constructed and thus changeable. Just as work and
occupations literatures reveal that job behaviors and tasks are randomly designated as
masculine or feminine even when tasks are analogous across industries (Leidner,
1993), the realms of sport and fitness reveal similar historically arbitrary, shifting
definitions. For example, at its point o f inception, basketball was once thought to be
too effete for men (Cahn, 1994). As more and more men entered the sport, separate
rules of the game were written for men and women where levels of permitted physical
contact and aggression on the court differed. To the onlooker, women and men may
have appeared to be playing a “naturally” different game. Now no longer considered to
effete for men, basketball is in fact part o f the triad o f sports which reinforces
hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1987, 1995). Another example is field hockey, which
was always considered to be feminine since women began the game and were the sole
ones to play it. Since field hockey was female-dominated from its point of inception, it
was seen as feminine, and men simply never entered the sport (Cahn, 1994). Now,
however, since femininity has turned away from codes of behavior, and more towards
visual appearances (Goffman, 1979), the particularly strong body associated with field
hockey players has been reconstructed as masculine. Further, the fact that it is an
aggressive, competitive team sport involving high degrees of physical contact and not
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an individual, graceful sport with little reliance on team members for performances
contributes to its modem designation as more masculine (Kane & Snyder, 1989).2
“Fixing” Sport/Femininitv “Conflict”
Despite these arbitrary and shifting definitions of masculinities and femininities,
debates surrounding the “conflict” between sport, fitness, and femininity and how to
“fix” this “problem” have ensued throughout the century. The tactics used to solve the
specific problems that came with tainted femininity were “corrected” in several key
ways. In the nineteenth century, female athletes participating in numerous physical
activities were subjected to charm and beauty schools which ensured that they had
“properly feminine” posture, walks, gestures, mannerisms, haircuts, and makeup skills
(Cahn, 1994; Lenskyj, 1986). Adherence to notions of ideal femininity regarding
posture, make up, dress, or body size, is often referred to as emphasized femininity
(Connell, 1987). Emphasized femininity refers to the most privileged form of
femininity that shifts over time, often in ways that correspond to changes in hegemonic
masculinity (1987, 1995). The response to adhere to emphasized femininity is not
simply an individual choice, but one women make within the constraints and limits of
institutions and a larger gender order. Some researchers might refer to the choice of
enacting various forms o f emphasized femininity as “compensation” for a feared
masculinization o f sport as a “female apologetic” (Del Rey, 1978; Felshin, 1981).
2
This is not to say that sports can be easily classified as masculine or feminine. Soccer for instance
has historically retained a more masculine marking due to the fact that its an aggressive team sport
with some degree of physical contact. The recently victorious U.S. women’s soccer team (World Cup,
1999) seemed to retain its feminine status in sports coverage-some of this may be due to the
adherence to a degree of emphasized femininity through long hair, etc.
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In order to dilute the perceived masculinizing effects of physical activities on
women, female athletes have been frequently described in media accounts with
reference to their ability to attract a man. This is thought to assure the audience of the
“femininity” which gets conflated with the heterosexual attractiveness of female
athletes. As noted by Cahn (1994) and others, there have been many media accounts
of how women athletes were described as mothers, or as eventually marrying, acting
as showcases that powerful physical exertion wasn’t ruining (read not heterosexually
attractive) women. Another tactic used to ensure that women were not masculinized
or harmed in sport was to funnel women into “female-appropriate” (often white,
middle class) sports such as archery, dance, tennis, and swimming so as to emphasize
their grace and individual performance.
Modem ideals of female-appropriate sports include the disproportionate funneling
and featuring in media of women in gymnastics, ice skating, dance, and tennis (Kane &
Snyder, 1988). In the 1996 Olympics, the year touted to be the “Year o f the Woman,”
stadiums were sold out for championship matches in women’s soccer, basketball, and
field hockey. Still, media coverage disproportionately featured the sports which
emphasize a “female” aesthetic of slenderness, grace, beauty, and a small, child-like
corporeal form while men’s gymnastics features muscular mature men (Lorber, 1996).3
This may have changed with coverage o f strong women during the 1999 World Cup
Championship, yet comparisons made between the American team’s (good)
3
Considering these bodily forms as “natural” negates the intensive bodily practices that go into the
construction of the body. See Ryan, 1995 for a discussion of women’s gymnastics and ice skating.
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“femininity” and other women’s teams (bad) femininity around the world may have
contributed to its popularity. This reveals both the role that sport and sports media
plays in naturalizing gender difference and the tension and ambivalence that U.S.
society has with women’s physical strength, musculature, and powerful athletic
performances.
The same sex segregation that is seen in modem sport can also be seen within
fitness. Fitness activities such as aerobic dance which dominated the 1970's fitness
movement for women took place alongside men filling the weight room. These
tendencies are also found in very recent fitness data which shows that in 1998, women
were much more likely to do aerobic dance and use treadmills and stairmasters than
men (American Sports Data, 1998). O f those fitness participants who reported using
free weights, the proportion of women was much smaller than men (22% -vs- 78%),
and the same held for dumbbells (30% -vs- 70%). Men were slightly more likely to
row and run than women in 1998 (American Sports Data, 1999). At the same time
that men use more barbells and dumbbells, it is noteworthy to highlight that women’s
use of free weights and resistance weight machines has increased much more rapidly
than men’s from 1987-1998 (American Sports Data, 1999). As we will see in Chapter
Four, gendered spaces and practices in the gym are still somewhat intact, though these
are also negotiated, contested, and changeable. While some simply applaud the
increasing numbers of women in both sport and fitness, there is still some question as
to whether sport and fitness are altogether empowering— or constraining for women—
or both.
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M odem Fitness. Gender, and the Body— Constraint. Empowerment, or Both?
Foucault (1979) chronicles the rise o f various modem institutions such as the army,
prisons, schools, and hospitals, and describes the types of power that accompany these
institutions. He argues that an internalized, disciplinary, individualized power is
exercised on the body in modem society thus producing “docile” bodies.4 More
dispersed and perhaps more invisible and insidious than other forms of power, each
individual immersed in these relations o f power carries out self-surveillance of bodily
gestures, movements, postures, and comportment since the body itself is a main site o f
coercion. Foucault’s surveillance analogy has been quite popular and useful when
applied to an analysis of gender, fitness, and bodies.
Bartky (1988), Duncan (1994), and Lloyd (1996) all use Foucauldian conceptions
o f bodies as sites where the effects o f power can be seen and explored. Bartky
analyzes women’s beauty regimens, anorexia, and the fitness movement. Similarly,
Lloyd studies women’s aerobics, and Duncan (1994) analyzed fitness magazine
articles. All o f the above works use Foucault’s concept of self-surveillance to help
explain why women are engaged in constant fitness rituals and argue that these
regimens are carried out in order to satisfy the male gaze. Taken together, these
researchers argue that endless bouts o f exercise are constraining internalizations of
patriarchy which requires constant self-surveillance and daily discipline in order to
4
Radical feminists such as Firestone (1970) predated Foucault in this respect. Even as early as the
late 1790's, Mary Wollestonecraft's work is said to explicate concepts which are corollaries to
modem terms such as "docile” and obedient bodies (Bordo, 1993).
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adhere to the latest version of emphasized femininity. Self-surveillance and adherence
to bodily ideals might be reflected in popular fitness data, which claims that many
women are “not seeking bulky muscles; rather, their goals are a toned appearance...”
(Sports Data, Inc, 1999, p. 5).
Still others might argue that the popularity of health and fitness is part of a greedy
maneuver by Corporate America to further increase the productivity of the worker (by
encouraging health and fitness and therefore work endurance) of the already
overworked employee. In this way, the latest muscled ideals may simply be said to be
a form o f service to patriarchal capitalism (Bartky, 1988). For some women
(especially those who are White, middle-class, and heterosexually married), this
complicit service might result in more work on top of women’s already stifling
“second shift” (Hochschild, 1989)— a “third shift” that consists of long doses o f effort
invested in comforming to the latest touted bodily requirement (Dworkin & Messner,
1999). While I did see evidence of a third shift, the women in Elite Gym more often
bought off significant portions o f the second shift through employing women o f color
and many therefore did not experience a full second shift.
A more thorough analysis of women’s participation in sport and fitness reveals not
just constraining social relations, but rather, a highly politicized terrain of shifting
gender relations. Contemporary U.S. culture tends increasingly to applaud and
embrace athletic, powerfully strong women. The 1996 “Year of the Woman”
Olympics, the 1997 premier season o f the WNBA, the 1999 Women’s World Cup, and
an ever increasing number of women entering into high school and college athletics are
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just a few indicators o f this trend. Corporate ad campaigns have hopped aboard the
athletic empowerment wave to target women as consumers, offering powerful
messages about female fitness fanatics who “just do it.” Within the worlds o f both
sport and fitness, muscular ideals have indeed formed, smashing past cultural bodily
ideals o f tiny and slim to include hard and toned with “allowances for substantial
weight and bulk” (Bordo, 1993, p. 191). Thus, many view today’s fit woman as
embodying power and agency in a manner which challenges definitions of women as
weak, passive, or docile (Guthrie & Castelnuovo, 1992, 1998; Heywood, 1998; Kane,
1995;Lorber, 1996; MacKinnon, 1987; McCaughey, 1997; Young, 1990). By
fighting for access to participation in sport and fitness, women have created an
empowering arena where they have rejected narrow constructions o f femininity, and
enjoyed an arena in which they can embrace physical power and independence (e.g.
Bolin, 1992a, Gilroy, 1989; Kane & Lenskyj, 1988; Lenskyj, 1986; McDermott, 1996;
Theberge, 1987).
The theme of being physically independent (and therefore, less dependent on
others) is an important one when considering the long historical relationship between
femininity and dependency (de Beauvior, 1952; Dinnerstein, 1976; Firestone, 1970;
Gilman, 1989; Hartmann, 1981; Millet, 1970; Mitchell, 1966; Wollestonecraft, 1792).
First and second wave feminism often considered the “break” from dependency (on
men) to come from educational, economic, sexual, productive and reproductive
empowerment, not physical strength/empowerment. During second wave feminism,
self-defense consciousness raising and classes were viewed as a way for women to
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independently defend in a culture of violence. Several feminist and sociology of sport
scholars consider the physically empowering self-defense aspects o f sport and fitness,
particularly weight lifting activities and martial arts (Bolin, 1992a; Guthrie &
Castelnouvo, 1992, 1998; Heywood, 1998; Mackinnon, 1987; McCaughey, 1997). As
will see in Chapter Six, heavy weight lifting allows women to take up space in
“unprecedented ways” and can give women feelings of independence, protection, and
power they are not typically allotted in public spaces (Heywood, 1998).
Recent work done by Heywood (1998) describes lifting heavy weights as a
strategic mode o f self-empowerment against bodily victimization and/or abuse.
Heywood (1998), who did not do formal empirical research with female weight lifters,
but analyzed films, magazines, and integrated her own personal experience as a
bodybuilder into her argument describes that lifting heavy weights is a bodily activism
which can “...make the body strong: hard, tight, experienced as
inviolable...bodybuilding functions as a repetition of trauma that, through the
transformation o f weak, vulnerable flesh into flesh that seems like steel, is also
trauma’s cure...” (p.159).
Heywood argues that weight lifting for women can be a “cure” against previous
violations against the body and an assurance that such violations won’t happen again.
Similarly, Guthrie & Castelnuovo (1998) and McCaughey (1997) note that women felt
less vulnerable to attack, and more willing to see their right to defend themselves once
they seriously immerse themselves in the weight room or engage in self-defense
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activities such as martial arts. We will return to these themes again in Chapter Six
when heavy lifters’ narratives are analyzed.
Media/Commercial Ambivalence o f Strong Women
Despite the empowering tendencies discussed above, other researchers note that
the resistant possibilities offered by strong women’s bodies and athletic performances
are contained in the media. This is due to the huge commercial rewards for retaining a
link between femininity, bodies, and heterosexual attractiveness (Dworkin & Messner,
1999). For instance, many lauded the now late Olympic track star, Florence Griffith-
Joyner and her muscularity as a challenge to dominant images o f femininity and to
images of men as physically superior. However, Grifftth-Joyner’s muscularity existed
alongside “rapier-like” nails, long flowing hair, and flashy outfits which ultimately
situated her body and its markings firmly within a commercialized modernization of
heterosexual femininity (Messner, Forthcoming).
Furthermore, researchers have shown how women continue to be represented in
sport and fitness media in ways that feature emphasized femininity off the playing field.
Active women today are still focused on for having kids or being married, while men
are often covered as individuals who are presented solely as competent athletes,
featured only in their athletic persona (Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988, Kane 1995a). This
acts to reinforce ideologies that women athletes are women first, athletes second
(Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988). Many researchers also find ambiguous presentations of
strong women where athleticism is both embraced and undermined. Athletic woman
are not simply embraced and celebrated but are often presented ambiguously through
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simultaneously sexualizing, trivializing or infantilizing women’s sport and fitness
performances (Bolin, 1992, 1992a; Balsamo, 1994; Blinde & Taub, 1992, 1992a;
Duncan & Hasbrook, 1988; Duncan, 1990, 1993; Hargreaves, 1994; Kane, 1995a;
Kane & Lenskyj, 1998; Lenskyj, 1986; MacNeil, 1994; Messner et al, 1993, 1996;
Messner & Sabo, 1993).
Similarly, Heywood (1998) describes how many women have flocked from female
bodybuilding to become “Ms. Fitness” participants. Ms. Fitness contests feature
women who are toned, cut, and athletic while adhering more closely to emphasized
femininity than do densely muscled bodybuilders (Heywood, 1998). Unlike
bodybuilding, female fitness contest participants combine light to moderate muscle
gains with a number of cheerleading and gymnastics moves, and also compete in a
beauty round with evening gowns. Recently, monetary rewards for fitness contests
have increased, but not for female bodybuilding which has been popular in the U.S. for
a much longer period of time. The tendency for muscular empowerment to be
commodified into the latest sexualized “heterosexy” movement reveals how profitable
emphasized femininity is as well as the media’s ambivalent relationship with strong
women’s bodies. At the same time, many women in fact choose to seek and construct
a body that embodies dimorphic gender difference while idealizing emphasized
femininity due to the plentiful cultural pleasures and rewards that are offered (Butler,
1990; Dworkin, Forthcoming; Lloyd, 1996; Markula, 1996). This point will be
returned to in Chapters Five and Eight.
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There has been little empirical research on sport and fitness that recognizes that
there are simultaneously empowering and constraining aspects of fitness. One area
that has been particularly successful in highlighting these complexities is the arena of
female bodybuilding. As has been discussed, while men’s building of muscle size,
bulk, and mass is generally consistent with dominant conceptions of masculinity and
are highly sought after embodiments o f masculinity (Connell, 1987; Wacquant, 1995),
women’s muscle-seeking is more complicated.
Female Bodybuilding and Weight Lifting
Since female bodybuilders have physical musculature and size which clearly
challenges norms of emphasized femininity, women’s bodybuilding has been an
important realm in which to examine gendered bodily negotiations. Bolin
(1992,1992a) clearly demonstrates that women’s bodybuilding is both transgressive
and constraining with regard to femininity. She argues that the challenge which
increased muscle size causes to the gender order with the bodybuilding “beast” is
acceptable only if tamed by “beauty.” Bodybuilding starkly presents gender
paradoxes: Here, massively muscled women pose in tiny bikinis, painted fingernails,
dyed blonde hair, and purchase breast implants to “reinstate” femininity in a sport
whose practices lead to extremely low bodyfat and a “loss” o f soft breast tissue.
Revealing the cultural tension over gender and muscle, bodybuilding judges have
not historically argued over the meaning of the word masculine within men’s
bodybuilding, but have had many ongoing debates concerning femininity within
women’s bodybuilding (Holmund, 1994). The result o f such debates are formally
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written into the International Federation’s guideline forjudging the “female physique”
(Hargreaves, 1994). For example, during the 1984 Ms. Olympia contest, debates
ensued over judging the most massive woman’s muscular form o f the time, Bev
Francis. After arguing about the meaning of the word femininity, Francis placed last in
the finals, since she was deemed by many male and female judges to be “too
masculine.” In 1990 and 1991, Bev Francis returned to bodybuilding with a slimmer
waist and a more “balanced” physique, and became the runner up (Hargreaves, 1994).
The rules were changed in 1993, yet the rule book still contains elements of subjective
judging where “too big” is a term reserved specifically for female competitors to see if
she has developed too much muscle mass for her frame and proportions (Hargreaves,
1994). Corollary discussions o f bodybuilding aesthetics for men’s body frame and
proportions within judging remain outside the realm of the fathomable. Thus, not only
do women in sport and fitness challenge masculine and feminine hegemonies through
being active, strong, and fit agents, but they must simultaneously work within
restricted conceptions of womanhood (Connell, 1987; Bolin, 1992, 1992a;
Hargreaves, 1986).
Nature/Culture. Sex/Gender. Bodies
While the body has always been important to second wave feminism through its
emphasis on abortion, reproductive rights, and sexual and domestic violence, it has
been seemingly more taboo within mainstream feminist theoiy to directly tackle
notions of gender, bodies, and biological difference. This may be due to the fact that
bodies are politically symbolic arenas through which fierce ideological debates about
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natural male physical superiority and female inferiority are played out. Physical
differences within early second wave feminism were dealt with by stating that gender
was fully socially constructed, and as such, discussions about biology were essentially
abandoned. Some cultural feminists argued that women and men were biologically
different and fought for differences to be valorized instead o f deemed inferior to men.
The dismissal concerning the subject of biological or sex differences, in part, appears
to arise out o f one of the major conceptual offerings o f second wave feminism— that
biological sex should be conceptually separate from culturally performed gender
(Kessler & McKenna, 1978). In more recent research, this type of conceptual frame
has led to the more interactionally produced and variable aspects of gender research
known as “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987). However, these types of
approaches do not attempt to clarify the relationship between sex and gender and do
not describe whether or not such gender performances are thought to rest on a fixed
or essential sex base. Although it was particularly useful to break away from the
potentially oppressive implications embedded in the belief that “biology is destiny,”
flesh and blood bodies still tended to drop out o f the analysis.
More recently, some feminist researchers have moved towards the subject of flesh
and blood bodies by pointing out how physical differences between men and women
are average differences which are erroneously assumed to be absolute and categorical
(Davis & Delano, 1992; Fausto-Sterling, 1985; Lorber, 1996; Kane, 1995). Much of
this project examines how women wrestle with and negotiate what I will call a
culturally-imposed glass ceiling (or upper limit) on women’s strength. Given that I
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focus on how a glass ceiling on strength might play an important (and shifting)
ideological role in washing out a continuum o f bodies and performances by gender (by
helping to mark and divide sex categories) the next section covers some o f the central
arguments concerning research on the men’s and women’s average and overlapping
physical performances.
Muscle Gaps and Overlapping Continuums o f Difference:
Kane is highly critical o f biological determinism which asserts that men and women
naturally fit into fully oppositional categories. Rather, she argues that there is an
overlapping continuum of athletic performance and bodies between women and men.
Nowhere might this debate seem so contentious as in sport, which appears to provide
commonsense proof that all men are naturally superior to all women (Kane & Snyder,
1989, Willis, 1982). However, as noted by Kane, while natural male physical
superiority might be taken for granted within much of the U.S. public at large, there is
actually a tremendous amount o f cultural and institutional energy expended so as to
continually reassert ideologies of natural and absolute gender difference. She argues
that not only do some women repeatedly outperform some men within sport and
fitness, but that there are five specific mechanisms that are used to contain evidence of
such a continuum. These mechanisms work to diligently re-dichotomize the reality of
overlapping performance among men and women into absolute categorical difference.
First, Kane argues that sport typing channels men and women into activities that
are exclusively male or female. This mechanism takes activities that both women and
men might do together (and in which they might have overlapping performances) and
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recasts them into dichotomous categories. For instance, if we never see women play
football, and often see them doing ice skating, aerobic dance, or dancing, it is easy to
read men and women as categorically different. Of course, numerous men and women
do compete in the same sports, but the ones featured within media are often sport
typed— or separated, never (or rarely) allowing for side-by-side competition. Second,
she argues that strong women are largely erased within media coverage of women in
sport despite the fact that numerous combative sports (such as ice hockey and rugby)
are eagerly pursued by women at the college level. Showing women in these sports
would expose sport as a continuum, challenging ideologies of natural male physical
superiority and female inferiority. Third, she argues that women who display superior
athleticism are regendered into “being like a man” or recast as men. This is said to
recast women as anything but female, serving to firmly embed solid athletic
performances in the realm of manhood, thus hiding the reality of overlap by gender.
Fourth, media are said to provide selective gender comparisons during coverage of
athletic events that serve to reinforce gender binaries and mask a continuum. For
instance, during television coverage of marathon events, the first woman across the
line beats the majority of men in the race. However, coverage of the event focuses on
the front male runner, and then casts its focus on the first female runner, never
revealing the fact that women and men are running on the same course, and that the
top women are outperforming the majority of men in the race. To show the top
women outperforming many o f the men on the course would expose sport as a
continuum and not a binary. Lastly, she argues that when women deviate widely from
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traditional expectations o f femininity, their biological standing or standing as a
“normal” women is called into question, either through accusations o f lesbianism, or
through accusations that they are not biological females. This assumption is
institutionalized in sport with disproportionate sex testing and steroidal checks for
women which, some argue attempt to ignore the overlapping continuum of muscles,
genes, and hormones by gender while gatekeeping the ideological boundaries of
categorical gender difference (Cahn, 1991; Davis & Delano, 1992; Hargreaves, 1994;
Kessler & McKenna, 1978). Taken together, she argues that strategies and power
relations are used to keep women out of competition with men in sport (or from being
seen in sport) and preserve sport as male terrain (or terrain o f male superiority).
Hargreaves (1994) notes that men are on average taller, stronger, and heavier than
women, and have more muscle mass, larger hearts, and a more efficient delivery o f
oxygen to the lungs (p. 283). Thus, men generally run faster, jump higher, throw
farther, etc., than women. At the same time, she highlights that there are far greater
differences within the category man or woman than between them. Further, women
have been closing the athletic gap with men in a number o f sports and there have been
trends “towards equivalence with, and superiority over men,” especially in long
distance and ultra long distance events such as cycling, running, and swimming (p
284). Hargreaves reviews how women have caught up with men dramatically over the
last twenty years in marathons, and describes how women hold world records in open
cycling competitions and long distance swimming events. While physiological
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differences are responsible for some of the performance differentials between women
and men, there are clearly numerous other social forces which are also responsible for
these average differences (Dyer, 1989).
Feminist biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling, is one of the few scholars who critiques
“scientific” research on gender and body fat, muscle, and strength. She also argues
that there are indeed average differences between men and women, such as body fat,
but adds that trained women are not average women. Once similarly intense training is
taken into account, especially in long distance running events, body fat levels o f men
and women are more similar, however, this fat is said to be distributed differently. On
the topic of muscle, Fausto-Sterling describes that “much o f the muscle differences
between males and females result in disparities in fiber growth rather than fiber
number. Both hormones and physical activity play a role” (1985, p. 216). She also
discusses strength by stating that average strength differences between women and
men are in part due to size differences. She cites typical studies which state that
women’s upper bodies are on average half as strong as men’s and lower bodies are
seventy percent as strong as men’s. Again, however, she notes that size differences
account for some of this, and claims that if women and men are matched for size,
women have eighty percent o f the upper body strength of men and ninety three percent
of a man’s lower body strength. Looking at leg strength as measured to lean body
weight, she states that women are slightly stronger than men. Fausto-Sterling
concludes her discussion with the idea that “our cultural conceptions will change the
way our bodies grow, and how our bodies grow will change the way our culture views
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them” (1985, p. 220). Several other theorists have argued that it is necessary to
reconsider traditional conceptions of the relationship between nature and culture, and
that sexed bodies are infused with specific gender ideologies that impact the practices
in which individuals engage~and hence the bodies (sexed materiality) we see.
Gender Structures Sexed Materiality
Perhaps in thinking that one is “really seeing” sex, the effect o f gender performances
on sexed materiality is being viewed, and cause and effect have been reversed (Butler,
1993;Lorber, 1996; Hargreaves, 1994). Butler considers the role o f practice in
shaping the resultant sexed materiality that we view with the naked eye when she
argues that “performativity is not a singular ‘act,’ for it is always a reiteration o f a
norm or set of norms, and to the extent that it acquires an act-like status in the present,
it conceals or dissimulates the conventions o f which it is a repetition” (1993, p. 12).
Still other researchers (in this case, a feminist philosopher) reconsider the above
whereby nature is said to be unidirectionally impacting culture or culture is said to be
unidirectionally impacting nature. Indeed, nature and culture may be simultaneously
impacting one another (Grosz, 1994). Thus, to some, it may be impossible to deal with
the relationship between nature and culture, as it can be argued that it is unknowable
to discern where nature begins and culture ends off— or precisely how nature is
impacted by culture~or if it is even possible to talk about nature without cultural
components.
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As women increasingly move into sport and fitness realms, it will be telling to see
whether or not the above cultural mechanisms discussed by Kane will be diligently
carried out (by media or by participants themselves) so as to wash out evidence of a
continuum of overlap. Yet, the situation within fitness is further complicated given the
fact that many women in fitness may desire to physically conform to gender binaries so
as to adhere to popular standards of femininity. This is due to the powerful rewards
for adhering to emphasized femininity and the possible stigmatization that can arise
when challenging muscle gaps within fitness sites. Thus, despite the fact that
performance gaps have been closing, as have some of the muscle gaps between women
and men over time, these gaps also indubitably both change and persist over time due a
multitude of individual, cultural, institutional, and historical forces.
Rationale and Research Questions
Although theoretical debates on men and women’s average or overlapping bodies
and performances have been well examined, no researchers have used fitness as a
social site in which to examine these debates. All too often, it is common for U.S.
society to take outcomes o f women’s “lesser” athletic performance, skill, or muscled
bodies and use them as evidence of the “fact” of natural male physical superiority.
And, because differences between women and men are assumed to be natural, the
processes which reproduce and challenge ideologies o f absolute male physical
superiority remain largely unproblematized (Wachs, 1999). While numerous projects
have examined whether or not fitness is constraining or empowering to women, very
few ethnographic/interview studies have attempted to reveal some o f the social
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processes at work which produce the bodies we see, and show how and why women
make conscious and deliberate attempts to construct their own bodies among tensions
between individual and structural agency and constraint.
Within the last decade, it is clear that a growing number of studies have examined
women’s bodies at the “extremes.” That is, there are more works on female
bodybuilders on the one hand (Balsamo, 1994; Bolin, 1992, 1992a; Daniels 1992;
Fisher, 1997; Guthrie & Castelnuovo, 1998; Heywood, 1998; Klein, 1993; Schulze,
1997) and anorexics on the other (Bordo, 1993; Heywood, 1996; MacSween, 1996).
Yet, little work explores the everyday women in fitness who fall somewhere in-
between. In the explosion of work on bodies that has appeared in the last decade,
researchers frequently study bodies and bodily meanings as a text, a function of
discourse, a biological given, a social construction in totality, or a fixed biological
entity which assumes the values which culture infuses onto it (Grosz, 1994). Few
researchers have examined the use o f space within fitness sites, the social and cultural
dynamics at work regarding women’s bodies and fitness activities, or listened to
women’s voices concerning the meaning they attribute to these activities.5 Even fewer
have moved to an intermediate level o f analysis— the institutional level— to examine
how culturally constructed ideas about women’s strength are challenged and/or
reinforced through the fitness industry (here, personal trainers) itself.
Since gender is relationally defined whereby conceptions of masculinity and
5
Several studies have been done on women’s aerobics (and not a broad range of fitness activities), but
only Maguire & Mansfield’s includes ethnographic methods (e.g. see Maguire & Mansfield, 1998;
Markula, 1996).
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femininity are dependent on one another (Connell, 1989, 1995), fitness centers provide
a particularly useful arena in which to examine gendered spaces, bodily ideologies and
practices. The realm of fitness, unlike sport, is sometimes (though not always) co-ed
and under the same roof, which makes it particularly useful to examine women and
men side-by-side carrying out some of the same activities in some of the same spaces.
Unlike organized sport which is often single sex, fitness spaces can give women the
opportunity to perform the same acts of strength or athleticism as men and can offer
challenges to assumptions o f categorical gender difference, male physical superiority,
and female inferiority. Simultaneously, however, numerous individual, cultural, and
structural forces work to reinforce such assumptions, and the resulting tensions
produce a lively field of gender relations which is by no means stable, static, or natural,
but rather, social, dynamic, and produced. At the same time that an analysis o f these
tensions allow for an understanding of how gender and gendered bodies are
constructed, there are also fruitful links to gender relations in other societal
institutions, such as work, sport, and more. So as to explore the ideologies, practices,
and social processes within the social institution o f fitness that help to produce
gendered bodies, my main two main research questions in this dissertation are:
• What do women and men do in the spaces of fitness centers?
How do women understand and actively negotiate a culturally imposed
“glass ceiling” or upper limit on women’s strength and size?
After the methods chapter (Chapter Two) and a thick description of the two sites
(Chapter Three), I will begin with the first question which is covered in Chapter Four.
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In this chapter, I will describe the geographically gendered spaces of fitness sites, and
examine what practices women and men carry out in fitness spaces. Consistent with
Thome (1993) in her ethnography of children at school and McGuffey & Rich (1999)
who focus on children in middle childhood at camps--I focus on a main “gender
transgression zone” in fitness spaces. That is, I pay special attention to the discursive
negotiations that occur when women cross into male-dominated core free weight
spaces. These zones provide particularly useful information on how spaces/territories
and the categories of man and woman are marked, negotiated, policed, and challenged.
I examine how performances by women in these spaces are evidence o f a continuum o f
overlap by gender— and how this evidence is managed. I ask whether there is
recognition o f such overlap, (challenging notions o f male physical superiority) or
whether wider cultural ideologies are drawn upon to paradoxically manage this
situation in ways that recreate dichotomous gender difference. Of course, some
situations simultaneously contain moments of both, and this is consistent with the lived
complexity o f the social world expected in Third Wave feminist analysis (Heywood &
Drake, 1998). After examining some of the social processes associated with “what we
see” in gyms full o f day-to-day fitness participants, it will still of course be unclear as
to why women do what they do.
In the second empirical question, I ask how women understand and actively
negotiate what I argue is a culturally imposed “glass ceiling” on women’s strength and
size. I move away from the ethnographic work in Chapter Four to interview narratives
in Chapter Five and Six to flesh out more o f the tensions between agency and
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constraint that impact women’s choice o f fitness practices. In my fieldwork and
interviews, approximately 75% of women on fitness sites expressed awareness o f an
upper limit on women’s muscular strength. Given this, I ask how do women
understand and actively negotiate this limit? What do women do? Immersed in a
cultural moment where it may seem that strong women are more celebrated than ever,
are women indeed bursting into weight rooms, packing on the plates and cranking out
the sets? Or do many women hold back on, or avoid weight lifting, negotiating a glass
ceiling (or upper limit) on their own muscular strength (Dworkin, Forthcoming)? Or,
are perhaps both processes occurring— and to what extent? Recognizing that the
category woman is by no means unified, I examine women’s interview narratives along
a continuum of strength, exploring non-lifters and moderate lifters in Chapter Five, and
heavy lifters in Chapter Six.
Next, moving away from women’s group based gender strategies which negotiate
bodily ideologies and practices, I also turn to the institutional level in Chapter Seven to
ask how the fitness industry, particularly personal trainers, act as gatekeepers of
“scientific” bodily knowledge This question arose out of my observations that
numerous clients relied on personal trainers for their perceived “expert” status in
transmitting a science of gender and bodies. Here, I ask:
• What assumptions about gender, fitness, and bodies are made in
personal training manuals? Do trainers use the information gained
during professional socialization to reproduce or resist the placement of
a glass ceiling on women’s strength?
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Personal trainers transmit knowledge about bodies and fitness to a host of fitness
participants as part of a multi-billion dollar fitness industry that profits from anxious
bodies ready to make changes. Within this industry, personal trainers were
intermediately positioned between wider cultural ideologies, “scientific” knowledge
about gender, bodies, and fitness, and individual fitness members’ day-to-day choices
about fitness practices. Given this unique social location, trainers are a fruitful area for
analysis whereby we can see whether the knowledge gained during socialization into
the field is used to reinforce or resist the placement o f a glass ceiling on women’s
muscular strength. Uncovering a glass ceiling, and whether or not the institution of
fitness plays a role in reinforcing or challenging it, can aid us in making practical
interventions within the fitness industry so as to improve women’s lives (according to
the definitions of health and fitness that are provided by the industry itself).
The final chapter of this dissertation, Chapter Eight, will return to larger questions
of structure/constraint and embodiment and gender in terms of how fitness centers/the
gym might interact with the current state of play of the gender order. That is, fitness
centers are uniquely positioned between the larger gender order and individual fitness
agents, providing a fruitful institutional area in which to examine how women
negotiate individual, cultural, and institutional forces. As has been noted, an
examination of whether or not and how women seek and “hold back” regarding bodily
strength can be extended to other institutions, such as work. An examination of
patterned social practices in the gym illuminates how the larger gender order might
shape individual and group based agencies and constraints. And, in turn, this
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examination reveals how agents collectively shift and define the range of emphasized
femininity in one social institution-and in the gender order at large-which is
continually in flux.
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Chapter Two: Methods
Lofland and Lofland (1995) suggest that meaningful research has often been
produced when researchers pursue projects right “where they are.” Indeed, fitness
sites have been nearly like a second home to me since my days o f high school track.
After benefitting from the passage o f Title IX in 1972 and competing in girls’ high
school track and cross country from 1982-1986,1 subsequently engaged in numerous
fitness activities for the next thirteen years. During this time, I worked out regularly
(3-4 days/week) in approximately ten gyms across five states. Like many researchers,
the decision to embark on this research project comes from a meaningfully politicized
subject position (Harraway, 1997). As I will describe below, my interest in how
women negotiate a glass ceiling on muscular strength developed out o f my experiences
transitioning from sport to fitness.
Rationale for the Study
Personal biographies are often relevant in influencing the choice of a particular
research topic (Lofland & Lofland, 1995). As noted in the foreword, after my days in
organized sport ended in 1987,1 became immersed in the world of fitness. Although
there was overlap in the two arenas, my initial perception was that organized sport
was more about teamwork, competition, and pushing one’s body to extreme limits of
performance in the name of individual and team victory than was fitness. This
perception is indubitably shaped by my immersion in North American sports (Nelson,
1991; Young, 1993). Upon my arrival to fitness centers, it appeared to be more
individualistic, informal, and focused on bodily appearance goals rather than
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performance goals. A number o f researchers concur that bodily emphases as ends in
themselves appear to be more central to fitness than sport (Hargreaves, 1994; Lloyd,
1996; Markula, 1996). However, it can be argued that sport participants do self-select
into certain sports on the basis o f constructing a particular physical form while some
fitness participants carry out fitness activities in order to better compete in sport.
Reflexively thinking back on what spurred me to do an analysis of women in
fitness, I remembered the days when I first experienced the culture shock of beginning
to work out in fitness environments. Frequently, one of the privileges of being a
college level athlete in organized sport is to have one’s own designated workout space
that is separate from the rest o f the workout population.6 I enjoyed this separate
workout space while in sport and moved to fitness centers after a series of injuries
which led me to leave organized sports behind. Over the past decade, within fitness, I
recall the nearly constant flow o f comments about my physical strength. Some of these
comments within fitness sites include: “you’re pretty strong for a girl,” “you’re strong
for someone so small,” “how’d you get so strong?,” or “I’ve never seen a girl do
that!” Furthermore, after entering fitness centers for the first time (and time and time
again), I was struck by how the aerobics classes were nearly always 100% female (this
has changed, though only slightly, over the years), how many women lingered on the
stair masters and bikes longer than many men, and how few women would venture
into the weight room or spend long periods of time there.
6
It is therefore unusual to see current college athletes in a fitness setting, though some do choose to
work out in local fitness arenas and many “ex” athletes also work out in fitness environments.
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Thus, coming from a sport environment where it was not noted as unusual for girls
or women to be physically powerful, and where weight lifting and cardiovascular
strength were embraced, encouraged, and in fact required for team success, I became
curious as to why the above patterns played out in fitness site after fitness site, even
though I had lived in several different cities in the country. To begin to solve this
puzzle, I carried out a pilot study at a local college site in Southern California from
1995-1996 on women in fitness (Dworkin, Forthcoming).
The pilot study was a ten month ethnography with informal and formal interviews.
Numerous women in the study expressed fears of acquiring more muscle size and bulk,
and described this as bodily masculinization. In turn, many women avoided the weight
room (some lifted lightly, and almost no women lifted heavily) while carrying out long
doses of cardiovascular work. Some may think that participating in “recreational”
fitness activities stands outside of the politicized gender relations found in
hierarchically organized sports, unfettered from the constraints of structured sports
organizations. However, I argued that fitness sites replicate (and resist) some of the
larger ideological and structural struggles found in the institutions o f work, sport, and
within contemporary U.S. gender relations at large. I suggested that there may be
fruitful links for understanding gender relations by making corollary analyses between
women in fitness and women in work.
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For instance, within the paid labor force, researchers have highlighted how women in
male-dominated fields and professional occupations such as law, science, the military,
and business reach a glass ceiling (Reskin & Phipps, 1988). Such a ceiling might be
defined as a limit on professional success where women attempt to venture upward
and are stopped. I argued that this concept may be useful to understanding women in
fitness. That is, women in fitness— even those who seek muscular strength— may find
their bodily agency and empowerment limited not by biology but by ideologies of
emphasized femininity (Connell, 1987) which structure how far the upper limit on
women’s “success” should be. Since my study was preliminary and rather small scale,
and the subjects were (traditional) college-aged students who were mostly white, I
decided to expand the scope of the initial study to include several fitness centers and
include a greater range o f fitness participants. In this study, I employ a semi-grounded
theory approach to gathering data through participant observation and interviews. I
use theoretical frameworks that combine socio-cultural approaches to gender and the
body with a sociology of sport/fitness to examine women in fitness sites.
Rationale for Methods
Given the range o f qualitative methodologies typically used in the social sciences,
why use ethnography (participant observation) and interviews to explore what women
in fitness do and why? Ethnography is said to be useful for interpreting the flow o f
social discourse and action, and can be used in the construction o f cultural theory
(Frake, 1983; Geertz, 1983; Straus & Corbin, 1990). The use of ethnography
emphasizes social context, and is excellent for answering processual questions (e.g.
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“What do people do?”) instead of getting at meanings or explanatory rationales (e.g.
“Why do individuals do X or Y?”) (Thome, 1993). In this way, ethnography is
appropriate in answering the first research question in this dissertation which asks
what practices women and men carry out in fitness sites.
Although ethnography has been said to challenge some quantitative methods such
as survey research for relying solely on what people say they do— and not what people
actually do— ethnography alone is not a compelling method for decoding why people
do what they do (Hammersley, 1998). For instance, despite the fact that fieldwork
offered insight into patterns of equipment use by gender or the use of space by gender
within fitness sites, this revealed very little about why fitness participants did what they
did. So as to not pre-determine explanations or let my own past experiences speak for
the meaning of people’s behavior, I used informal and formal interviews to explore the
question o f why particular practices were carried out.
Combining the two qualitative methods— participant observation and interviewing—
was useful since triangulation not only strengthens qualitative research through
corroboration and challenge, but it rounds out what each individual method might lack
(Neuman, 1997). For instance, there were several situations where there was a
disjuncture between what people said they did in informal or formal interviews and
what I observed them doing on site (Hammersley, 1998; Hoschild, 1989). This
realization came to me early in my research when a woman from Mid-Gym told me
that she did not lift any weights. In subsequent months, I then observed that she
consistently lifted weights with her legs. At first, I did not question this disparity since
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I thought it might be a single idiosyncratic instance or some form o f
miscommunication. However, when another woman in Elite Gym stated that she did
not lift weights at all and “only” did treadmill and bikes, but then proceeded to lift
weights with her buttocks and legs, I then learned to question participants and found
that this produced meaningful data. Using only one method--or not being on site long
term to watch participants over time— would have led me to completely miss these
important nuances.
Despite the fact that a combination of ethnographic work and interviews
strengthened an understanding o f fitness sites, there were numerous challenges
associated with using these two methods. For example, how can ethnographic
researchers discover meaningful patterns when individuals tend to change what they
did over time, change their rationales over time for why they did something, or even
change rationales within the same interview? As an example, one day on the
stairmaster, I informally asked a woman from Mid-Gym why she did this exercise. She
looked at me silently. I asked her how long and how often she did stairmaster. She
told me that she did this activity for thirty minutes three times a week. I then asked
why she chose this fitness routine, and after some silence, she replied “I have no idea,
I’ve never even thought about the reasons, I’ll really have to think about that.” This
experience quickly led me to understand that at times, patterns o f behavior and
narratives about those behaviors may take on multiple meanings that can be confusing
or confounding even to the participants themselves. Given the above factors which
make decoding behaviors in qualitative research quite challenging, it was rather
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striking to find many similar patterns of behavior and rationales for why particular
activities were carried out. This was the case across fitness participants and across
several different fitness sites.
The Research Process
I employed participant observation over the course of two years, four days a week,
for two to four hours a day in several local gyms on the West side of Los Angeles.
One site which I will refer to as “Elite Gym” had a membership fee o f over $1300 per
year, with an additional $1300 required up front. In this site, any comfort that I had
from fitness knowledge described above was quite separate from the discomfort that
came from being among a nearly all white population who could afford a vigorous and
expensive cult o f consumption. A second site which I will refer to as “Mid-Gym” was
far less expensive and only required $25 down and an additional $300 a year. While
there wasn’t an expensive cult of consumption at Mid-Gym when I began research, the
gym had been completely transformed and rebuilt after the end o f fieldwork.
Interestingly, the cost, clientele, dress code, and spatial arrangement o f Mid-Gym’s
layout moved closer to that o f Elite Gym’s after renovations. Throughout my
research, approximately half of Mid-Gym’s members were white and half were people
of color. A full description o f the equipment, service offerings, members, and
surroundings at the two sites is included in Chapter Three.
Ethnographic work began through immersion in each setting first as an observer
(between one and two months), and then as a participant observer (for the remainder
o f the two years). Through the use of “thick description” (Geertz, 1983), I initially
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kept track o f what fitness sites looked liked, how equipment was arranged, who used
cardiovascular -vs- weight room space by gender, what fitness practices were carried
out on site, how fitness participants dressed, with whom they hung out and interacted,
what props were carried into and out of sites, how long they engaged in various
activities, what conversations were like (that I could overhear), whether or not people
read or listened to music during workouts, what signs, photos, or ads were in the
setting, and more. I also kept track of the apparent race and gender of the employees
(including management and personal trainers), and clientele. After two months, I
mixed observation with participant observation as I began to work out on site as a club
member, and collected fieldnotes as a researcher. My impact on the setting, data
collection, and analysis is discussed in this chapter under the self-reflexivity section.
The act o f logging fieldnotes during participant observation itself is rarely a subject
within sociological methods texts. At first, during pure observation, I carried a small
notebook and took down partial phrases and key words after conversations or
observations which I later used to write up detailed descriptions. However, this
method initially felt uncomfortable during participant-observation, particularly in the
“advanced training” free weight room at Mid-Gym where my activities felt most
conspicuous. This was due to the fact that approximately 90% of the participants in
this room were male and often did not use workout cards or other methods of
recording workouts. In this particular room, I received a lot of cold stares and strange
looks, but only two or three questions as to what I was doing. In other parts of Mid-
Gym and in other settings, it was not unusual for participants to be continually keeping
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track o f their workouts on large yellow cards or on writing pads, and so my writing
activities seemed more inconspicuous. No-one outside of the advanced training room
asked about my activities at Mid-Gym, but at Elite Gym, several participants asked
“what are you writing about?” to which I replied that I was a researcher interested in
fitness.
Since very few methods books discussed various ways in which to actually log
fieldnotes7 , and I was searching out whether or not there was a richer way to capture
notes, I began experimenting with finding alternatives to the popular pen and notebook
style. For approximately one month I stopped using a notebook and pen, and in its
place I used on-site payphones, called an answering service at home, and filled the
phone service mailbox with verbal fieldnotes. After returning home, I transcribed the
many messages. I compared fieldnotes, however, and noted that my phone notes
seemed less thorough, rich, and complete when compared with the notebook method.
I also considered dictating into a tape recorder for several weeks, but felt that this
would interfere with the flow o f interactions on site (and make confidentiality issues
more complex). When I returned to the notebook, I became more comfortable
carrying it and recorded partial phrases and pieces of stories, transcribing when I left
the site.
For the first nine months o f fieldwork, I did not carry out any formal interviews.
Rather, during this time, using Spradley (1979) as a guide, I carried out informal
7
One exception is Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes by Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw (1995).
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interviews. Here, I used a mix of descriptive (e.g. What fitness activities do you do
here?), contrast (e.g. What is the difference in doing X -vs- Y?), structural (Did you
have access to organized sport in high school? college?), and explanatory questions
(Why do you do X?). After collecting and adjusting questions over this nine month
period, and simultaneously gathering fieldnotes, I developed a formal questionnaire
and carried out formal interviews after that time (see Appendix One).
While I spoke informally with hundreds of fitness participants, I carried out thirty-
three formal in-depth interviews with female fitness participants. In order to ensure
anonymity, women were assigned code names during transcription of interviews, tapes
were destroyed, and no master list linked pseudonyms to code names. Informal
interviews and fieldwork quickly reminded me that the categories “woman” and “man”
are by no means monolithic and differ by age, race, class, sexuality, religion, and more
(Grant, 1993). Despite these differences, one widespread observation that I noted
across sites concerned the degree to which women lifted weights. From this
observation, I grouped women into three categories o f weight-lifting: non-lifters (25%
of women on sites), light/moderate lifters (65% of women on sites), and heavy lifters
(10% o f women on sites).8 There were proportionately more heavy lifters at Mid-
Gym than Elite Gym (15%-vs-5%), and proportionately more moderate lifters at Elite
Gym than Mid-Gym (70% -vs- 60%). Both sites had similar percentages of non
8
Definitions o f these categories were formed from how women identified themselves and an analysis of
how often, how long, and how hard women performed weight lifting activities. Non-lifters did not
currently lift weights, moderate lifters lifted weights from fifteen minutes to one hour, two to four
days a week, and heavy lifters lifted for more than one hour to two hours a day three to five days a
week.
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weight-lifting participants (25%). Conceptualizing a continuum of strength by gender
and considering what women fell into these gradations of lifting allowed me to ensure
that I was not oversimplifying concepts of strength or the category woman. It also
allowed for recognition that men and women have a continuum of overlap regarding
fitness practices, strength, and bodies (Kane, 1995).9
Using the percentages above as a guide for how many women to select from each
category o f lifting, I selected a sample of thirty-five women. O f these thirty-five
interviewees, I discarded two interviews due to the fact that after tape transcription, I
found that the questions were not asked with exactly similar wording in two of them.
If I were to choose a sample using only the percentages above, however, I would have
had fewer than four heavy lifters in a sample o f thirty-three women. Due to the fact
that there were so few heavy lifters in any given fitness site, I therefore over sampled
on heavy lifters while keeping moderate lifters the largest portion of the sample.
Unlike sampling techniques which gamer proportionately representative samples o f a
population, I used a more theoretical mode of sampling. Since my research questions
center on practices and ideologies concerning women’s muscular strength, I selected
non-lifters, moderate lifters, and heavy lifters to explore a full range of weight lifting
experiences. Theoretical techniques force the researcher to develop contextual
explanations rather than establish causal arguments (Mason, 1996). However,
researchers must not fall into the trap that if one selects a unit o f a particular type (e.g.
9
For instance, while Chapter Five focuses on how numerous women “hold back” on muscular strength,
four white men also expressed that they “did not want to bulk” during the course of ethnographic
work.
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a non-lifter, a moderate lifter), that this can somehow represent all units of this type.
Therefore, I chose most of the informants for formal interviews after the nine month
period o f informal interviewing, once I had become much more familiar with some of
the participants and settings. In selecting interviewees, I indeed tried to capture
“icons” of specific groups of women (non, moderate, and heavy lifters) and also those
who departed from these icons. This type of sampling which uses theory as a guide to
selecting participants is done to:
constitute a range intended to allow you to generate data and explore
processes, similarities, and differences, to test and develop theory and
explanation for those similarities and differences, rather than to make statistical
comparisons and to infer causality on that basis (Mason, 1996, p. 97).
O f the thirty-three women interviewed, ages ranged from nineteen to forty-three1 0 ,
eighteen were white (54.5%), five were African-American (15.2%), five were Asian-
American (15.2%), and five were Latina (15.2%). Eleven identified as heterosexual
and currently married, twenty identified as heterosexual and single, and two self
identified as lesbian singles. (A description o f the interviewees is in Appendix Two.) I
also formally interviewed twelve personal trainers, although I spoke informally with
dozens. Interviews with trainers were carried out after interviews with fitness
members were completed. (See Appendix Two for a description of personal trainer
interviewees and Appendix Three for the formal interview guide that was used with
10
With the exception of one sixty year old.
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personal trainers.) Interviews took from forty-five minutes to one and a half hours, and
were tape recorded. Pseudonyms were assigned to each interviewee to protect their
confidentiality, and tapes were destroyed after transcription.
Negotiating and Maintaining Site Access
Often, ethnographic researchers find the need to cany out a series of negotiations
in order to gain access to a site (Emerson, 1983). This was not initially a difficulty
that I faced, since I paid for access to local fitness centers through temporary and
permanent memberships. When I began my research, I met with management in both
gyms to inform them of the nature of the study and the fact that I was already a
member at each site. I did not find much resistance to the research process, but did
find that each management team wanted to know what the study was about. I stated
that I was a Sociology graduate student at USC who was interested in fitness, what
activities club members carried out, and why people did what they did. The
management of Elite Gym wanted to ensure that I would not be doing any physical or
physiological tests on members while Mid-Gym’s management was concerned that I
would be interrupting personal trainers when they were with clients. I assured each
management team that these issues would not be a part of the manner in which I
would conduct research.
Later, there were two confrontations with management— once in each gym. While
Mid-Gym’s employees at the main desk had immediate access to computer data which
showed the percentages of men and women on site at any given time (it was nearly
always 50-50), Elite Gym did not have access to this information through their front
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desk computer system. When I then asked Elite Gym’s membership services for the
information, they stated that they weren’t certain whether or not they could acquire
that information and sent me to management. When I requested the numbers from
management, they asked me several times “why would you need something like that,”
and they stated that it “wasn’t readily available information” but that they could
“probably find it out.” After asking several more times and receiving more distant and
ambiguous answers like “we don’t collect data on that sort o f thing,” I decided to
change my tactics. I waited four months and then one day, called the club posing as a
prospective member, pretended that I was heterosexually married, stated that my name
was “Mrs. Martin,” and said that I was calling on behalf of my husband who didn’t
have time to call. I stated that my husband was interested in joining the club and
wanted more information about it. They suggested that he make an appointment to
come into visit the club. I said that he didn’t have time any time soon. During the
conversation, I also stated that he wanted to know what proportion of members were
women -vs- men at the club. Membership services stated that they could find that out
from management, put me on hold, and much to my surprise, returned to the phone
call to give me the answer of “60 men 40 women” and then asked “is that something
that’s helpful to your husband?” I replied “I certainly hope so, I don’t see why he
would ask me to get something for him that wasn’t useful to him.” I then hung up.
The second confrontation with management I had was at Mid-Gym. When club
renovations began, management changed. I did not realize this at first and therefore
did not introduce myself to the new management to explain my study. One day,
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apparently a personal trainer I had interviewed was seen by new management in her
office with me, and the next time I went to the club, I was called into the “back
office.” In that office, there were numerous managers, and one was twirling my
business card around in his fingers— I had given it to a personal trainer during an
interview. He asked me what I was doing, and why. I explained that I was a
sociologist interested in what people do for their workouts and why. He spoke to me
about liability and said he wanted to ensure there would be no mentioning of the club
name in my final document and no way to name people in it. I stated that it was
required research protocol to protect the anonymity of the business and its employees
and members. It was striking that there was concern about liability, since it was not
unusual for me (and many others) to have witnessed or experienced many questionable
practices— e.g. club t-shirts being given away illicitly (according to a sales manager),
sales pitches that offered participants free technology while no technology ever arrived
for a few members. There were other members who were told that if they paid the
total cost o f a several year contract in full, there would be no monthly payment in the
future, but once the contract was signed, they were told that there was also a payment
required each month “by law.”
The Analysis:
To carry out the analysis, I used a combination of semi-grounded, more analytically
inductive theory and deductive theory. As noted previously, I initially began taking
unstructured fieldnotes while working out in the two settings. During this phase in the
research process, the field was wide open and anything and everything was included in
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fieldnotes. While I was interested in women’s strength, I kept my early approach open
to avoid forming pre-determined categories for analysis that might constrain my
generation o f as many codes as possible (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995). After a
five-six month period in the two settings, I developed hundreds o f micro categories
such as: discussions of injury, disease, work, family, sexuality, food, comments
directed at fitness participants from trainers or other participants, gimmicks used by
clubs to get people to join, words used in the fitness brochures and signs, and more.
From these micro-categories, I extracted broader themes that centered in on gendered
fitness practices and their overlap. At this time, some of the central categories became
discussions about exercise, food, bodies, time spent in fitness spaces, what fitness
practices participants did, the percentage of men and women on site and in various
spaces, and how participants interacted with one another and personal trainers. Prior
to the decision of what might be central to an analysis women’s muscular strength, I
also began to develop analytic memos which were two to six page analyses of events.
Some of these memos centered on masculinity and femininity, body dress or
comportment, fitness practices and gender, or ideologies about the body. Several of
these memos became central to the analysis, such as themes regarding femininity,
masculinity, and muscle, “holding back,” and who ventured into core free weight
spaces. Eventually, I developed memos on non, moderate, and heavy lifters.
In my fieldnotes, there were several consistent patterns across fitness sites. I noted
that while men and women did overlap in terms of practices, there were
proportionately more women than men who more quickly entered into, and left the
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weight room. I also noted that few women tended to venture into what I will call core
free weight spaces, particularly for the upper body, and when they did, many women
used similar practices such as keeping the weight the same across sets, not increasing
weight, or carrying out two to three sets. However, I could not ascertain why these
practices were being carried out without first interviewing women. Once categories
like “fitness practices by gender” were developed and written up in analytic memos, it
became more clear to me that in order to flesh out ideas about different women along
a continuum of strength, it was necessary to more formally interview non-lifters,
moderate lifters, and heavy lifters. While an analysis of fieldnotes progressed
somewhat inductively, my selection of three groups of lifters and the theoretical
rationale for doing so was more of a deductive analysis that arose out of fieldwork.
Indeed, qualitative work often involves a complex interplay between both forms o f
reasoning (Lofland & Lofland, 1995).
Approximately nine months into the fieldwork, I developed a formal interview
guide (See Appendix One) which much more adeptly focused on what women did and
why than did my informal interview questions or fieldnotes. While informal interviews
contained many o f the themes that formal interviews uncovered, formal interviews
garnered more in-depth material. From both types of interviews, I learned that
numerous women described an explicit fear of, and repulsion towards female
bodybuilders’ bodies, a fear of becoming too big or bulky themselves, and narratives
o f how to structure fitness practices so as to ensure “femininity.” I had to cross check
interviews with fieldnotes to confirm or disconfirm consistency across what people
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said and did. Indeed, most o f my fieldnotes found consistency between what women
said and did (though not always). That is, those who feared bulk and saw bulk as
inconsistent with femininity frequently spent short periods of time in the weight room,
lifted the same weight across three sets without increasing it, were cautious on the
amount of weight lifted, or cut back on the number of days per week. At the same
time, there were some inconsistencies between participants’ ideologies and practices.
These disjunctures will be discussed in several places throughout this work.
In order to ascertain whether or not the patterns that I had gathered in the above
two sites were specific to a small regional area of Southern California that might
construct a highly specific form of femininity, I also carried out several months o f
participant observation at a local women’s gym, a college site, a YMCA on the east
coast, and a gym in-between the Mid and Elite Gym (in terms of cost) in Northern
California. Since all ethnography is contextualized, limited and partial, I am wary of
generalizing from fieldnotes which may in fact be describing a unique form of
(geographically specific) west coast gym culture (Geertz, 1984; Lofland & Lofland,
1995). Yet, so as to somewhat round out my data collection, I consulted with three
colleagues across the country once a month over the course of six months to discuss
fitness sites they had access to. I asked about the available equipment and services,
patterns of use, and the use of space. These sites were 1) in the Mid-West in
Minnesota, 2) in Manhattan (New York City) and 3) in Atlanta, Georgia. While there
was some variability in cost, equipment, and patterns of use, I learned that my findings
regarding patterns of use and the use of space described in Chapter 4 were not highly
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unique for popular fitness sites that were not community gyms (e.g. YMCA’s, etc) and
were not organized to serve the bodybuilding community. 1 1
The analysis o f personal trainers was more grounded in nature. I initially had no
intention of including personal trainers in my research project. However, one
particular realization that I came to when transcribing fieldnotes was the degree to
which fitness participants consult personal trainers even when they do not pay for one-
on-one sessions. After several informal interviews, I found that members view the
information that personal trainers offer them as being infused with special knowledge
or expert “truth” about bodies. But since knowledge is always implicated in a nexus
o f power relations (Foucault, 1980), I was interested in the types of “truth” that are
imparted to participants. I then became interested in the formal education materials
that socialize personal trainers into their discipline. Thus, not only did I watch personal
trainers interact with participants and informally and formally interview participants
about personal trainers when the subject arose, but I also interviewed trainers about
personal training, the certification process, prescribed exercises, bodies and gender. I
also performed a brief textual analysis in Chapter 7 which examines how three o f the
most popularly used “scientific” personal training course materials (ACE-American
Council on Exercise, EFPA-Intemational Fitness Professional’s Association and
NASM-National Academy of Sports Medicine) cover gendered bodily information.
u
However, I did not ask my colleagues to do formal or informal interviews with participants at these
other sites. Therefore, it is certainly possible that other individuals have different reasons for doing
what they do than did my sample of fitness participants.
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By the time I began to write, such an analysis also seemed paramount since it
allowed me to break away from narratives o f individual women or groups o f women to
turn to a more institutional level of fitness, gender, and bodies. After all, fitness sites
are part o f a multi-billion dollar for profit industry that makes much of its money
through constructing ideas regarding bodily improvement and having participants pay
for someone to help them fix their lack. On the one hand, there is a dominant standard
of beauty, and on the other hand, trainers are socialized to use “science” to help
produce “fit, healthy, functional” individuals. The practices necessary to achieve
dominant ideals may be antithetical to the goals of health and fitness (or, the goals of
health and fitness might not produce bodies that adhere to dominant ideals). I
therefore became interested what advice personal trainers gave out about bodies given
the above two potentially conflicting alternatives. Given the content analysis and
interviews, I then moved to analyze whether or not trainers’ expert advice to fitness
participants led to a reinforcement o f or resistance to a glass ceiling on muscular
strength. While I have only centered on personal trainers and a brief textual analysis of
some of their manuals for one chapter o f this project, this is another fruitful area that I
will continue to research. Adding a more in-depth textual analysis of popular
kinesiological, biomechanical, or physiological textbooks to the mix might be part of
this continuation.
Researcher Impact on the Setting and Self-Reflexive Critique
Clearly, field workers' personal biographies are relevant as they fundamentally
shape an ethnography’s theoretical, interpretive, and analytical framework (Emerson,
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1983). My approach was to remain self-reflexive and critical about what was being
“seen,” collected, and analyzed within and outside o f the setting. O f course, there
were numerous benefits and challenges to starting where I had been for so many years.
The main benefit o f choosing fitness sites as places of research was that I had a great
deal o f familiarity with and understanding o f fitness exercises, lingo, and formal and
informal rules and etiquette. Although I was always learning new information about
the latest equipment, clothing, props, or expert fitness advice, I enjoyed a solid level of
understanding and familiarity with gym culture, such as: racking one’s weights,
working in (a form o f taking turns) on equipment with others, time limits on
cardiovascular equipment, what supplements purported to do what for the body, what
constitutes “good form” when using equipment, what muscles are worked by various
pieces o f equipment, and more. I also had an understanding of when people were
following (formal or informal) rules and the various ways in which people creatively
violated or negotiated these rules. This understanding allowed for an immediate ease
of speaking with others and a fluidity of physical movement within and between
rooms. Indeed, at times, being an insider and having access to shared knowledge aids
in the process of understanding some observed behaviors (Agar, 1996).
At other times, my own subject positions led me to see fitness settings in a limited
way. In other words, this “knowledge” was specialized given my past experiences and
at times, this was a liability to seeing the multiple layers of situations. For instance, my
experiences led to some difficulty in recalling how long it might take others to
maneuver within and feel comfortable in the settings. At first, I was not as aware and
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was surprised and judgmental to find so many women and some men who expressed
intimidation and discomfort in the weight room. It was therefore vital for me to
remember (and also, impossible to ignore) in the course of fieldwork that years of
sport led me to be an anomaly in terms o f comfort, experience, and physical ability in
the gym (especially in the weight room). Being especially reflexive helped me to
become more sensitive to understanding not only to fitness participants’ current
experiences, but their past ones as well.
Furthermore, due to my having embraced weight lifting and strength during
organized sports participation, I was initially shocked to find an abundance o f women
lifting weights lightly and stating that they feared masculinization. Looking back,
although I didn’t realize it until I was more immersed in a gender, sport, and fitness
literature, I think that during organized sports I had rejected much of emphasized
femininity which can be seen as antithetical to what is required for success at many
sports (Wachs, 1999). Since “masculine” ways of being (e.g assertiveness, physical
strength, cool emotional distance, and a “strong” way of moving) are often popularly
rewarded in U.S. culture, I realized that I may have internalized a desire to display
male qualities while rejecting several signs of femininity (passiveness, physical
weakness, open emortions, and a vulnerable way o f moving). These traits may in fact
be required o f women in an increasingly competitive world that values several
masculine traits (Bordo, 1993). While I have tried not to judge the varying views that
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women or men held as good or bad in the analysis, there may be remnants of my own
personal experiences which lead me to somewhat devalue physical weakness while
valuing strength.
At the same time, since I am an academic, it was difficult to not see certain
categorical beliefs about gender as “false” or “wrong.” For instance, I may have had
the tendency to think that women who lifted heavily and found self-protection from
weight lifting in a violent world were “right” and women who did not lift weights in
order to adhere to dominant standards of femininity as “wrong.” Also, I may have
negatively judged several participants and personal trainers spoke about what women
“couldn’t” do due to their “lack” o f strength, muscle fibers, hormones, etc. In order to
challenge myself from “missing” numerous points of view due to my own beliefs, I
attempted to move in a reflexive manner between my settings and qualitative research
texts. Since researchers cannot ever be 100% certain whether or not interview
accounts are true or false, they cannot use asymmetrical rationales or tactics in
assessing views that are thought to be true -vs- false (Hammersley, 1992). I have
rewritten several sections o f the text in an attempt to use members’ beliefs as
indicators of cultural perspectives that are held by the people producing them, or as
meaningful sources of information about the phenomenon which I am exploring
(Hammersley, 1992).
Interconnection between Individual and Structural Forces:
There were other ways in which my own and others’ subject positions have shaped
an engagement with gym culture, what is seen, and how it is seen. Looking back, my
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being a white, middle to upper middle class woman has no doubt impacted my own
experiences with sport and fitness “choices” over the years. While an academic
background in feminism may have trained my eye to “see” “oppression” regarding
gender, my class position may have led me to inadvertently focus too much on
empowerment or bodily agency. However, interplay between the literature and
fieldwork quickly humbled me and reminded me that individual biographies always
stand in relation to complex structural forces that are not easily visible. For instance,
one grey haired women at Elite Gym yelled the following to me after I did a bout of
pull-ups: “wow, I was watching you just then, you’re really strong!...I bet you did
sport in college? Did you? We didn’t have any sport back then...sadly.” Other grey
haired women held more traditional views about women and had no longings
whatsoever to have access to sport nor a desire to learn the many how-to’s of certain
weight exercises. For instance, one silvery haired women shrieked at a woman who
lifted heavily in Elite gym and asked her one day “why would you want to be that
strong?” Another asked a young woman in Mid-Gym during dips: “why are you doing
those? Those will give you muscles. You don’t want muscles.” The younger woman
seemed annoyed and replied “I do want muscles. That’s why I’m here, that’s why I do
these.” The older woman replied: “That’s like a man, you’ll look like a man...do you
wanna be like a man?” The young woman seemed even more impatient, shaking her
head, and quipped back, “Muscles rock. Welcome to the new millennium.” In this
unique historical moment, it was not uncommon for Pre and Post Title IX women to
be working out in the same fitness environment, side-by-side, staring at one another
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like strangers, blinking with fascination, jealously, repugnance, or cheer. These
differences among women kept me attuned not to a single point of reference
concerning a glass ceiling on strength, but to the ranee of its placement, the historical
shifts we have seen, and the tendency for the ceiling to move upwards in support of
muscularity over time. I will return to this point in Chapter Eight, the final chapter.
At the same time that I might have over-emphasized empowerment on the part of
fitness participants in my initial fieldwork, the fact that I am an academic o f the body
and fitness/sport moved me well beyond the view that physical activity was simply
empowering. This stance was constantly challenged by issues raised during fieldwork
such as: participants’ physical injuries, women’s lack of access to and experience with
sport or fitness, those who were anorexic or extremely skinny from far too many hours
in the gym (or not enough food), or those who could not continue to afford the cost of
the gym memberships. There were also several experiences on site that reminded me
that my own social location affected construction of the survey questions involving
issues of race and class. For instance, one of my informal interview questions was
“What are your fitness goals?” and then “Have these changed over time?” In Elite
Gym, all interviewed participants answered both questions with no hesitation. In Mid-
Gym, when I asked the same question, several individuals, including an African-
American woman who lived in South Central Los Angeles replied “What goals?”
“What do you mean by fitness goals? Gee, I’ve honestly never considered that.” I then
reconsidered the question and realized the potential class bias that it might have.
Middle and upper middle class individuals more often live their lives with a broader
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range of access to institutions and dreaming o f goals while such opportunities might be
farther out of reach for others. It was also pointed out to me by one reader for this
project that not all individuals are focused on being goal-oriented and some may be
more process-oriented. I changed the question “what are your fitness goals” in the
formal interview guide to “do you have fitness goals?” and if so, I then asked what
they were— without assuming that individuals automatically had set goals. I realize
that the question is still goal-centric and might elicit a need for the listener to have a
goal and express one in order to offer a socially desirable answer (Kvale, 1996; Straus,
1987). Furthermore, there may be self-selection issues which lead fitness participants
on these popular fitness sites to have highly similar fitness goals to one another than
those who do not choose to become a member at these particular sites.
Thus, others’ experiences and my own were a complex assortment of individual
and structural constraints and opportunities. Other structural issues that were raised
was one day when I met a women of color from Mid-Gym who lived on the East Side
of Los Angeles and told me she that she felt “safer” working out on the Westside than
where she lived. Safety in a fitness setting was never something that I overheard or
came across in Elite Gym, except where I overheard participants talking about how
“those people” might be breaking into lockers and stealing from members.1 2 More
interactions between individual and structural forces became apparent, for instance,
when I met numerous white women from Elite Gym who purchased the domestic
12
See Chapter Three, however, for perceptions from women who were ex-Mid-Gym members and
claimed that some of the clientele at Mid-Gym were “from prison” and therefore some women didn’t
feel safe there.
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services o f women o f color so that they could make it into the gym an extra few days a
week. There were also women from both gyms who used their bodies in the paid
labor force (e.g. generally construction work, landscaping, firefighting at Mid-Gym
and personal training, aerobics, entertainment industry, stunt women at Elite Gym) and
were terrified to become injured or unhealthy given that their bodies were their
livelihood (though many more men than women who I interviewed informally
expressed this in Mid-Gym). It was sobering to hear from women who were
attempting to stay strong and healthy for their highly physical paid labor that they too
needed to “keep” their femininity and not lift too many weights. This was even the
case for women who had to lift fifty to eighty pound boulders at landscaping jobs for
eight hours a day as their job in the paid labor force. The manner in which U.S.
definitions of femininity can get conflated with monitoring or restraining high levels of
physical competence that partly pushes me to pursue a study of female firefighters and
police officers in a future project.
Simultaneous Insider/Outsider Status
The above discussion serves to highlight that it is a gross oversimplification to say
that participant observers are either “insiders” or “outsiders” to a setting. For instance,
while I may have been an outsider to some women at Elite Gym since there were not
many women in their 20's or early 30's there (perhaps due to cost), and I did not at all
adhere to emphasized femininity in terms of tight lycra wear, makeup, or putting up
my hair. At the same time, I was treated as insider by several women and men who,
perhaps respecting me as an athlete, asked me how to do or improve at certain
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exercises. I was also treated as an insider by several men with whom I had long,
informal conversations about business/workplace culture, the stock market, and
clashes between management and union members at their workplace. For some
participants at Elite Gym who felt it was undesirable for women to be physically
strong, athletic ability gave me outsider status. However, some of these same women
seemed very proud of my degree seeking, offered a lot of information about their
personal histories, and turned out to be key informants with whom I had more inside
status. At Mid-Gym, although I was an insider in the sense that I more invisibly
blended into the women’s weight room (than at Elite Gym) in terms o f the wide mix of
displays of femininity, I was also outsider, at times sticking out like a sore thumb when
lifting heavily. In the advanced training room at Mid-Gym, while I was insider to
intermediate levels of athleticism, I was usually one o f a few women in the room, and
felt like an outsider when the room went silent if I did pull-ups or dips.
Thus, I was simultaneously both insider and outsider in each setting along several
different axes of experience and social location. It is not unusual for researchers to be
both members of oppressed and privileged groups at the same time (Hammersley,
1992). While my activities were somewhat inconspicuous due to high turnover on sites
and an abundance of record keeping on sites by participants, I have attempted to
outline some of how I impacted what was seen, collected, and analyzed. I am certain
that I am overlooking some ways in which my presence or views in the site impacted
others or the analysis. Certainly, as both a physically strong women who ventures into
male-dominated core free weight spaces— and as a researcher— my presence has likely
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provoked or removed flows of commentary between people as they worked out. Yet,
this too depended on turnover within sites, the time of day, the crowdedness o f the
gym, the proximity between people, the relative degree o f openness of my writing
activities, and many other factors. While it was unusual to question people on what
they do and why in the settings, I was surprised to find that not many asked me why I
was questioning them. If people asked, I indeed stated that I was a researcher who
was studying fitness.
Limitations of Study
I have argued above that researchers cannot use asymmetrical rationales or tactics
in assessing views that are thought to be true -vs- false, and I have instead attempted
to use members’ beliefs as indicators o f cultural perspectives that are held by the
people producing them, or as meaningful sources of information about the
phenomenon which I am exploring (Hammersley, 1992). There was one instance
where I did not do this. While I did not challenge women’s narratives about gender,
muscles, bodies, or emphasized femininity, I did challenge a few personal trainers.
Since I saw personal trainers as uniquely positioned gatekeepers o f bodily information
that would be disseminated to participants, I at times took a more critical stance with
these purveyors of knowledge who had some institutional power to influence fitness
members. At first, I had not read enough of the academic literature on gender and
bodies to challenge trainers. Furthermore, it was not until after I carried out interviews
that I decided to do an analysis o f trainers’ manuals. Thus, I could not confront
trainers with the materials with which they were socialized. When I did challenge
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trainers, I did not do this idiosyncratically, but attempted to do this only when
categorical beliefs about gender from trainers’ narratives could be contradicted
through what I observed women and men doing on site. For instance, one personal
trainer told me that “women here” (at Elite Gym) “don’t want to get big” and lifted
lightly but also told me that “women think resistance exercise is going to make them
big, but this a myth...this is not physiologically possible...” I then questioned her with
the following:
So...um...on the one hand, you said that women can’t get
big...physiologically speaking... but on the other hand, you said that
they don’t want to get big, so they lift light weights. If women lift
light weights...they won’t get big...(pause) but, if women lift heavy
weights... what then?
She then replied that “...women’s muscle is different, the fibers aren’t the same as
guys...” After reading three popularly used training manuals, I turned the narratives
into a more critical analysis of the “science” of gender, fitness, and bodies. I note in
Chapter Seven that personal training manuals explicitly highlight that there was no
“male” or “female” muscle type. I then critically describe how trainers frequently use
this and several other types o f essentialist rationales while not speaking o f a continuum
o f muscle or strength by gender—or an overlap in daily fitness practices that women
and men carry out. This was the case despite the fact that trainers have access to
seeing a visible continuum of performance, bodies, and practices on site which overlap
by gender. While I would have preferred to offer consistency around challenging or
not challenging personal trainers and fitness participants, these few challenges to
personal trainers opened up the possibility for me to analyze how trainers act as
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gatekeepers of “scientific” bodily knowledge. This eventually led to an analysis of
whether or not trainers’ advice and suggestions helped women to reproduce or resist
the placement o f a glass ceiling on women’s strength. This is discussed more in
Chapter Seven.
Sample Skew:
While I attempted to select a sample o f non, moderate, and heavy lifters so as to
maximize an understanding of the ideologies around and rationales for practices
concerning women’s strength, there were a few ways in which the sample privileged
the middle and upper class and may exclude the experiences of the working class or
working poor. The concept o f a glass ceiling in the workplace privileges the middle
and upper class through an examination o f those who work full-time in the paid labor
and are attempting upward mobility. Similarly, studying a glass ceiling on strength
skewed the sample more towards individuals who can even afford the costs of
membership, and had the time and resources to work-out.
Furthermore, part o f the criteria for selecting my interview sample was that
participants had to be members of a fitness site for at least four months. Studying
those who showed regular attendance on site aided me in studying processes and
people over time, but at the same time, this skewed the sample towards studying
fitness “regulars.” This again left out those who did not have privilege o f time to be in
more regular attendance. However, at the same time, I observed that those women
who entered the site more sporadically more often came on site to only do
cardiovascular work (and not lift weights) and lose recent weight gain. In this way, I
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did include some of “less regular” participants in my exploration o f non-lifters, but
arguments about a glass ceiling on strength are not necessarily applicable to women
who, due to structures o f opportunity cannot even begin to be preoccupied with
seeking muscular strength (and, it is useful to note that valuable “limited time” much
more often meant that women “ just” did cardiovascular work). Thus, just as we
cannot speak of all women facing or being impacted by a glass ceiling in the
workplace, a glass ceiling on muscular strength is not applicable to all women. I have
noted in Chapter Five and in other places in this dissertation that a glass ceiling on
strength does not apply to all women in all contexts. However, as I have noted, there
was an awareness of an upper limit on women’s strength for approximately 75% of the
women with whom I informally and formally met. And, though the sample may be
skewed to the middle and upper class, the sample of non, moderate, and heavy lifters is
diverse in terms of race and age.
Across the two sites, non-lifters constituted approximately 25% of women on sites,
moderate lifers were 65% and heavy lifters were 10%. As was previously noted, this
was an average percentage across the two sites that was created from a range of
percentages that I recorded each time I talked with participants on site. There was a
greater percentage o f heavy lifters in Mid-Gym than Elite Gym, and slightly more
moderate lifters at Elite Gym than Mid-Gym. Since Elite Gym was so expensive, it
may have precluded younger women from joining. Also, since Mid-Gym (and other
local sites) had more women of color in it, and more younger women in it who had
access to organized sport and a culture which embraced strong women more so than in
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Elite Gym, this may have explained why Mid-Gym had more heavy lifters than Elite
Gym. Other fitness centers outside of these sites may have an even higher percentage
o f women who were heavy weight lifters. I purposely did not choose gyms that cater
to heavy weight lifters since so much work has been done on female bodybuilding and
my study was focused on empirically studying of a range of every day women’s
experiences within fitness sites. Given that there were mostly white women over age
thirty at Elite Gym, and the sample is skewed to include more regular fitness
participants at Mid- Gym and Elite Gym, this study may in fact be skewed towards
“studying up” (Frankenberg, 1993; Messner, 1996) on dominant fitness ideals. At the
same time, the broad range of women on the two sites allowed me to discuss the range
o f placement o f a glass ceiling on strength, different women’s responses to it, and how
women themselves move to shift— or reinforce— its placement throughout time.
Assumptions and Implications
Lastly, just as a discussion of a glass ceiling on women in the workplace implies
that the desired state is to help women to “break through,” “shatter,” or smash it, I
would be remiss if I did not include a discussion of corollary underlying assumptions
or implications within the world of women fitness. One question might be: is
“success” in the world of fitness when women break through a glass ceiling on
strength (e.g. lifting more weights, more often, etc)? As a Third Wave feminist who
believes in the transgressive role that bodies can play in the gender order at large, I
spent two years observing and talking to numerous women who did much less than
they said they could in weight rooms. This may have been in part due to beliefs that
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they cannot, but in part was shaped by fears of “looking like a man.” I am indeed
committed to looking for ways to close the gendered knowledge and experience gaps
in the world o f fitness. And, I was attempting to analyze/offer a critical analysis which
may expose a greater range o f choices. After describing and analyzing this historical
moment, I attempted to critically consider why so many women “held back” in weight
rooms. While I am interested in why weights were simultaneously loved and hated,
embraced and monitored, I do not take the stance that somewhere along this
continuum o f choices, there is one “right” place at which all women will eventually
arrive. I recognized that each woman came from a different place on a bodily
continuum— and moved to and will move to different places on it over time for
numerous reasons. Indeed, there are contestations and shifts in the gender order over
time, and contradictions in individual women’s thoughts and actions all at once. At
the same time that weight lifting might offer some women a transgressive moment in
which to challenge assumptions about gender and bodies, my commitment to Third
Wave feminism forced me to study the complexity of practices, ideologies, choices,
and bodies. Given these complexities however, it was again striking to uncover the
patterns o f practices and ideologies regarding gender, bodies, and fitness.
The next chapter, Chapter Three is an overview of the two fitness sites in which
fieldwork was carried out. Chapter Four mines the ethnographic data to examine
responses to women in one gender trangression zone in fitness sites. Chapter Five
examines interview work with non and moderate lifters while Chapter Six examines
heavy lifters. Chapter Seven focuses on the institution o f fitness, a brief textual analysis
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of the materials which formally socialize personal trainers into their field, and personal
trainers’ narratives. Chapter Eight pulls back from individual bodies to contextualize
patterns found among women in fitness into the larger tapestry of gender relations.
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Chapter Three- The Two Fitness Sites: “Elite Gym” and “Mid-Gym”
At first glance, fitness clubs appear to be a pastiche assortment of numerous signs
such as health, nutrition, beauty, fitness, sport, fashion, bodybuilding, and more
(Glassner, 1992). Bodies in fitness sites were scattered amidst a dizzying number of
places such as lobbies, locker rooms, bikes, stairmasters, free weights, nautilus
machines, treadmills, juice bars, jacuzzis, payphones, and at some sites, massage
tables, hair salons, restaurants, sundecks, and facial and skin care shops. Individuals
sometimes carried props with them, such as magazines, books, and newspapers to
read, cell phones, pagers, water bottles, nutrition bars, walkmans, weight belts, ankle
weights, hand wraps, lifting gloves, and more. There were times of the day, especially
in the mid-morning and late evening, when it was quiet and only a few participants
were found. At other times of the day, such as early in the morning and “after work”
hours, there was an anxious and bustling feel, complete with full sign-up boards and/or
lines in order to get a turn on equipment; these waits tested even the most patient
fitness participant. Sites offered a mixture of scents such as sweat, hair spray,
perfumes and colognes, bad breath, cleaning fluids, or oils to repair machines. Fitness
centers were also replete with many sounds such as talk, laughter, shouts, directives
from trainers or instructors, grunts, music, tv’s, profound silence, the clanging of
weights, the whirs of equipment motors, and the thump of diligent and/or lethargic feet
on treadmills.
Though fitness sites indubitably share some familiar sights, sounds, and services,
sites can differ drastically in terms of the cost in membership, the amount and type o f
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exercise equipment, the available space in which to move, the services and luxuries
offered, the cars in the parking lot, the dress code and the clientele who bear it, the
level of noise, the speed and quality of equipment repairs, and more. Each time I
arrived at the two gyms, it was as if I was being reminded of how the quality of
produce in grocery stores can differ drastically depending on where one lives.
When I first arrived at what I will call Mid-Gym, an inexpensive fitness site that
boasted it is America’s most popular, my first workout was overcome with a stream of
loudspeaker announcements that came from the main desk. Some of these
announcements offered pieces o f information that were for staff, including “Jose and
Vicky please come to the supply room,” “Attention staff attention staff, Mario Alonzo
to the front lobby,” or “Attention staff, ladies locker-room to the front lobby.” Other
announcements were for members, such as “John Asoldo, please come to the front
desk. Jerri is here with your lunch,” “Whoever drives a white Toyota Corolla with the
following license plate, your headlights are on.” This site also hammered, cleaned, and
vacuumed near participants during workouts and mopped floors adjacent to members
when changing in the locker room.
By contrast, upon arrival at one o f the most expensive sites in the U.S. that I will
refer to as “Elite Gym, which boasted that it is America’s “finest” fitness complex,
there was silence. This site never made any voice announcements, did not clean or
repair the main gym in an intrusive way, had thick, plush carpeting in the locker room
which was vacuumed late at night, and stated in its literature that the club was a
respite from work and did not allow members to be paged or interrupted. Messages
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were taken and kept at the front desk if participants needed to know who tried to
reach them. As research progressed, I soon understood why some clubs had members
who enjoyed “protection” from being contacted while working out while others had to
tolerate a consistent level of noise.
Elite Gvm
The drive up to Elite Gym revealed a thick hoard of shiny red and black luxury
vehicles such as Mercedes, BMW’s, Lexuses, a healthy showing o f Jaguars, Porches,
and Infinity’s, an occasional Bently or Rolls Royce, and a scattering o f more popular
and upscale family vehicles such as Toyota Camrys. Parking options were numerous
and many required pay, such as a covered multi-level parking lot adjacent to the site,
valet parking, and side streets which had metered parking spots. Other free parking
spaces were available on nearby side streets farther away from the main building— one
or two hour spots were designated. Walking closer to the main entrance, just outside
the main doors of the massive, white building which spanned several blocks, a podium
appeared. Around the podium stood at least a half dozen Latino men in white pants
and white shirts who chatted and waited for their next valet parking customer.
Members here who desired valet parking were politely greeted, their car keys were
swiftly gathered, and a Latino man would begin a hurried cadence to pick up or park
their car. Also on the sidewalk directly outside the entrance/exit were club members
who were finished working out and were waiting for their car to be returned to them.
Members often chatted on cell phones outside the club’s doors as they waited.
Conversations I overheard on cell phones were often about work for instance, “can
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you tell Jack that the report is in the manila envelope in my desk in the top right hand
drawer,” or family check in’s, for example, “Hi honey. I’m at the club. The guy’s
getting my car now. I’ll stop to pick up dinner and be home after that.” A car wash
and “detailing service,” also sustained by Latino men, was available around the comer
and offered, among its many possibilities, a thirteen dollar car wash and a one hundred
and thirty dollar complete auto detail.
During the week, numerous participants entered “the club” with their lean, toned
bodies draped in luxurious, silky, work clothes which were impressively tailored and
pressed. Outfits were complete with gleaming accessories, shined shoes, expensive
leather bags and briefcases. Some participants carried clothing on their arm which was
still covered in plastic, freshly pressed and picked up from the dry cleaners. A much
smaller number of participants entered and exited during the week in a sampling of the
latest colorful, bright, often lycra or silky workout clothing, except on the weekends
when it was the norm to enter the club in fitness gear. Members were mostly white,
with a small scattering of black men, and a very small number o f black women,
Latino/a men and women, and Asian men and women.
After pulling on a heavy, tall, clear glass door, I watched a neatly groomed desk
clerk, often white (who wore all white), greet participants and electronically scan
membership cards. When cards were returned to members, desk employees stated the
participants’ first names back to them and returned it with a smile. A plush lavender
couch was off to the right side o f the main desk, and several lavish cafeterias,
restaurants with spacious seating areas, a bar, and a gigantic t.v. screen were beyond
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and to the right of the front desk. The first day I arrived, I waited on the lavender
couch, and after waiting twenty minutes, I was greeted by the membership manager.
He was white, wore a white shirt, black pleated slacks, shiny black slip-on shoes, and
asked me as he smiled and firmly shook my hand if I had an “appointment.” When I
said no, he asked me in a rather disapproving tone, “did you just walk in off the
street?” I wondered if he meant to ask the question as if I’d walked in as a homeless
person, or if it was his way of letting me know I had displayed improper etiquette by
not making an appointment. When I apologized and stated that I had often driven by
the club and had been meaning to make an appointment, but was excited enough to be
shown around that I just stopped in, his tone softened. He offered me a tour of the
“facilities.” During the tour, he asked me where I lived and when I replied, he smiled
broadly and said “I’m not that familiar with that area...so that must be a nice area for
someone your age to live in, then?” He then asked me about the “kind o f work” I did,
and I told him I was studying for my Ph.D in Sociology. When he asked me “how
much longer,” I was surprised at his knowledge of the process and replied “a few
years.” He told me that “it would be nice to pamper yourself here after all that hard
work you’ve done.” After a tour, he invited me to the back offices and we sat in a
small, windowless room with white walls. There, I soon found out that it costs more
than twelve hundred dollars “down” to join and an additional one hundred twenty-
eight dollars per month, unless I elected to have the more pricey “executive
membership.” “Executive” members paid substantially more in terms of initial dollars
“down” and also the per month fee and had their own privileges. Some of these
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privileges included free access to racket ball courts (normally a fee was assessed for its
use), and a private locker-room area housed within the main locker-room which was
equipped with an electronically coded entrance system that kept out “regular”
members. While other clubs differentiated members by whether they have access to
one site or many sites across the country, this was the only site that I had ever seen
which hierarchicalized membership under the same roof in this manner, and had the
resources to support it.
Soon, the membership manager, in his crisp, white shirt leaned across the desk. In
his hands were a collection o f membership cards with pictures of easily recognizable
actresses, musicians, and athletes.1 3 He stated that these are some people who
worked out or work out now at the club. He then leaned back and asked me if I was
“into real estate or mutual funds.” When I said yes to mutual funds, he provided me
with a list of top magazines for tips and information so as to “maximize my investment
potential,” and told me which periodicals he subscribed to and liked. He then asked
me if I was a “morning person,” to which I replied “sometimes.” He then informed me
of club “networking opportunities” through special breakfasts which took place in the
early morning hours at the club. When I asked exactly what people did at “networking
breakfasts,” he explained to me that individuals attended in order to swap information
to further their company, career progress, or to “flush in fresh business ideas.”
13
I also went through tours of numerous other local clubs. Two other clubs also used celebrities’
membership cards or pictures, claiming that they were or are members. Perhaps this is a tactic used
to increase membership, although at “Elite Gym,” I did spot several prominent athletes and others
who would be considered widely recognizable by the general public.
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After joining the club, I was immediately sent a hand written personal thank you for
joining along with a newsletter and some club literature. After this, consistent doses
of literature arrived— often in newsletter formats, the first o f which assumed that
members worked for a major corporation. One brochure read: “When a company
transfers you out...you say you miss the club most.” After becoming more familiar
with some o f the surroundings, services and equipment, I understood more about what
would be “missed.”
While many fitness sites have a simple juice bar or snack area, the elite club had a
formal sit down restaurant, a bar, and also a more informal cafe style restaurant. The
restaurant menus, including the more informal cafe, were often considered exotic and
were specifically advertised as very “healthy” and/or “low fat.” Menu items such as no
fat turkey burritos, vegetarian spinach wraps, Asian vegetable salads, stir fries, Cajun
chicken breasts, sushi, and yogurt smoothies were often offered. Once past the buzz
of the restaurants, there was a long walkway to the locker-room, and on the way, the
surroundings felt like a cross between a fantasy cruise ship and a lavish shopping mall.
First, one passed a sport and fitness store, then an upscale hair salon; next, a glass
enclosed, small “women’s gym,” and lastly, a massage, facial, and skin care products
store. There was also a small lobby area along the walkway which had several deep,
soft green leather chairs, and a few small square tables. The tables had black phones
attached to them which bulged with yellow credit card scanners. The phones were
permanently bolted to the tables. This lobby area seemed to serve several purposes, as
individuals often sat here to talk on the phone in their business or fitness wear, took
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care o f young children while waiting for a spouse, caught up with friends or
acquaintances while snacking or reading, or sat and watched fitness participants walk
by. Since the distribution of male and female members was slightly skewed (60% men
40% women), there were moments when all of the chairs were filled with men who at
times provided an inspection and surveillance o f the women who walked by adhering
to the latest conception of ideal femininity. Complete with “mmmm!” and small cat
calls, the long space between the main desk and the locker room at times had the feel
of a gauntlet, or what some might feel is a form o f public harassment (Gardner, 1995).
There was another desk prior to reaching the locker rooms where membership
cards were dropped off. Once cards were handed to an employee, in return, one
received a key for a locker. Participants were asked for their preferences regarding
lockers, where the response was often “upper” or “lower,”or some members more
specifically requested their favorite row, location, or locker such as “near the shower,”
“in the 200's,” or “locker 118 please.” Requests for free razors could also be made
here. The men’s locker room was off to the left o f this desk, while the women’s
locker room was off to the right. A few times, while handing a worker my card to get
a locker key, I was surprised to look up to see famous basketball stars and lawyers
standing nearby. Finally, arriving at the expansive, well-lit locker room, my feet were
greeted comfortably after sinking into lush, thick, soft carpeting. Upon entering the
locker room, the spaciousness, bright lights, and plush surroundings felt like a mixture
between a Hollywood dressing room and an upscale hotel. There were two
soundproof payphone booths off to the right, and just beyond these there were wide
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stretches of mirrors, bright lights, and places to sit in front of the mirror. A small side
room was off to the right of the first row of lockers and in it, there was a huge screen
TV, silk flowers, and a peach colored, firm couch. Along the walls, there were
plugged in blow dryers, canisters of mouthwash, skin creme, cotton balls, and hair
spray, and built into the walls were shelves piled high with thick, neatly folded white
towels available for use. Some women took three or four at a time, most took two.
Above each locker room row hung a small tv, and past the last row, there was a huge,
even intimidating electronic scale with a giant rectangular platform on which to stand.
At the back of the room, there was a steaming jacuzzi full of foamy white, rumbling,
warm water and a sauna, along with a few long, white lounging/recline beach chairs.
Individual women often slept or read here, and on the weekends, a spot in a reclining
chair was hard to come by. Locker rows were spacious rectangular areas with
beautiful wooden benches in the middle. Each locker lane had double rows of light tan
wooden lockers, and inside, some had convenient hangers in addition to the hooks
provided.
As part of its expensive membership fees, Elite Gym provided members with
numerous “freebies” including free flu shots, a complimentary “lifestyle analysis and
health screening” including total cholesterol, and health risk assessment and
consultation. No other site I’ve seen has offered this. The site also offered
complimentary injury assessments, a free physical therapy assessment, and had a health
care center next door. Other “freebies” were also abundant such as one golf lesson for
no charge, Vi hour nutritional consultation and “eating strategy session” with a
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registered dietician/nutritionist, free protein bars, complimentary champagne at New
Year’s, complimentary bottles of wine when eating lunch or dinner at the club cafe, a
free martial arts training session, and discounts for the many services. While all local
sites offered a free fitness assessment and free or discounted personal training session,
Elite Gym’s fitness assessment was fully computerized, and took place behind a semi
private desk. Mid-Gym, by contrast, often handled groups of two to four at once and
took place in equipment rooms, in front of fitness participants who could watch
members get measured with tape measures and skin calipers. Elite Gym also had what
I might call various “second shift” savers (Hochschild, 1989) known as “holiday
helper” and “party ideas” which pleaded for members to “let us take the anxiety
away!” Here, a member rent the club to cater holidays or special events— the club
would set up, serve the meal, and clean up afterwards.
Leaving the locker room, climbing a long set of stairs, one arrives at one o f the
largest and finest array of weights and cardiovascular equipment available. Unlike
other gyms which have fifteen to fifty cardiovascular pieces of equipment, this club
had hundreds. Even after my fifteen plus years o f gym experience, some o f the
equipment was being introduced to my eyes for the first time, like the new “ellipsis”
that arrived in 1997 which combined the movements o f both skiing and stairmaster
machines. Other machines new to me at the time included a skate machine, and
several massive, black, rolling staircases which more accurately resembled “real” stair
climbing than traditional stair machines. The weight room was equally awesome and
expansive, with a vast, mirrored free weight wall covered with piles of shiny chrome
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dumbbells, the newest line o f Cybex/Icarian weight equipment, and numerous stations
for squats, cable flies, pullups, and dips. Two soundproof spacious aerobics studios,
several racquetball courts, a full length basketball court, and a full length swimming
pool were also available and were equally impressive. The pool was surrounded by
magnificent glass walls and a breathtaking view of the local area, and had water that
had just the right mix of chemicals so as to never bum the eyes or skin. Drifting
through the air was soft classical music which floated by so as to flush away stress and
soothe each stroke. Outside, there was a spacious sundeck, and in the summer, drink
and food service was available. Or, alternatively, should one want to privately rent out
the entire pool deck area for a dinner or reception, this space was available for one
thousand dollars, plus set up fees and food costs. If this wasn’t enough room,
however, the club restaurant space or the entire first floor was also rentable for several
thousand dollars.
The layout o f space at Elite Gym included an upstairs and downstairs level which
were “open” to one another; i.e., the top floor was arranged in a set o f two rectangles,
resembling a figure-eight, “overlooking” the bottom floor. Nearly every participant on
the upper level could view many of the people on the lower level. On the top level,
there were a variety o f cardiovascular pieces of equipment arranged throughout the
space— stairmasters, treadmills, upright and recline bikes, skate machines,
versaclimbers, arm ergometers, ellipsis machines, and some sit-up boards, leg-raise
platforms, and a small number of leg and abdomen nautilus machines. On the bottom
level, there was an array of nautilus equipment, free weights, and pulley weight
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stations. Not only could cardiovascular users look down and see weight lifters, but if
weight lifters looked up, most of them could see the members on cardiovascular
equipment above them. Since weight equipment was more often male-dominated
territory and cardiovascular equipment was usually equally split between men and
women (or, depending on the time of day, was at least partly female-dominated), this
arrangement led to women on the top level looking down at (mostly) men on the
bottom level, a reversal o f the conventional gendered power politics of the gaze (Kane
& Disch, 1997). Many other clubs’ spatial arrangements had a number of small rooms
that felt more private, had fewer mirrors, and seemed less conducive to acts of
watching one another. Other gyms I visited were more compartmentalized and less
“open” with spaces (such as Mid-Gym), but eventually, even Mid-Gym renovated,
knocked all the walls down, and created a more open space which was increasingly
conducive to seeing and being seen.
Race, class, and gender stratification were rampant in the club’s occupational
structure and membership. Membership managers were three quarters white men, one
quarter white women, personal trainers were twenty five percent female, seventy-five
percent male, and o f the men, sixty percent were of color and forty percent were
white. Cleaning tasks and car services were reserved entirely for Latina/o women and
men, respectively.
The team of personal trainers and services was immense and was much more
popular at this site than others. While Mid-Gym had between two-six of six total
trainers on site at any given time, there were twelve to twenty of a total of sixty
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trainers from Elite Gym on the floor at any given time. Large eight-by-ten black and
white glamour shots o f personal trainers rested on a wall in the weight room near the
massive “fitness desk.” Behind the desk, several trainers buzzed on the phone,
performed fitness assessments, and talked and laughed with members and other
trainers. Members often stood in front of the wall of glamour shots to peer at their
future one-on-one helper. Or, members could find out more about a new personal
trainer since each one had a chance to be featured on a weekly bulletin board placed at
the top of the stairs prior reaching the equipment rooms. These boards featured
quotes from personal trainers touting moral overtures on goals, hard work, results,
accountability, and payoffs. “No-one has ever drowned in his or her sweat,” one
trainer advised, while another was quoted as saying “work hard and you’ll see results
and you’ll want to come back for more!” Presumably placed there to motivate
participants and drum up personal training business, trainers’ philosophies eerily
reflected the pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps language so often seen in the popular
discourse on poverty. This discourse is also used in fitness concerning ridding oneself
o f an undesirable body, or in sport when coaches in locker rooms use it to motivate
athletes. Trainers didn’t just talk the talk, but they walked it with exquisitely proud
and rigid posture, and lean and muscular bodies. Male personal trainers sported
bulging biceps massive upper bodies while female trainers had tight tummies, a six
pack of abs, a trimly toned lower body, and a range o f biceps. Trainers frequently
worked out on site, moving throughout the space as expert examples of what hard
work can bring (to some, perhaps). They also walked around the club, trained clients,
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answered questions, and tried to collect clients or develop good relationships with
people who might know of someone who needs a personal trainer. Trainers could also
be overheard telling fitness participants in a casual, encouraging or punitive matter
how they were doing with their weight lifting “form,” a way o f monitoring the
“proper” execution of each exercise. Members paid sixty-five dollars for a one hour
session with trainers.
The mostly white participants at Elite Gym wore fitness gear which was a sampling
of the latest and greatest sneakers, commodified urban wear, flashy lycra wear, and
carried more props than at other sites, such as cd walk mans, cell phones, and
electronic heart monitors. While men at Elite Gym often shared the dress code of
other fitness sites— t-shirts or tank tops and gym shorts— men at Elite Gym also more
often wore tight bike shorts, long lycra tights, and full body lycra suits than men at
Mid Gym. While men often sported their large upper bodies in tank tops, showing
biceps and chest muscles, women’s wear was indubitably more revealing o f flesh and
fell into two primary categories in this setting. The first was matching
“aerobicizer/dance” wear, often with bodysuit and thong wear with short crop top
underneath, and the second tended to be short or long lycra tights with a half “crop
top” which revealed the abdomen and arms. Colorful, highly fashionable, tight and/or
revealing clothing which adhered to emphasized femininity was much more prominent
here than in other settings. Older women, overweight women, and those who did not
meet dominant ideals o f the young and lean also often wore revealing garments here.
Some o f the women who did not seem to meet dominant ideals preferred to use the
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women’s gym off to the side of the main entrance perhaps so as to not invite the
prominent gaze o f the masses in the main gym. Some stated that they merely wanted
more alone time, or did not enjoy the crowds in the main gym.
In my fieldnotes, I noted that I felt embarrassed by the degree o f sexualization
adhered to and perhaps expected o f the women in this site. I felt like I was a voyeur to
something that felt like a much “classier” publicly acceptable version of Frederick’s of
Hollywood lingerie where butt thongs, bras, and even lace fitness wear were not at all
unusual. I also found in the women’s locker room that thong underwear and were also
more prevalent here than at other sites. Other costly and purchasable signs of
emphasized femininity which were more prevalent here than at other settings were
blonde dyed hair, breast implants, tanning bed tans, face lifts, and skin lightening for
nonwhite participants. Freedman (1986) notes that while one in four women in the
U.S. are blonde, 5% stay so “naturally” after puberty. The remaining women dye their
hair in the hopes of retaining a valued marker of youth and beauty. The willingness of
participants to buy breast implants, or for nonwhite participants to change their hair or
skin color1 4 highlighted the ability to meet, define, and be defined by dominant ideals.
Plastic surgery for both men and women and face lifts also appeared to be more
popular and recognizable here than in other settings, though informal interviewing
better confirmed this. In listening to talk on site, plastic surgery was also a more
popular topic of conversation at Elite Gym, if only to talk about how some members
14
While I cannot say with 100% certainty that assumptions regarding physical charateristics were
correct, many women appeared to have darker roots than the rest of their hair color, and darker body
skin than facial or arm skin.
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felt it was ridiculous that other members paid for such exorbitant or unnecessary
expenditures. Indeed, as popular fitness ads suggest, these participants appeared to
“have it all.”
Mid-Gvm
A few miles away, the drive up to Mid-Gym, a much more popular (across
America) and drastically less expensive fitness site, provided a contrast. The available,
free parking lot1 5 near the building was accessible by turning directly into it from an
adjacent and busy North/South corridor through West Los Angeles. An alternative to
this which helped to avoid the bustle o f the main drag was to drive behind the building
using side streets which turn into the lot directly; this helped to avoid the line of cars
that sometimes collected outside the entrance. There were also some nearby
neighborhoods and side streets which allowed for free one to two hour street parking.
Upon arrival at the lot, cars were tightly packed and pressed into the parking lot with
family cars which look much more aged than Elite Gym, such as Hondas, Toyotas, and
Fords, coupled with a light scattering o f new and older luxury vehicles. The white
lines between some spots and the distance between lanes sometimes offered drivers a
challenging maneuver to get into or out of parking spots. A scattering of cars often
waited around the lot, with drivers who patiently hoped for the next member to soon
leave and give up their spot. It was not unusual to come out of the site and be
followed by a driver who yelled from his/her window “Are you leaving? Where are
15
One year after fieldwork ended, Mid-Gym instituted a fee to park in the club parking lot. The fee was
far smaller than the fee to park at Elite Gym’s covered lot.
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you parked?” Often, helpful fingers and hands motioned to drivers to follow members
to their car. Sometimes, members didn’t acknowledge the driver; perhaps they were
considered a nuisance. Approaching the large grey and red, brick and cement square
building, there were no valet parking podiums, no men offering valet service, and no
auto servicing and detailing found around the comer.
Among the stream of fitness participants who walked into and out of the site, few
were draped in silky work clothes, crisp pressed pants, or carried expensive leather
bags or briefcases. Few members hauled freshly pressed or dry cleaned suits or outfits
into the gym. Members were dressed in a wide array of workout or work clothing,
many had large and soft bodies, some were medium-sized, and even fewer were
obviously taut and fit. Many participants wore jeans, gym shorts, workout tights, and
t-shirts into the building. Several males wore blue work uniforms that had white name
tags with red or blue stitches on the top right corner of the shirt or jacket.
Approximately half of Mid-Gym’s members were white and half were people of
color.1 6 O f the people of color, a small handful spoke to one another and staff only in
Spanish, or with a mix of English and Spanish. A few staff members knew Spanish,
while most did not. Half o f the fitness participants were male and half were female.
Gender stats of who entered the building were kept in the comupter system daily, and I
would ask at the end of each research day.
16
After renovations, the percentage of people of color dropped to forty percent, while whites increased
to sixty percent. Perhaps this is correlated with the large increase in membership fees and the ways in
which race and class interact in U.S. society.
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After tugging on another heavy, darkened glass door, there was usually a small line
o f people waiting to have their cards scanned. Members were usually greeted by an
African-American or Latino(a) male or female employee dressed in the club’s dark
workout clothing. The desk where employees worked was not a grandiose place
where they stood and greeted members— it was merely a red, wooden, angled counter
top with a computer on it, and a nearby stool was available on which an employee sat.
Other workers were frequently nearby and talked to the employee who scanned
members cards; the desk worker didn’t necessarily look at the fitness participant as
he/she reached for cards, and never repeated their name as the card was swiped and
handed back.1 7 However, unlike Elite Gym which had a member’s picture imprinted
on the card, there was a rule that members had to show picture I.D. along with their
membership card, and sometimes workers enforced the rule and asked members to
show it. At Elite gym, if one’s dues were not up to date or if credit card charges had
been rejected for any reason, one received a discrete mailing asking for a (new) credit
card number or check payment. At Mid-Gym, if dues were not up to date, the
computer made a nasty noise, and members were hastily asked to step aside, where
there could then be a sudden and embarrassing meeting with management.
The first day I arrived, I stated that I was interested in joining and was asked to
stand “off to the side” of the desk since there was no formal waiting room in the lobby.
17
This too changed after the site was renovated— the new desk was much larger, faced the doors of the
club, members were greeted with direct eye contact, and members’ names were repeated back to them
after cards were swiped. Front desk workers were a mix of Latino men and white women after the
renovation.
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There was little standing room since members had to pass through the area to get to
locker rooms. A loudspeaker announcement was made for someone to come to main
desk concerning membership. An African-American man arrived in a few minutes,
firmly shook my hand and smiled, immediately asked me if I was interested in joining,
and offered me a tour of the site. After the tour, unlike Elite Gym which had asked me
if I was into real estate or mutual funds and told me about the networking breakfasts,
Mid Gym asked me if I would like a free cell phone (like some participants, I never
received it), and proceeded to tell me that if I lured another person to join within the
first few months o f my membership, it would be mine. Membership fees were thirty
five dollars down and eighteen dollars a month. However, after a three year
“contract” period was up, I could continue to stay a member for thirteen dollars a
month.1 8 Mid-Gym had three membership options. One membership offered access to
only one site, one offered membership to all Southern California sites, and one offered
a “gold” membership card with access to all franchises in the country if one upgraded
their membership.
After I pretended to be interested in joining many o f the local fitness clubs, I
learned that some clubs, like Mid-Gym offer a “contract” which asked for a specified
amount o f money “down” and a monthly payment over the period of the contract,
usually two-three years. When this kind of contract “expired,” the member could
continue participation on the site for a much smaller monthly fee. Other clubs, like
18
After two years of fieldwork, Mid Gym renovated and upped their fees to nineteen dollars down and
twenty-nine a month. One year after field work ended this price went up to one hundred dollars down
and forty dollars per month.
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Elite Gym, had “month to month,” memberships which did not require a contract, but
did require an often larger sum of money “down” and a month-to-month payment
which could cease whenever the member wanted to end the membership. When I
asked several membership directors across several gyms about the difference between
the two, I found that each manager cited the benefits o f whatever method their club
offered while citing only the faults of the other method. Those managers whose clubs
offered month to month contracts expressed that month to month memberships don’t
put the fitness participant “at risk of being locked into a contract” if the club “goes
under.” These membership directors also expressed that month-to-month was “more
flexible” for the member since they could stop membership and payment if a personal’s
financial or personal life situation changed. Membership managers from clubs who
offered contracts cited the benefits of contracts as not forcing members to put down
large sums of money up front, and as benefitting the member from reduced
membership dues after a specified period of time. After fifteen years o f many different
types o f fitness memberships, I had seen the pros and cons o f both. Several Mid-Gym
members complained about the fact that Mid-Gym was still collecting a monthly fee
after the several year contract period had ended. Other interviewees who were once
Mid-Gym members complained that the contract period at Mid-Gym was too long,
that they wanted to get out of the contract prior to its end, yet were frustrated that
they could not do so. Members with contracts often could not get out of the contract
even if they had moved (as long as they were within a fifty mile radius of another club
site, they were expected to keep their contract), were ill, liked another club better, or
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in the case of some other fitness sites, if the club itself was “going under.” During
informal interviews at an all women’s gym, two women stated that they were even
willing to pay their way out o f the Mid-Gym contract; they just “wanted it to end.”
Surely, the disappointment in Mid-Gym could have been due to the fact that Mid
Gym’s contract money was not frequently reinvested in the club. When I first entered
the club, the space felt tight, the ceilings were low, lighting was dull, hallways were
narrow, equipment was crammed into workout rooms, and I clearly recognized the
weight equipment as being decades old. In 1998,1 asked one of the sales managers
the last time equipment was updated, and she replied “sometime in the seventies.” The
space truly looked like the 1970's with its bright orange and red paint on the walls,
shiny chrome nautilus equipment and flourescent lighting. Unlike Elite Gym, there
were no long walkways, lounges, massage parlors, sport stores, large screen t.v.’s,
bars, sit down restaurants, membership cards traded in for locker keys, or towel
services. Upon entering the site, there were several employee offices off to either side
o f the main desk that had a glass window panel as one of its walls. There were a few
flat, soft, red benches to the left of the membership desk near the exit. There was a
glass wall at the back of the club where a pool with short, wide lanes was located,
along with a public sauna off to the right side o f the pool. The pool was smaller than
most, had fewer lanes, was much more crowded, was filled with wide, fleshy
individuals with grey hair, and had no music playing. The water was greenish and
cloudy and left a slippery film on one’s skin when finished swimming. The locker
rooms were a hop, skip, and a jump away from the main desk. In the locker room,
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there were small, old white tiles lining the floor, and the brightly colored red and blue
lockers made the room feel more like a high school locker room than a fitness club.
Several lockers had orange keys sticking out o f them, and for twenty-five or fifty
cents, members without locks could be sure that their items would be locked up. An
old payphone with thin metal buttons hung on the wall, and there were no cotton balls,
hair spray or skin creme canisters, hand held dryers, or towels available. The only
dryers were wall dryers which were easily recognizable as those used for the hands,
except that they were raised higher up on the wall. For several months, near the
dryers, there was a brown paper bag ripped up and plastered to the wall with silver
duct tape over it which read “DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE” in black magic marker.
A regular sized scale one might find in a doctor’s office stood at the back wall, and at
times, a piece of white lined notebook paper on the wall next to the scale read “please
do not move the scale, it is leveled.” Near the scale were the bathrooms which had
four evergreen stalls, where smells and scents of sour cleaning fluid wafted through the
air, and thin squares of toilet paper rested in the stalls. At the top o f a flight of stairs
outside the locker room, there was a small juice and snack bar with three small white
tables and six chairs available. Protein shakes, nutrition and granola bars, fruit, soft
drinks, juice, and other snacks were available at a more reasonable price then Elite
Gym. Nearby, there were two glass enclosed refrigerators filled with drinks, a soda
machine, and a juice machine.
Moving into the workout space, instead of wide, open spaces which incite a politics
of looking, the equipment rooms were more separate and numerous. They were also
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highly gendered. There were two rooms which consisted mainly o f nautilus equipment
which also had a small number of cardiovascular pieces (stairmasters and bikes) placed
around the edges, and a small selection of chrome dumbbells. The only mirrors
available were found near the dumbbells. One o f the rooms had nautilus equipment
covered in a soft blue/green covering, and one had a pinkish/burgundy covering. The
club was originally set up to have a “men’s side” (which was the blue/green side) and a
“women’s side,” (which was the pinkish/burgundy side) which subsequently became
“co-ed” in 1998, yet it remained highly sex segregated throughout my time there.
Some men (one to four at any given time) traversed the boundaries and ventured into
the old “women’s gym,” often to lift weights, and a smaller number of women (one to
three) ventured into the old “men’s gym,” often to do cardiovascular work. Very
small numbers of men ventured into the women’s side to do cardiovascular work (one,
once in awhile) while very few women (one, even more infrequently) went to the
men’s side to lift weights. Both the men’s and women’s sides had floors covered in
tan, tattered carpet which was so worn and dirty in places that eventually, pieces were
cut out and replaced; the new carpet pieces were speckled with a number of different
colors that didn’t seem to come close to matching the old carpet. Sprawled along the
back walls were cheesy 1970 style bright flamingo pink neon lights with the words
“Mid-Gym” in script. Halfway through fieldwork, half of the lights on the women’s
side were out and stayed out for several weeks. Wall paint, also reminiscent of the
1970's rested on the upper 1/3 of the walls in stripes o f orange, lavender, red, aqua,
purple and yellow. Traveling up the short flight o f stairs, there was a third equipment
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room upstairs which contained all CY equipment (treadmills and stairmasters), and a
fourth room, also upstairs, designated as the “advanced training” weight room, which
was primarily free weights, and was nearly always mostly male.
Weight equipment in the U.S. has gone through several waves. Free weights aside,
the first wave was universal weight sets which were available in the late 60's and were
essentially considered “multi-stations” where one can perform numerous exercises at
one station o f equipment. These were popular until nautilus machines arrived in the
80's, where individual multi-station exercises were essentially broken out into many
different exercises, and each one became a separate piece of equipment. Nautilus was
followed in the late 80's by air cam nautilus, an air pressure version (without a weight
stack) of the original nautilus. Finally, Cybex and Icarian, “improved” versions of
nautilus and universal stations moved in the 90's, and these were the stations available
at the expensive site. The weight equipment available at Mid-Gym was very old, and
was primarily a mix of the tinkery universal multi-stations found in many public high
schools, and the first wave of nautilus. Cardiovascular equipment was also more
marginal than other clubs I have seen— there were older waves o f upright and recline
bicycles available, and “generic” stairmasters which were a bargain version of the
“original” were the only ones present. The pedals of bikes and stairmasters were
slippery at times from cleaning fluids, and one’s feet slid off o f them if not careful. At
times, I thought one had to be more careful than they should have to be. Despite the
fact that Mid-Gym had far less equipment than Elite Gym, many more pieces of the
equipment had signs on them such as “Please be patient while I am out of order”
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indicating that repairs were being made. Indeed, when I complained to management
about the generic machines and the high level o f repairs required, they stated that
millions of dollars were currently being spent on renovations since they last replaced
equipment in the 1970's. Perhaps in part to manage the embarrassment o f this fact,
there was a sign in the lobby next to a model o f what the newly renovated club would
look like, and it read “to help you improve your image, we will be improving ours. The
‘new’ club promises to look as good as you.”
At times, members were fed up with the waiting for renovations and left the club to
seek out yet another gym membership. When I joined a women’s gym not too far
away from Mid-Gym, several white women there who claimed to be past members of
Mid Gym stated that they had left, giving reasons like “its dirty” and “has horrible
equipment.” These women also made statements which contained class connotations
regarding Mid-Gym’s clientele, and one said that she “felt like a prison ward had been
let out” at Mid-Gym and that she and other women didn’t feel “safe” there.
Mid-Gym’s participants had a small scattering of those who dressed in the latest
and greatest sneakers and matching outfits, but much more often, participants wore t-
shirts and shorts with a mix o f dark and light, new and old sneakers, and sometimes,
hiking boots or work shoes. Men here tended to wear t-shirts and gym shorts (and
tanks tops and shorts) while women tended to wear long tights and a t-shirt, with a
scattering of crop tops and tights, and a rare matching lycra body suit and thong.1 9 I
19
After site renovations, many more women wore these. This may be linked to interactions between
race, class, and emphasized femininity.
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observed that a range of ten to fifty percent of the women were dressed in matching
flashy lycra wear with thongs that was seen so prominently in Elite Gym. In the
advanced training room, which was male-dominated much of the time, the dress was
again shorts and t-shirts, with a smattering of large baggy pants also indicative of
bodybuilder culture. Tank tops so prominently seen in Elite Gym were banned from
the advanced training room at Mid-Gym according to a sign posted outside the main
door. A larger proportion of elderly people were on this site, some with tom tights,
stained shirts, and clothing that often didn’t come close to matching. Some women o f
color and some elderly women did not wear specialized fitness clothing but instead
wore cotton pants and flowered or print cotton shirts, flat dress shoes, flip flops, or
hiking boots while they rode the bikes or lifted weights. Not many women had dyed
their hair blonde or had easily recognizable tans, a g-string was a rarity in the locker
room, and breast implants were either hidden under baggy t-shirts or were less often
suspected.
The race and gender of the occupational structure was again rather distinct. The
membership manager and sales managers were both African-American women. The
workers responsible for cleaning the facility were all Latina women (and one Latino
man). The personal training staff o f six was two-thirds men, one third women. O f the
male personal trainers, half were white and half were men of color. The club’s
regional manager was an African-American man.
The team of personal trainers and services was not nearly as extensive or available
as it was at Elite Gym. While Elite Gym had a buzz of activity going on among their
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staff and trainers and had a central location for a fitness desk, behind which many were
available, it was difficult to even find a personal trainer at Mid-Gym. When I asked to
speak with a trainer, several times, there wasn’t one on site. Eventually, Mid-Gym had
a steady staff of approximately five or six personal trainers. There were no bulletin
boards o f featured quotes from trainers. At times, trainers perfectly fit the part of buff
physical superstar while other trainers appeared to be in worse shape than some o f the
clients. O f these trainers, one could have easily mistaken them from someone walking
into the club if it weren’t for their personal training uniform. One of the interviews I
had with a training coordinator indicated that trainers had a widely varying level of
certification until recently, when all trainers were required to be ACE (American
Council on Exercise) certified, a seven week course that did not require a practicum.
At Elite Gym, trainers were required not only to have a college degree related to the
fitness industry, such as kinesiology or sports marketing, but its standardized
requirements also called for certification. Many more trainers at Elite Gym were
certified in NASM-National Academy of Sports Medicine or EFP A-Intemational
Fitness Professional’s Association. NASM required a practicum in addition to the
written exam, and was seen as more “professional” than ACE. Members at Mid-Gym
paid the club twenty to fifty dollars for a one hour session, depending on the trainer’s
certification.
Map o f Gendered Spaces:
Examining formal maps showing a detailed layout of the two sites aids an
understanding of the description and analysis of gendered spaces and some of the
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movements through space that are analyzed in Chapter Four. Two maps are included
in the appendix. The codes 1, 2, or 3 on the maps indicate whether spaces were 1) all
male or all female, 2) mostly male or mostly female, and 3) fully co-ed mixed spaces.
As can be seen in the map o f Mid-Gym (see Appendix Four), only the pool, snack and
juice bar, and main cv room were fully mixed co-ed spaces. The advanced training
room and men’s gym were mostly male spaces, and the women’s gym and aerobics
room were mostly female spaces. Only the locker rooms were all male or all female.
Elite Gym’s range o f co-ed spaces (see Appendix Five) was much larger and
included the hair salon, sporting goods store, bar, restaurant, cafe, large screen tv area,
and much o f the main gym. Elite Gym offered many more specifically co-ed fitness
spaces such as the pool, spinning classes, cardiovascular room, aerobics rooms, weight
room, and also had numerous co-ed sites for consumption. Spaces of consumption
also were offered on a co-ed basis, such as skin care, facial, and massage rooms, and
the hair salon but these were often frequented by women, but were not restricted to
women. While several of these co-ed spaces produced more opportunities for co-ed
interactions, sites for consumption were often visited for periods o f time on the way
into or out of the site, and not a lot of social contact took place aside from
client/server exchanges in these areas. Though Elite Gym indeed had more geographic
opportunities for co-ed interaction, Elite Gym and Mid-Gym had similar patterns
surrounding the use o f core free weight spaces, and a similar use of space surrounding
single sex or mostly one sex space (core free weight spaces, basketball, racket ball,
were mostly male, aerobics was mostly female). In both Mid-Gym and Elite Gym,
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aerobics rooms were mostly female with a small handful of men, but Elite Gym
contained a slightly higher proportion of men in several o f its classes than Mid-Gym
(30-40%-vs-l 1-20%). This was the case despite the fact that the proportion of men to
women at Elite Gym was 60-40, while at Mid-Gym it was 50-50. Or, perhaps a higher
proportion of men in aerobics classes at Elite Gym signals that constructions of
hegemonic masculinity among more privileged and powerful men allow for a wider
range of expressions o f masculinity (Messner, 1997). The only formally designated all
male space at Elite Gym was the men’s locker room, while the women’s gym and the
women’s locker room were designated as all female spaces. Unlike Mid-Gym, no men
used the women’s gym at Elite Gym during the entire period o f observations.
Material and Corporeal Privilege
O f course, the cost one pays is related to the general quality of life at the club.
There were drastic differences in the amount and cleanliness o f space, class schedules
and equipment, ability to find space (or wait in line) on equipment, opportunity for
quiet time, and level of luxury across clubs. One might think that the resources
available on the two sites, the cost differential between the two sites, the largely black
and Latino population in Mid-Gym’s advanced training room, the fact that fifty
percent of the membership was people o f color, coupled with a largely white clientele
in Elite Gym signals possible class differences in the sites’ membership. Indeed, signs
posted in Mid-Gym were etched with “hints” about classed etiquette, dress codes, and
more. Perhaps indicative of the influence of working class bodybuilding culture, Mid-
Gym had warnings in each weight room about the health hazards from the use of
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steroids. Mid-Gym also had a plethora of etiquette-like directions on signs, some
which even seemed insulting, such as “do not make loud or strange noises while
training,” and “personal hygiene is a must— this includes only freshly laundered work
out clothes.” Outside the advanced training center, there was a “dress code” listed
which included:
— No barebacks, midriffs, or chest.
— No cut off sleeves, tank tops, or mesh shirts
— 1/4 length sleeves are the minimum allowed.
— Rolled up 1/4 length with cap sleeves are not acceptable.
— No sandals, bare feet, or stocking feet.
— Everyone must wear rubber soled athletic or gym shoes on the gym
floor.
— No worn out, stained, or tattered attire.
It seemed unfathomable that Elite Gym, more reminiscent of a fantasy cruise ship than
a gym would offer its members directionals about stains, noises, or whether or not
their fit mid-sections were allowed to be seen. One of the only signs posted at Elite
Gym asked members to limit their stay on equipment to thirty minutes when others
were waiting— this wait was twenty minutes in the pool. Perhaps indicative o f historical
associations made between upper middle class status, and civility -vs- working class
status and incivility (Bourdieu, 1984), the men and women in Mid-Gym more often
received institutionalized warnings in the form o f signs and directionals than did the
men and women at Elite Gym.
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While the sites do not provide perfect correlates to class, since numerous wealthy
individuals can afford and do join an inexpensive fitness center, different sites do
provide insight into mechanisms o f material and corporeal privilege, and who might be
kept out from Elite Gym’s privileged site. Those with less financial privilege were
certainly kept out or seriously deterred by the cost of the lavish site. Yet, privilege is
not solely made up of differential access to material and informational resources
available to members, but also what might be called corporeal privilege. Corporeal
privilege is the pain and benefit of being defined by and defining the latest bodily ideal,
having the time to “work on” and meet the latest bodily standard, and having the
ability to participate in high levels of consumption to publicly acquire and reveal
valued external and material markers o f bodies. One’s relative degree o f privilege—
whether between women and men or among women— certainly affected how much
time one can spend on working out. In both sites, for heterosexually married women
who were busy in the paid labor force and faced a second shift, getting to the gym was
at times an impossible task. Furthermore, inequality within groups o f women can help
more elite women meet bodily ideals more easily. For instance, many Latina
immigrant women in Los Angeles frequently care for elite (often) white women’s
children during the day. While these women work for pay in the homes of upper
middle class women (Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila, 1997), more privileged women free
up time to go to the gym. Thus, while inequities between men and women exist in
terms o f a gendered division o f labor, inequality between women helps keeps
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housework in the realm o f women’s work while allowing privileged women the
opportunity to buy off the second shift, finding time to work towards the latest
corporeal ideal.
At the same time, there were women in both sites who used their bodies in the paid
labor force so as to ensure their livelihood. Toned, not-too-muscular women in Elite
Gym who used their bodies in the paid labor force more often adhered to middle and
upper middle class bodily ideals than did the women in Mid-Gym. Women in Elite
Gym who used their bodies to make a living were often a part of the fitness or film
industiy (e.g aerobics instructor, personal trainer, stunt woman) while women in Mid-
Gym who did so more often worked in construction, landscaping, firefighting, and
police work, where it may be purposeful for bodies to be larger and more muscular to
get difficult physical labor done.2 0 While the former were often moderate lifters and
the latter were more often heavy lifters, negotiations concerning emphasized femininity
were still paramount to both. This will be described more in Chapters Five and Six.
The Third Shift
A very large number o f women in Elite Gym exemplified the latest bodily ideal that
featured a slender, toned, and muscular but not-too-big, tight, curvy, flat-tummied
woman. In interviews, women of many ages talked about getting “longer and leaner,”
despite the toll that being late thirty, forty or fifty something— or having spent many
hours at a desk or having birthed numerous children can have on the body. Several
20
This is not to say that personal training and aerobics do not require difficult physical labor, but rather
that these fields have aesthetic requirements for women that likely reflect emphasized femininity
more than construction or firefighting might.
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women at Elite Gym indeed bought off the second shift so as to ensure that they
adhered to current bodily requirements. But the time and work it takes to achieve and
maintain this body can be described as a third shift for heterosexually married women
who work in the paid labor force and carry out a second shift of child care or
household responsibilities (Dworkin & Messner, 1999). Several women from Elite
Gym expressed relief over their ability to come to the gym a few days to “squeeze in a
workout” since they had a housekeeper. Another considered “upping” her
housekeeper’s work to twice a week or more to allow her to be able to have a
personal trainer two days a week. She felt that those two days with a trainer were “a
luxury” because she “didn’t have to think about things” when her personal trainer
loaded and stacked weights and “decided everything” about her workout for her. By
contrast, in Mid-Gym, I spoke with many more women who just hoped to “get
healthy” or lose large amounts of weight they had gained in recent years. For instance,
a large, forty-eight year old Latina woman who cared for her sick husband at home,
stated that it was “ok to be fat here (pointing to her upper body), but here too much”
(pointing to her lower body). For her, making it in to work out once a week~a few
times month— for an hour was “good.” This was true of other white women and
women of color who I met who were working single mothers raising children alone, or
who didn’t work in the paid labor force and had to care for a number of relatives living
at home. These women were among those who did not express an awareness o f a
glass ceiling or upper limit on their quest for strength. Resources for child care were
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also better for women in Elite Gym, where pre and postpartum aerobics classes (with
children placed at the front of the workout room) and child care were also available.
While some may argue that anyone can have a credit card and purchase the external
markers o f wealth which can potentially merge the bodily “looks” o f upper class status
with other classes (Bourdieu, 1978), it is likely that there are relatively few participants
who can afford the time, cost, and energy to carry out the tasks associated with
success in yet another aspect of the American Dream. “Successful” fit bodies become
visible markers that individuals can indeed attain physical, if not corporate, success and
“have it all” in America, as fitness ads suggest, masking the less obvious role that
economic inequality, structures o f power and privilege, or gendered and classed
divisions of labor have on amounts o f leisure time or how it is spent (Cole & Hribar,
1995; Glassner, 1990). When successful, the elite club may have members who more
often say it was they who individually did it. For instance, a woman in this setting
explained that she has come to the club every day for fourteen years and that she “can
have anything she wants— boyfriend, job, body—anything.” It is indeed the more
privileged Americans whose beliefs in the American Dream are not shaken and thus
are more likely to internalize the belief that one can succeed at bodily perfection too
(Glassner, 1992). Only particular bodies are emphasized and reinforced by a certain
kind of privileged consumption, though ideals can be and are internalized (and
rejected) across social categories. With this privilege also comes a few personal costs,
such as subjecting oneself to intense physical regimens which can be both self-
alienating and injurious (Messner, 1988), harmful to personal relationships (Connell,
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1990; Klein, 1990) and demanding and self-scrutinizing (Bartky, 1988; Bordo, 1986,
1993). Premised on an ideology o f lack (Baudrillard, 1988), and profiting from the
anxious and insecure fitness consumer, there is always a recent addition to the
conception of what one should be working on for both men and women.
However, as we will see, this body work is highly gendered, as dominant bodily
ideals are highly gendered. When internalized and carried out, it is men who often
enjoy the power and privilege o f having a stronger, more muscular, athletically
competent body while an internalization of women’s ideals often leads to a smaller,
more compact, toned body. This is not necessarily because of testosterone, growth
hormone, muscle fiber differences or genetics (though these are the primary arguments
used to explain difference), but because the “perfectible” human (read chiseled, large,
and muscular in the upper body) form has historically been reserved for men (Dutton,
1995). That is, bodily ideals are definitively gendered, where being in the weight room
for long periods o f time, having large muscles, and enjoying bodily competence and
power— more often belong to the masculine realm (Connell, 1987; Wacquant, 1995a).
Since the new millennium has arrived, and an increasing number of women push,
shove, and excitedly flock to fitness centers, haven’t women— like men— ventured into
fitness sites to lift weights and enjoy these privileges? Don’t women lift weights in
order to feel the ecstasy o f having a powerfully independent body, to feel like a
champion as they meet and exceed their own goals, and to experience the thrill of the
“pump”— having tight skin stretched across bulging, growing, muscles? What happens
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when they do? Chapter Four explores what women do in gendered spaces in fitness
sites while Chapter Five and Six examine why.
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Chapter Four: Gendered Spaces and Bodies In Motion
Mid-Gym’s M en:
After entering Mid-Gym and having membership cards scanned, thick masses of
men and women formed gendered clumps that became near single-file lines and
fimneled into lockerooms— men to the left and women to the right. A “typical” man in
this setting, many o f whom were Black, Latino, or Asian, carried or wore weathered
brown/tan leather weight belts. Some preceded the journey to the advanced training
room upstairs after a short cardiovascular (cv) workout of ten to fifteen minutes, often
on a bike or stairmaster. A smaller dose of these men engaged in twenty to thirty
minutes of cv before heading upstairs, but most (more than one half) did no cv
workout at all and headed straight upstairs to the advanced training weight room.
Gathering in small clusters in the central spaces of the weight room where there were
barbells for chest press, incline bench press, military press, and back rows, men here
sat on and stood around the black benches with several men nearby, only sometimes in
pairs, staring, waiting for their turn. Amidst clangs and grunts, one could overhear the
humming o f low voices and laughter, and for those waiting, the common words
passed, often between men: “how many sets left,?” trying to ensure access to the
popular and highly valued free weight area at the core of this room.
More clusters of men stood around nearby pulley stations and sat on the black
benches poised next to massive dumbbells in the back and along the sides of the room
facing mirrored walls. In this room, men often carried out multiple sets o f each
exercise which relied on progressive increases of weight, often for the back, shoulders,
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chest, biceps, and triceps. As weight was increased across these sets, repetitions
generally decreased, and several men in core free weight spaces attempted to lift as
much as possible on their last set for only one repetition, known as “maxing out,”
which was aided by a nearby spotter, who was always male. Smaller numbers of men
in the advanced training room used the leg press and free weight leg machines, where
lines or waits were rare, unlike upper body equipment.
The remaining men at Mid-Gym (approximately 1/3) did not travel upstairs to the
advanced training room, but funneled instead to the “men’s gym” which had both cv
(bikes, etc) and nautilus equipment in it, or to spaces which were often shared equally
in number with women, such as the co-ed cv room upstairs, or to the pool. These men
were largely white, frequently did a short or medium length cv workout of twenty to
thirty minutes on the bikes which rested on the periphery of the room, and then largely
stayed in the men’s gym to do their weight workouts on the available nautilus
equipment. The men who used the men’s gym also tended to carry out multiple sets
with progressive weight increases, and a small handful o f men lifted “the stack,” or the
entire amount of weight plates available on the equipment. A handful o f the men in
the men’s gym ventured upstairs to the advanced training room to do a smaller portion
of their weight workout, such as free weight bench press, dips, pullups, or dumbbells
for the biceps, triceps, or shoulders, and even fewer ventured to the women’s gym to
use the free weights or cv equipment there. The very small number of men who did
travel to the “women’s gym” often did so to lift hand held dumbbells or use nautilus
stations, many stayed for only a few exercises, and then scurried back to the men’s
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side. Men were often well received in the women’s gym with little notice, unless
resources were scarce at busy times. At these times, it seemed that a few pokes or
serious questions were strategically used by women to pressure the men to go back to
the “men’s side” or to the advanced training room. For instance, one woman noted
and asked “the whole weight room upstairs is almost always all male, and so is the
men’s gym...why bother us here?” Questions and heckles were often met with silence,
but one day the “men’s gym” and the “women’s gym” became co-ed according to
management, after word that a man had sued the fitness company due to a “lack of
access to the women’s gym.” Despite the new, formal designation of the rooms as co
ed, the gender separation continued with surprising regularity.
Mid-Gvm’s Women:
Upon exiting the women’s locker room, a typical woman (from 1/2 to 2/3 of the
women) traveled immediately to the adjacent women’s gym. Most of the remaining
women marched upstairs to the co-ed cv room, or to an aerobics class. The women’s
gym had a circle of cardiovascular equipment around its perimeter, nautilus equipment
for the upper and lower body placed within its center, and a small sampling o f chrome
hand-held dumbbell near the back wall, which was mirrored. Women in the women’s
gym used primarily nautilus machines to do some upper and many lower body
exercises, often described as women’s “problem area,” perhaps explaining the short
lines that often developed around the several leg and lower body machines which were
quite popular. Women rotated into and out of the comer of the women’s gym with
great regularity, like single-file ants traveling to the same place, to carry out a few free
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weight exercises facing the mirrored wall. Here, they often stood and gripped hand
held dumbbells along the mirrored back wall to do exercises for the upper body such
as the biceps, triceps, and shoulders. Some women faced the mirror to do lower body
lunges while holding weights in hand-this was not observed in the men’s gym.
The cv room upstairs was filled with one row of stairmasters and one row of
treadmills that faced opposite walls, and also contained a few versaclimbers, which are
meant to simulate mountain climbing. A typical woman spent thirty to forty-five
minutes carrying out cardiovascular work, often splitting up cv workouts across bikes,
stairmasters, treadmills, and then moved to an often much shorter weight workout that
frequently took place entirely in the women’s gym. Several women carried out even
longer cv workouts (more than forty-five minutes to over an hour). Those who
ventured into aerobics rooms were mostly among other women, but one to five men
attended several classes (10-20% o f the total class) and most men tended to hang
towards the back of the room. When men taught aerobics classes, a few more men
attended than when women led the class.
On both nautilus equipment and free weights, women tended to carry out two to
three sets o f exercises on the same weight, or employed small progressive increases of
weight, frequently one plate. On a typical exercise, ten to twenty-five repetitions per
set were carried out, with ten to fifteen as the basic norm. Few women ventured into
the advanced training room, but many o f those that did slide in from the women’s gym
frequently did so in a manner that appeared as if they were inconspicuously creeping
along the periphery o f the free weight space by using equipment only near the side and
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back walls. Here, they grabbed a small chrome dumbbell, stood (and did not often sit,
as the men did) to face a mirror near the back or side wall, to carry out a few sets of
free weight exercises for the shoulders, biceps, or triceps, and then quickly returned to
the women’s gym. A few grabbed onto the chin up bar and at first hung there,
stretching their bodies out lengthwise, and then proceeded to do leg raises to work the
abdomen. Approximately 10-15% o f the women who entered the advanced training
room stayed, many of whom ventured into core free weight spaces such as bench press
for the chest or military press for the shoulders. Unlike the men, those women who
did venture in were rarely alone and were either accompanied by a male training
partner, a personal trainer, and very infrequently, a female lifting partner.
Indeed, women who spent long periods of time in core free weight spaces more
often employed the use of multiple sets with progressive increases of weight than did
women in the women’s gym using nautilus equipment. It was extremely rare for a
woman in either space to lift the entire stack of weight or max out on her last set. It
was also rare for women from the women’s gym to venture into the men’s gym,
although the women who did tended to only do cardiovascular workouts there— it was
a nearly non-existent event for women to lift weights in the men’s gym. While the
men’s gym was nearly all male and the advanced training room was mostly male, it
was more likely for men to cross into the women’s gym than for women to cross into
the men’s gym. When women traversed the boundaries of the “men’s” gym, their
presence did not elicit comments from the men, only stares. When women entered core
free weight spaces in the advanced training room, there were numerous discursive
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exchanges among men and directed at women. Women in the advanced training room
were often watched carefully and commented on, particularly in the case of heavy
lifters. This will be examined later in this chapter, under the discussion and analysis of
gender transgression zones.
Elite Gvm:
Despite Elite Gym’s different geographical layout from Mid-Gym, it shared many
o f the same patterns regarding the typical man’s and woman’s use o f space described
above. At the same time, there were some notable differences. One o f the major
differences between Mid-Gym and Elite Gym was the greater number of more
distinctively co-ed rooms at Elite Gym. As has been noted, Elite Gym was much
larger and had many more rooms than Mid-Gym. Its fitness spaces often felt less
compartmentalized and more open than Mid-Gym, but its several stores and specialty
shops were equally as cramped as Mid-Gym’s typical room. Similar to Mid-Gym,
Elite Gym’s participants entered the site and then funneled left and right to the
respective men’s and women’s locker room so as to prepare for fitness sessions. After
getting dressed, the men split rather evenly between traveling directly upstairs to the
main weight room (middle floor), or to the massive rectangle o f cardiovascular
equipment. Many more men than women began in the room which contained all the
nautilus and free weight equipment. The remaining scattering o f men tended to head to
the back of the site where the basketball courts were located, to the side o f the site,
where there were racquetball courts, or to a spin class. A small scattering ventured
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into aerobics rooms, though classes here had a higher percentage of male participants
than at Mid-Gym (often 30%, but up to 40%).
Indeed, though a small handful of the women began in the main weight room, most
went up one more floor to the cv equipment, or off to the right to the aerobics studios,
or off to the left to attain access to the spin rooms. Spin rooms were 2/3 women
during the day and were much more evenly split by gender in the evening. A very
small scattering o f the women never traveled upstairs and instead headed directly to
the small women’s gym which was located on the same floor as the entrance. Similar
to Mid-Gym, the women who worked out here did not tend to venture out much to
other parts o f the club. Unlike Mid-Gym, hardly any women used the women’s gym at
Elite Gym, and most women therefore experienced the possibilities for a more co-ed
progression through space. Those who ventured into the women’s gym tended to stay
there for both cardiovascular and weight workouts, and tended to have bodies which
were less consistent with dominant bodily ideals that were so frequently seen in the
“main gym.”
Similar to Mid-Gym, most women again carried out thirty to forty-five minutes of
cardiovascular work, but Elite Gym contained a much larger handful o f women who
carried out more than forty-five minutes to over an hour of cv work. Men’s cv
workouts here averaged the same as men in the men’s gym at Mid-Gym— between
twenty and thirty minutes, and women were again more likely than men to do slightly
longer cv workouts. This was again accomplished through cross training across
multiple pieces o f cv equipment such as stairs, bikes, and treadmills (or also doing an
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aerobics class). Some men, several o f whom had grey hair, balding heads, or large
bellies extended their stay on cv equipment closer to that of the “average” woman, and
a few seemingly young, well muscled men did the same. Similar to Mid-Gym, men
more often ran on treadmills and rode bikes than women, and women were more likely
to use stairmasters and walk on treadmills than men. And, like Mid-Gym, there were a
small minority of men (who were more likely than women) to maximize the elevation
on treadmills, tossing themselves and the equipment more upright into space, or who
threw punches into mid-air, yelling “hoo! ha!” during runs or walks. Also similar to
Mid-Gym, there was a small minority of women (who were more likely than men) to
carry hand or ankle weights while biking or stepping, or who danced or grooved while
stepping or biking. While the ratio o f men to women on cardiovascular equipment
was at times fairly evenly distributed, it was not uncommon for the cv spaces at both
sites, especially during morning and mid-day, to have more women than men (30-40%
men, 60-70% women). This was particularly telling in Elite Gym, whose overall
population was 60% male, 40% female.
At Elite Gym, free weight and nautilus equipment was spread out across the
massive middle level space, with dumbbells sprawled across the far right wall, barbells
for the chest and back near the far right portion of the room. More free weights and
several pulley machines were towards the back wall, along with several chin up bars
and dip stations. Placing the nautilus and free weights in one room together without
designating men’s and women’s gyms, or a separate advanced training room as did
Mid-Gym may have allowed for more co-ed interaction and practices. Yet, those who
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used Elite Gym’s main weight room space revealed gendered patterns similar to Mid-
Gym. Often after women carried out an aerobics class, or a cv workout typically on a
bike, stair, or treadmill, or some combination of the three, women entered the weight
room to use nautilus equipment, especially making use of the left side of the room
where there were hip, leg, and buttocks machines. Unlike Mid-Gym however, women
at Elite Gym often used nautilus equipment side-by-side with male participants,
waiting for turns to work out by standing nearby. An attempt to make eye contact
with the person using the equipment was usually made by the bystander so as to ask to
“work in” on a set. Many more men and women appeared to arrive and work out
together here than at Mid-Gym, with frequent touches, kisses, or body brushes during
the workout, perhaps signaling couplehood. Body touches were also witnessed more
often in the client/trainer relationship at Elite Gym than at Mid-Gym, and were often
offered from male trainers towards female clients. Similar to Mid-Gym, women
worked out with several upper body nautilus machines and then continued to not
venture into core free weight spaces for the upper body, such as chest and shoulder
exercises like the bench and military press. Instead, women again tended to slide and
creep along the back/side mirrored walls while standing to do two or three sets of
hand-held chrome dumbbells of the same weight for bicep, tricep, and shoulder
dumbbell exercises, only to return to more upper and lower body nautilus machines,
paying special attention to several lower body exercises for the hips, legs, and
buttocks. When carrying out nautilus exercises, women again were more likely to use
the same weight across two or three sets than men, but were much more likely to use
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progressive weight increases than women from Mid-Gym’s women’s gym. And,
women at Elite Gym were less likely to use progressive weight increases or other
practices known to build mass (e.g. supersets, pyramids, ladders, etc.) than women in
the advanced training room at Mid-Gym, or those women who ventured into core free
weight spaces at Elite Gym.
Men in Elite Gym were much more likely than women to claim the black benches in
core free weight spaces to sit and face the mirrored walls to do bench press and
shoulder press, and were also much more likely to use the black benches to sit near the
back/side walls and mirrors to do their dumbbells for the chest, shoulders, biceps, and
triceps. Here, and in core free weight spaces, men sat for periods of time carrying out
upper body exercises, and carried out specific weight practices that often diverged
from women’s workouts, as will be discussed below. Elite Gym’s participants were
nearly always all white, and hence the core free weight spaces which contained bench
press, military press, and free weight back and leg machines were now not only nearly
all male like Mid-Gym, but were also always all white. However, the core free weight
spaces just mentioned were conspicuously quieter and not as heavily populated as they
were at Mid-Gym. Lines did not typically collect around bench presses and military
presses as they did at Mid-Gym mid-day, but these lines did buzz more at Elite Gym in
the crowded evening hours. Few men sported massive upper and lower bodies like at
Mid-Gym and men frequently were quite lean, with bursting biceps and triceps,
moderately sized chests, with skinny legs. Women were much less likely to venture
into core free weight spaces at Elite Gym than at Mid-Gym, but similar to Mid-Gym,
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when they did, they were often accompanied by a male personal trainer or a male
lifting partner. It was even more rare for two women to enter into core free weight
spaces at Elite Gym than at Mid-Gym.
Proportion of Women/Men in Weight Rooms:
The proportion of women in the weight room was dependent on time of day. As is
noted below, women at Elite Gym were typically 12-25% o f the weight room in the
evenings. However, during the day, when many women were purchasing expensive
hours with personal trainers, women constituted from one quarter to just under half o f
the weight room population. At Mid-Gym, women were 97% of the women’s gym
population, and men made up the remaining 3%. In the men’s gym, men were closer to
98 or 99% of the men’s gym population, and women were 1-2% of the men’s gym
population. The advanced training room on this site was approximately 85-90% male.
In other gyms where I have done some observation, for those that separated out an
“advanced” training room, the same highly skewed numbers held by gender.1 The
above stats are presented below:
Table 4.1 Proportion of Women/Men in Weight Rooms:
Elite Gvm Mid-Gvm (Day/Afternoon and Night)
Dav/Aftemoon Night Women’s Gvm M en’s Gvm Adv. Training
Men 53-75% 75-82% 3% 98-99% 85-90%
Women 25-47% 12-25% 97% 1-2% 10-15%
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Across both weight room sites, approximately one quarter o f women were non-lifters,
the largest clusters o f women were moderate lifters (approximately 70% o f women at
Elite Gym and 60% o f women at Mid-Gym) who lifted weights for twenty to forty-
five minutes, and the smallest group was heavy lifters who stayed beyond forty five
minutes (approximately 5% of women at Elite Gym and 15% of women at Mid-Gym).
For men, the time clusters overlapped, but were somewhat in reverse, with the
smallest group o f men not lifting at all, a medium sized group staying for twenty to
forty-five minutes, and a medium to large group staying for forty-five minutes or
more. In this way, while the proportion o f non, moderate, and heavy lifters were
somewhat different between women and men, there was a good deal o f overlap
between the two groups.
Weight Practices- The Number o f Sets and Reps. Supersets. Pyramids, and Ladders:
Across both fitness sites, a prominent general pattern emerged which revealed that
many men and women diverged from one another regarding the types of weight
workouts carried out, although there was some degree of overlap. Here was one
typical example regarding the sets (a collection o f repetitions is equal to one set) and
reps (a repetition, the execution of an exercise, once) carried out:
Jack in Elite Gym is grabbing the handles of a lat pull down machine, sits down,
and leans back so that his back is at a 45 degree angle, and pulls the bar to his chest.
He releases it off of his chest and slowly brings it back until the weight stack in motion
he’s lifting is touching the remainder of the resting weight stack. He does the motion
again and again, anywhere from six to ten times. When he is finished with his set, he
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puts the pin farther “down” the stack, lifting 30 pounds more than the first set. He
does two more sets, each time doing 30-50 more pounds than the last, and fewer
repetitions as he increases the weight. Janet walks up to do the same lat machine.
When she is finished with her first set, she doesn’t move the pin up or down the stack.
She lifts the same light weight across two or three sets. She carries out ten to fifteen
reps.
Following hundreds, perhaps nearly a thousand men and women through their
workout, I soon learned that women and men diverge in weight room practices in
important ways. First, many women “kept the weight the same” or made small
increases (5-10 pounds) across two or three sets of weight while most men tended to
increase the weight progressively (and more drastically) across multiple sets. Some
men carried out three sets of weight, but many men and very few women carried out
four to six or more sets o f weight. Second, men frequently carried out specific
practices known as “super sets,” “ladders,” or “pyramids” where weight was increased
or decreased over multiple sets while women sometimes used ladders but rarely used
pyramids or super sets.
I learned that the three practices, super sets, ladders, and pyramids mentioned
above were viewed as some o f the basic bodybuilding principles found in the sport of
bodybuilding. Ladders were the most popular form of set practice I observed among
fitness participants, with most men and some women (even moderate lifters) using it.
Ladders involved increases in weight over each set, with each set seen as a “step” up
on an increasingly rising ladder. For example, as noted in the example from fieldnotes
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above, it was not unusual to see men do an exercise at a relatively comfortable starting
weight, do another set by adding a few plates to the stack, do a third set by adding
several more plates, and then a final set was carried out which was heaviest.
Super sets referred to the practice o f carrying out one exercise, taking no rest
(usually 15 seconds to several minutes o f rest was taken in-between sets) after the set
was carried out, and moving immediately to an exercise for a different (often
considered “opposite to”) body part, then returning back to a set for the first body
part. For example, it was not unusual to see men in core free weight spaces sitting to
do bicep curls for the arms with iron dumbbells, then immediately lying down to work
the triceps with a curl bar over the head. Fitness participants and trainers described
this as a way to use time efficiently in a workout, but such methods were also seen as a
way to “blast out” to get the maximum pump through working different muscle groups
without rest. Others who rested more in between sets were called “slackers” while
many individuals who did super sets without rest were referred among other lifters as
“serious” lifters who were “really working” and “pushing” themselves. Super sets
were the least used practice among the three mentioned, but nearly one hundred
percent o f the fitness members who used it were male.
Lastly, pyramids were another strategic weight lifting practice used. Pyramids
were similar to ladders as weight was increased, but were followed with many more
sets o f weight on the way “back down” the ladder. On the way up the ladder, weight
was increased, and on the way down the ladder, the amount of weight was
progressively decreased. These “ups” and “downs” form the two sides of a pyramid.
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With ladders, it was not uncommon to see someone do three (or more) sets of
increasing weight on the way up a ladder, and three (or more) on the way down the
other side o f the pyramid, in reverse order. Thus, pyramids can often involve six to
nine sets or more. Again, men were the ones to most frequently use this practice,
with a few heavy female lifters also using this practice. In stark contrast to all o f the
above mentioned practices that men carried out which involved high intensity sets,
reps, and cutting back on rest in between sets, most women did either the same weight
across two or three sets, or a one-sided ladder across two or three sets with small
progressive increases.
Not only were the numbers of sets lifted often different by gender, but the number
o f repetitions also tended to differ by gender. Men generally did fewer repetitions,
especially as they moved up ladders to heavier weight, and women tended to do ten to
twenty-five repetitions at a lighter weight, often with ten to fifteen reps as a basic
norm. Lastly, as has been noted, many more men than women “maxed out,” or found
the maximum amount of weight they could carry out in one repetition, particularly in
core free weight spaces for the upper body. In fact, as we will see in Chapter Five, it
was not unusual for women to state that they consciously “avoid” or “hold back” on
the amount of weight lifted, and it was rare for women to discuss or mention their
“max” weight during informal or formal interview. Thus, basic bodybuilding language
and practices surrounding sets, reps, and increasing weights were built in as a norm for
men’s fitness workouts, but not for many women’s. Since super sets, ladders, and
pyramids were most popularly used by men, this created and reinforced visible displays
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of upper body strength while masking overlap between men and women or the reasons
as to why men and women might be carrying out these practices.
After speaking with many fitness participants and personal trainers, and reading the
three most popular personal training manuals used on the two sites, I learned that in
fitness culture, the practice o f carrying out fewer reps at a higher weight (or the use of
super sets, ladders, and pyramids) was generally understood as a strategy used to meet
the goal of “building” (often prescribed for men) And, lighter weights, fewer sets, and
higher numbers of repetitions were generally understood as strategies used to meet the
goal of “toning” the body (often prescribed for women). This point is also returned to
in Chapter Seven when an analysis o f personal training manuals is examined. The
above description o f general trends is captured below, while there certainly were men
and women who overlapped in practices:
Table 4.2: Weiaht Practices bv Gender
Sets W eiaht Lifted Practices
Men Multiple
(Four to Six)
Progressive
Increases
Super Sets, Ladders,
Pyramids, Maxing Out
Decreased reps as weight
is increased
Women Two
Or Three
Keep the Weight Some Ladders
the Same, or Little Maxing Out
One-Two
Plate Increases
Often, same # of reps across
sets (10-15)
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Those women who were heavy lifters more often carried out ladders, pyramids,
supersets, decreased repetitions as weight was increased, and maxing out than other
women, and some of the men. M ost of these practices raised eyebrows from both men
and women, particularly in core free weight spaces, in both fitness sites. This will be
the subject o f the remainder o f this chapter.
Gender Transgression Zones (GTZ’sV
Men’s and women’s movements within and through both Elite Gym and Mid-Gym
did not reveal a static use of space but a shifting and fluid one. That is, men and
women were both separate and integrated, and were distinct and had overlap in their
spaces, practices, and groups (Thome, 1993). In this section, I pay special attention
to activities within “GTZ’s” or gender transgression zones (McGuffey & Rich, 1999)
in Mid-Gym and Elite Gym. Gender transgression zones are defined as those that are
all or mostly male and are traversed by women or all or mostly female and are
traversed by men. I focus on analyzing women’s (many heavy female lifters, but not
always) transgressions into male-dominated core free weight spaces. While there were
some examples o f men crossing into spaces that were informally defined as mostly
female (e.g. aerobics, nautilus gluteus and leg machines), I focus here on women’s
trangressions. Using ethnographic data as an emergent guide, I observed a range of
responses concerning women who transgressed into male-dominated free weight
spaces.
Gender trangression zones provide particularly useful information on how the
categories o f manhood and womanhood are marked, negotiated, policed, and
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challenged. This provides key insight into how social context illuminated the social
construction of gender (Thome, 1993), and offers evidence for how a continuum of
overlapping performances and bodies by gender is managed. Specifically, using
Kane’s (1995) concept of a continuum of overlapping performance between women
and men, I examine how evidence of such a continuum in GTZ’s was managed. I ask
whether there is recognition o f such overlap in GTZ’s, challenging notions of male
physical superiority, or whether wider cultural ideologies are drawn upon to
paradoxically manage this situation in ways that recreate dichotomous gender
difference. Responses to women who ventured into these GTZ’s included:
Support an d Qualified Socialization A m bivalence Refram ing,
encouragem ent enco u rag em en t an d trivialization an d /o r R enam ing
e.g . "for a girl" m anaging
em barrassm ent
On the one end o f the continuum there was support and encouragement for women
who ventured into GTZ’s. As will be seen, these instances tended to challenge
ideologies of dichotomous difference. On the other end of the continuum, there were
instances whereby women were renamed into men. These instances tended to wash out
evidence o f a continuum of overlap, reinforcing notions of absolute male physical
superiority. Some o f the discursive exchanges within each of the above categories
both acknowledged mid washed out evidence of a continuum of overlapping
performances between women and men. I refer to these categories along a continuum
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in order to highlight how responses to women who trangressed into male-dominated
territory were not singular or unified, but came in a range. I also refer to the
categories in a particular order above from left to right so as to imply loosely that
there were gradations in the degree to which a continuum of overlap was
acknowledged -vs- washed out. That is, reffaming and renaming is being framed as
the most extreme outcome concerning washing out evidence of a continuum o f
overlap by gender. Examining these responses aided in fleshing out how power
relations are reproduced and/or contested (often simultaneously) regarding gender,
musculature, and strength within specific geographies of space in fitness sites.
Support and encouragement
A number of men and women expressed overt support and encouragement for
those women who traversed into core free weight spaces in Elite Gym and/or the
advanced training room at Mid-Gym. I observed that there were two main types of
support and encouragement offered. The first type included men and women who
“cheered” or congratulated women after sets or directly spotted these women during
sets while encouraging them to push their athletic performance. The second type of
response included women who admired these women and sought them out (often
heavy lifters’ help and advice), viewing them as role models who could help them
work towards their own weight lifting goals. I observed a few men asking women in
these spaces how to work towards their own weight lifting goals. (I have met women
from more “hard core” weight lifting gyms who expressed that this was occurred more
commonly there.)
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When men and women offered overt congratulations or encouragement about
women’s strong athletic performances in GTZ’s, this potentially acknowledged a
continuum of overlapping performance by gender and countered assumptions
concerning absolute, categorical gender difference and strength. Some examples of
encouraging comments included one towards Fiona, a twenty-seven year old white
woman from Mid-Gym. She received this from a man who yelled “That’s great!!
Keep going!!” as he walked by her benching a forty-five pound plate on a side. “Very
impressive...that’s good work!!” another man said to one woman at Elite Gym when
she benched twenty-five on a side with a personal trainer by her side. Also at Elite
Gym one day, a woman walked up to a woman who was working out her shoulders by
pulling upwards on a gravitron machine and said to her “You’re amazing! And your
form is great! Do it again!!!” At Mid-Gym, another woman ran up to a woman who
carried out a set o f pull ups and said “Wow! You’re strong! Flex your triceps!! You’re
my idol!!” An example that overtly challenged categorical assumptions was from Mid-
Gym. I was spotting Fiona on bench press when a young man ran up to Fiona after her
sets and expressed both shock and encouragement. He said: “Woweeeeeee, you guys
are STRONG!!!” Fiona shot back with “yea, they say girls can’t lift,” to which the
man replied “Guess they’re wrong!!!” and walked away. In this case, categorical
essentialism was not reasserted, and an overlap in performance by gender was not
contested, but highlighted, and apparently accepted.
One afternoon at the Mid-Gym advanced training room, several different men
spotted two women in free weight spaces and yelled “come on, come on, you’ve got
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it, you’ve got the strength!! It’s all you! It’s all you!!!” Also at Mid-Gym, Fiona was
spotted by a man on bench who yelled to her “You know that you’re strong enough to
get these last few reps out. I know that. You know that. Show me you are that!”
Another observation was from Mid-Gym, where Chrystal, a twenty-eight year old
African American woman experienced support and encouragement:
Two men who normally talk to Chrystal each day she lifts in the gym approach
the bench as she puts a 45 pound plate on a side to begin her first set. They
stop before the bench press and one leans against the bar on a nearby military
press while the other straddles the seat, facing the bench Chrystal is about to
use. When Chrystal sees them getting ready to watch her, they say “We’re
gonna sit and give you an audience!!” When she’s finished, they’re both
shaking their heads, laughing, and say “that’s great...just great...!”
I observed many such encouraging comments when men and women directly
spotted women in male-dominated core free weight spaces during their sets. While
many times comments directed at women who accomplished strong athletic feats were
indubitably and wholeheartedly supportive, at other times, it was difficult to ascertain
whether women and men who cheered on the performances in GTZ’s contributed to a
spectacle of a strong woman as an aberration or “freak” in the weight room. This type
of feedback seemed encouraging and can be read as supportive recognition o f a
continuum o f overlapping performance between men and women. Yet, the manner in
which the “audience” shook their head and simultaneously laughed suggested that the
performance was filled not only with congratulations but also shock, which might
potentially reinforce the belief that women are not expected to be able to carry out
these athletic feats. It was true that Fiona, Chrystal, and other women who
trangressed into male-dominated core free weight spaces were somewhat unusual not
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only because women did not frequently venture into these spaces, but also because (on
bench press) a forty-five pound plate on each side of the bar was a goal many— but not
all— men in the space accomplished.
Cheering for women who lift heavily in GTZ’s is a powerful public statement given
that heavy weight lifting allows women to take up space both physically and
geographically in “unprecedented ways” (Heywood, 1998, p. 186) and can give
women feelings o f invincibility, protection, and power they are not typically allotted in
public spaces. The social value of receiving support for women’s strong athletic
performances in these zones from both women and men also cannot be underestimated
as there is a long history of women being deterred from sport and fitness— particularly
weight lifting activities— due to a feared masculinization o f women’s bodies (Cahn,
1994, Hargreaves, 1994; Kane, 1995). Nonetheless, the fitness participants I observed
did not gather around the bench press to watch the spectacle of a male performance in
the weight room— even when three plates were on each side of the bench press bar.
Strong athletic feats from men on site more often drifted silently into the background
and did not elicit a stream of evaluative commentary, especially negative or
ambiguous. In this light, when encouragement was coupled with shock, it acted as a
simultaneous challenge to and reproduction of notions of categorical strength by
gender. The shock reproduced ideas about women not being able to carry out
particularly strong performances (or the shock wouldn’t be necessary). At the same
time, the transgression into a male-dominated space coupled with the shock
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acknowledged that such an event had indeed occurred, and disrupted assumptions
about women who were assumed to not be able to engage in strong performances.
The second type of encouragement which was elicited from heavy lifters’ in
GTZ’s involved comments from women who admired heavy lifters’ feats and wanted
to improve upon their own athletic competence. For instance, after watching Chrystal
bench press a forty-five pound plate on a side on bench at Mid-Gym, a woman nearly
ran up to her from across the weight room and stated: “Wow, that was really great.
How long did it take you to work up to that? I’m only on a measly two and a half
pounds on a side— you’re on forty-five on a side??? Twenty-five on a side is my goal—
how long do you think it’ll take me to work up to that?” Chrystal relayed a story to
the woman about how inspired she felt when she first saw a woman lift a twenty-five
pound plate (she called it a “quarter plate”) on a side, and how great she felt when she
surpassed that goal herself. “You can do it,” she assured the interested woman. In a
similar instance at Elite Gym, one woman who watched another woman do pull ups
told her that her pull ups were “terrific” and stated she’s “always wanted to do a one
arm pull up,” but never had. “Can you?” she asked the woman. The woman jumped
up and did two, and the woman who watched repeated “terrific” and then asked: “I
can do like seven now...how many do you think I have to get to before I can do one of
those.” The first woman replied “I think that you could do one today!”
The last type o f encouragement I observed was when several women who did not
have access to organized sports in high school or college who offered encouragement
and congratulations to women in GTZ’s who did have access to and participated in
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organized sports. For instance, one evening, a grey haired woman watched a younger
woman do push ups, and when the young woman was finished, the older woman said
“wow, I was watching you just then, you’re really strong!...I bet you did sport in
college? Did you? We didn’t have any sport back then. How long before I work up to
one o f those?” The younger woman said, “I dunno, I did a lot more when I swam, we
did it all the time there.” The older woman replied “I wish they had us doing that stuff
when I was younger!!...We didn’t even have a swim team.” And at Mid-Gym, a
woman in her late forties watched a college-aged woman in core free weight spaces
and said to her “I just can’t believe how strong you are in the upper body. I mean, I do
believe it, its great... I think it’d take me a lifetime...even then I’m not sure I’d get
there.” The younger woman snapped back “Nahhhh, you’ll get there. It took me years
to get here, but yeah, during a few of those years I had my field hockey coach
breathing down my neck....” These last two examples might not seem to not overtly
acknowledge a continuum o f overlap by gender, but do highlight a continuum of
performance among women— and gradations of strength and experience among
women— highlighting how the category woman (and thus, the category man) is not
unified or singular.
Qualified encouragement:
The next type of discursive exchange along the continuum of responses to women
who transgressed male-dominated spaces involved a positive evaluation with an added
qualifier. These instances might seem to acknowledge overlapping performances
between women and men but also worked to wash out such overlap. Solid weight
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lifting performances here were frequently marked as strong, impressive, or pretty
good— not in and of themselves, but “for a girl” or woman. For instance, one example
of this was at Elite Gym when a trainer told a female client who was bench press
pressing twenty-five on a side that she is “pretty strong for a girl.” At the end of the
training session, he told her that she is the “strongest woman in the gym.” Another
example was from Mid-Gym, where two women in the advanced training room were
told “not bad for the ladies,” after some over the head dumb bell presses for shoulders.
Discursive work frequently marked the performance as good for a girl, woman,
“chick,” or for “ladies.” For instance, two men told Chrystal at Mid-Gym after bench
press that: “That’s impressive work, especially for the ladies,” and at Mid-Gym, as
noted in the opening portion of the chapter, women were said to be “strong for a
girl!!!...” Marking the act as strong for a girl, lady, or chick (and not just strong)
carries out important discursive work whereby the space is highlighted as territory that
is being infiltrated by a token woman— this may work to maintain the evaluation of the
space as normatively male. This discursive work also makes invisible the fact that
some women continually outperform some men on site. If the work were to just be
“good work” and not “good for a girl,” it might (but not necessarily) mean more overt
recognition o f the overlapping continuum o f performance by gender, and greater
challenges to ideologies o f absolute male physical superiority (Kane, 1995).
In a few observations, evidence of overlap by gender was washed out through
discursive exchanges that simultaneously marked the performance as good for a girl
and unexpected for women in general but expected for most men. For instance, in one
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unusual exchange at Mid-Gym, I was told by a massive muscular man after I did a set
of fifteen pull-ups that: “hay, that beats most o f the men in the gym,” recognizing the
continuum o f strength between men and women. In the next breath, however, some
interesting discursive work was carried out in this GTZ:
I mean, I do expect most guys to do that...what you did...I expect most
guys to be able to hop up there and do at least ten pull ups, don’t matter
how little they trained. I don’t expect the ladies to be able to do that...I
don’t expect the ladies to do but one or two...but what you did...that does
beat most o f the men in the gym...I gotta call it the way I see it... I gotta
call it the way I see it.
This narrative shows how recognition of the continuum of performance by gender
took place, yet it also reveals how ideologies of absolute difference were reasserted.
For instance, this physical event was expected for “most guys” now matter “how little”
they’ve trained and the “ladies” were expected to do “one or two.” While it is likely
true that more women than men were novice lifters, it was interesting that the
assumption was that women were by definition inexperienced and/or weak, while the
level o f strength that inexperienced male lifters should have was still a solid
performance (“...don’t matter how little they’ve trained...”). In this way, if
inexperienced men were automatically assumed to be stronger than “the ladies”—
including elite athletes and/or highly experienced women in fitness, assumptions of
natural gender difference were at work. The comment that most women cannot but
that most men should be able to seemed to negate the fact that there may be a large
number of men with or without lifting experience who may not be able to perform the
same act that women do on site. Simultaneously, overtly marking my performance as
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beating “most of the men in the gym” and not simply “good for a girl” served to
reinforce an overlapping continuum o f performance between men and women.
A verbal fight ensued after this event between some men in the weight room who
overheard the man’s comment that “that beats most o f the men in the gym.” The man
who made the comment was accused by others of “telling lies about what men here
can do,” “diss-ing the men,” “not being a man,” and “not backing up the men.” The
man replied with angry yells: “I am a man!! I am a man! Why are you telling me that
I’m not a man when I am calling it the way it is! I am calling it the way it is!” He then
challenged the men angrily to “come on! Jump up there! Show me how many you can
do! I watch you guys every week! Prove to me I am telling lies! Prove it!” Several
strong, muscular men took the challenge, jumped up to the bar, and all of them did
between one to six pull-ups. It was a very tense and frightening moment for me since
it seemed that a fight was possibly brewing and I was the only woman in the room. I
wanted to leave. Yet as a researcher, I wanted to stay, since important ideologies and
practices were being negotiated and contested and my own body was the catalyst for
the debate. I stayed until the line o f men jumped up to the bar and then I left the room
after the men did their pull-ups. Women who traversed GTZ’s and performed athletic
feats were not only encouraged or cautioned when they carried out these acts that
were “good for a girf’or “beat most of the men in the room,” but they also were
sexualized and trivialized. That is the subject o f the next section.
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Sexualization and trivialization
The third kind o f response to women’s weight lifting performances in male-
dominated spaces was an overt sexualization and trivialization. According to Sabo &
Messner (1993), it is difficult to objectify highly competent female athletes, yet
Duncan & Hasbrook (1988) show how abundant this sexualization is and interpret it
as am ambiguous response to strong athletic performances. For instance, one day
Chrystal put up a plate and a ten on each side on the bench press in Mid-Gym,
outperforming many o f the men and women in the room. After this feat, the one o f
the biggest, most muscular men in the gym walked up to her and said “I love it when
the ladies lift. I just love it. Its so sexy. I love that...so many guys get threatened by
that, but not me. I love that...I love that!” In Elite Gym, a man walked up to several
different women— one was a heavy lifter and one was a moderate lifter and stated some
variation on the theme that “mann...you’re cute AND you’re strong...what a winning
combination... usually strong women are all beastly and big...you’re still cute.”
Similarly, two men talking among themselves at Mid-Gym while a woman benched to
one another “she’s so strong, and she’s small too...mmmmm...nice....” I did not
observe men receiving comments in the weight room from men or women about being
“still cute” and “not beastly” despite an ability to lift large amounts of weight, though a
few men in Mid-Gym did state that the men upstairs were “too big.” These verbal
exchanges revealed the discursive reproduction o f gendered power relations
concerning muscles, strength, and the body.
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On six occasions— twice in the college site and four times at Mid-Gym, I observed
different men run towards women who were either doing pullups or dips, walk
underneath her to spot her. Instead of placing his hands on the woman’s legs or a
waist which was the normative way to spot someone on these activities, these men
instead directly placed their hands on the woman’s butt cheeks and/or hips to push her
up to the bar. While such comments/actions might be “encouraging” to some, such
actions could easily be interpreted as sexual harassment by others (Gardner, 1995). I
did not witness any of the men on the sites spotting one another’s pull ups by placing
hands squarely on another man’s butt cheeks, nor did I observe women who spotted
men in this way. It may be the case that when women’s strong weight lifting
performances in GTZ’s were defined as strong and sexy, this response contained
strong performances in a realm where women were not seen as threatening and were
“still” seen as attractive to men. When performances (and/or bodies) were more
disruptive to the belief that all men are stronger than all women, perhaps this was
when comments become more ambivalent or cautionary and less “sexy.”
Ambivalence and Managing Embarrassment:
Ambivalence was another popular response to women who carried out powerful
performances in GTZ’s. For instance, even Jake, a bodybuilder, who was normally
encouraging to Fiona, a heavy lifter who we will meet in Chapter Seven, often waved
his finger at her in the weight room as he moved through the room, yelling to her
“don’t get too big!!!” I asked her how many times he has told her this and she says
“several times in a few months.” When I asked her if she could talk more about it, she
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discussed how “its not surprising” and her hairdresser just told her the same thing—
that she “shouldn’t get too big...boys wont like you if you get too big...” Further
revealing the ambivalence that strong athletic performances from women in GTZ’s
elicit from others, when two men passed Fiona while bench pressing, one asked her, as
if she were a strange superhero: “what did you eat in your cereal this morning, you’re
a freak!?” while the other added “you know...every time I see you, you get stronger!!”
She shouted back, “Yeah, that’s called normal progress for a man, for a woman its
freaky!?!” In another observation involving Fiona, a personal trainer walked down a
hallway, looked directly at her and called out “Looking beefy!!!” and then added: “But
I don’t know if that’s a compliment...” She responded quietly with “I don’t know
either...”
Ambivalence was also expressed by members o f a couple when men and women
worked out together in GTZ’s. For instance, a man and a woman who I later learned
were a couple, were lifting and talking together at Mid-Gym. The man turned to the
woman after her bicep curls and asked her, “are you SURE you want your arms to be
that big???!” “They’re really not that big,” she fired back at him. Similarly, I watched
other trainers express ambivalence about muscles and/or strong performances for
women in general. For instance, a trainer stated to a female client: “do me a favor and
don’t get like those huge pumped up women.” The woman asked back “why not?” He
replied, “Because when they get all pumped up like that it’s a little
frightening...grotesque even, don’t you think??” She seemed a little annoyed in her
reply and shot back “Don’t you think I’d have to eat a WHOLE lot more and lift a
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WHOLE lot more than I do now to look like that???” “I guess so” he replied.
Another ambiguous statement regarding strong performances in GTZ’s was expressed
after a male trainer took me through a fitness orientation at Elite Gym. After he did
the “fit test” on me and told me that I was “a perfect weight,” he asked me if I was “on
steroids” after I bench pressed thirty-five pound plates on each side o f the forty-five
pound bar.
Questioning women who lift heavily by insinuating their performance is not
“natural” or possible without the help of steroids has long been a tactic used to keep
the man-as-naturally-strong-woman-as-naturally-weak dichotomous gender order
intact (Davis & Delano, 1992; Kane, 1995). The accusation o f steroids is often applied
when women “so deviate from traditional expectations o f femininity that her biological
standing as a ‘real’ female is called into question” (Kane, 1995, p. 210).
While many of the examples o f encouragement concerning women who lifted
heavily involved men speaking to women, in several of the more ambiguous or
cautionary examples, the directionality of the ambivalent comments also went from
men to women (there were many more men than women in weight rooms). Several
ambivalent comments around muscular strength on women were also made from
woman to woman (not in couples). Furthermore, in order to highlight the complexity
of the above, I should note that several women who lifted heavily stated to me that
men were the source o f the majority of the positive encouragement for being strong
that they received in and out o f the gym. In fact, several heavy lifters perceived that
without such encouragement, they would not have begun or continued heavy lifting.
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Thus, at the same time that men provided some of the most profound spaces for
encouragement for women in GTZ’s (and in general), they also provided much of the
social control, or what might be considered gatekeeping. That is, while a desire to
adhere to dominant bodily ideals may be part of why women lift lightly or avoid the
weight room, another part of this complicity may be the social control/monitoring of
women that other women and men provide. This may not be surprising given that
there were many more men than women in the weight room and that free weight
spaces for heavy weight lifting were indeed still largely male-dominated. There were
other expressions of ambivalence that provided more complex negotiations of
ideologies of gender and strength.
Aside from warning women not to get too big, I also labeled as ambivalent several
instances in which men managed (what I categorized as) embarrassed responses to
female heavy lifters’ performances in the weight room, particularly in GTZ’s. These
situations highlighted whether categorical assumptions about strength and gender were
challenged or paradoxically managed in ways that potentially re-create ideologies of
absolute gender difference. There were many examples where the continuum of
performance was managed in this more complex way. For instance, instead of
cautioning women not to do more, as was seen in the above section, several men
stated in various ways that they should be able to or will do more than the women who
outperformed them in a very short period o f time. At Elite Gym, after one woman did
pull ups, a man said to his friend: “well, she can do pull ups...for now. I can only do
pull downs...soon, though, soon” Another observation from Mid-Gym revealed a man
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who walked up to a woman after a set of dips and said to her “You’re in shape,
mannn! You’re in shape! But you’re making me feel a little self-conscious!!
Embarrassed! I’ve only been at it for four weeks though, I’ll pop that out in a month,
no problem...” Also at Mid-Gym, a man stated to his male friend “she did more than
me,” after a woman did more pull ups than his huge muscled male friend. He added
“but I already did a lot of things already... she didn’t,” perhaps implying that if he
hadn’t done so “many things already,” he would have been able to do more than the
woman. “So did she dude” fired his friend, perhaps challenging his assumption. At a
college site, after I did twenty-five dips, a man said to his girlfriend “she’s making you
look bad,” to which she replied “she’s making YOU look bad too, YOU’RE on the
football team!!” He pleaded back, “Yeah, well, give me some time...some time is all I
need...” The above exchanges show how men and women work to negotiate a
continuum of overlapping performance by gender, particularly in GTZ’s. If women
are perceived as being able to do less2 while men are supposed to do more soon (“I
already did a lot of things,” “soon though,” “...time is all I need,” “I’ll pop that out
soon in a month”) this works to simultaneously (potentially) acknowledge a continuum
of overlap while reasserting a categorical binary. After all, despite the fact that the
men and women represented varying levels o f experience, when these men were
presented with evidence of a continuum of overlapping performance, they all stated in
some way that it will only be a matter of time before they do more than the women.
This reinforced that idea that when men and women are equally trained, they do not
have average performance differences, but more absolute ones. At the same time,
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some of the comments from nearby friends and the men themselves, e.g. “she did too”
(do a lot o f things), “I can only do pull downs,” and “wish I could do that,” worked to
recognize how strength performances are in part, a result o f practices, and recognized
a continuum o f overlapping performance. The last set of observed responses to strong
women’s performances revealed how spectacular feats of physical strength, often by
heavy female lifters, in GTZ’s were often perceived as being firmly entrenched in the
realm of manhood and in fact were seen as unfathomable for womanhood at all.
Reframine and Renaming
When women’s weight lifting performances in GTZ’s were particularly strong,
important discursive repair work was routinely carried out. Instead of recognizing the
performance as something that was exceptional for anyone in the room— or even as
pretty good for a girl— the event was often reframed as not even belonging in the realm
of womanhood. For instance, as noted in the opening story about Fiona, a man said to
her after her bench press: “Hey, girl, that was really great. Oh, should I say ‘hey, guy?’
It might be more appropriate, given the amount o f weight...” Other incidents revealed
the same type of exchanges, for instance, when a man addressed a small group of men
and one strong woman at Elite Gym using free weight dumbbells “Hi guys” and
laughed to the woman “Well...look at what you’re lifting...” At Mid-Gym, one woman
blasted out on bench press and a nearby man who was apparently shocked, said to
another man nearby “I only do two forty-fives, shit mann...I feel depressed” The other
said, “yeah, did you see that? She’s like a man... that’s like a man...”
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At times, it was women who were over sixty who seemed most disapproving o f
strong women’s performances. For instance, in Mid-Gym, an older woman asked a
younger woman doing dips “why are you doing those? Those will give you muscles.
You don’t want muscles. That’s like a man, you’ll look like a man, do you wanna be
like a man?” And in several other instances, when women performed feats in free
weight spaces that seemed to approach what “men do,” women were at times given a
new name--a man’s name. For example, Fiona was renamed as Frank one day, and a
woman who lifted heavily named “Carrie” was renamed “Harry.” At times, men would
pass by and simply state “Hi Frank,” or “Hay Harry,” to the women as they passed by.
When I asked Fiona and Carrie about how they felt about this, Fiona expressed her
annoyance, and asked “why do I always sprout a penis when I get past a plate?”
Carrie, however, stated that she first struggled with the idea o f being called Harry, as
she thought that changing her name “was like saying that no women can lift as heavily
as I can, only a man can” but stated that years later she “eventually came to terms with
it as not necessarily being a negative term,” but was “not sure how it wasn’t
negative...I need to think about that more...”
Sifting through the data on who received comments such as “that’s good work for
a girl” or “that’s pretty impressive, especially for the ladies,” it appeared that women
who were quite strong but whose weight lifting performances and bodies did not
challenge many of the men (in GTZ’s) on site. Perhaps the women’s performance and
their lesser degree of musculature may not have totally disrupted the idea of natural
male physical superiority. These women generally appeared to be athletic but their
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compact and tight, curvy bodies stayed within what might be perceived as an
acceptable range of emphasized femininity. Their performances were marked as
unusual “for a girl.” However, when women who were bursting with more muscles
(mesomorphic) or did “a plate” or more on bench press, grabbed one o f the largest
dumbbells to work out their shoulders or arms, or matched or exceeded many men’s
weight lifting performances in free weight spaces, this led to a renaming where the
category woman was revoked completely (E.g. “That’s like a man,” changing names
to a man’s name, or “hi guys”). Thus, it appears that women who lifted heavily in
GTZ’s elicited these comments when the degree of musculature and strength posed a
threat to absolute notions o f male physical superiority. When these particularly strong
acts were carried out by particularly muscular women who were heavy lifters, I
observed only one or two comments that it was “good for a girl” or that it will only be
a matter o f time before they are beaten. No observations were noted that “she didn’t
do everything yet” and was simply fresh in her workout. Those women who matched
or exceeded what was perceived as typical for men’s performances in core heavy free
weight spaces were often discursively erased as women. Their feats and identities
were wiped from the realm of womanhood and were placed into the realm of what
men do. Kane (1995) theorizes on the mechanisms that individuals use to contain
recognition of a continuum o f strength by gender and comments on this type of
regendering:
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...the female athlete is regendered because when she displays such
prowess, her own gender becomes temporarily erased while she is being
simultaneously recast as a man. It serves to reinforce the equation that of
superior athleticism with maleness while subverting any notion that
females can possess such skills...In fact, what regendering reveals is that
to receive this kind of praise, she must be (temporarily at least) considered
anything but female... (p 208).
Given the complexity o f responses from fitness participants— encouragement, qualified
encouragement, sexualization, ambivalence, managing embarrassment, and
regendering— that were elicited concerning women who transgressed male-dominated
spaces, particularly heavy lifters’ performances and bodies, what might heavy lifters
themselves have to say about the subject o f gender, strength, weights, and muscle?
What might moderate and non-lifters have to say about these subjects? An analysis of
heavy lifters will be the subject o f Chapter Six, while the next chapter is reserved for
non and moderate lifters.
Summary:
This chapter has attempted to describe gendered practices within two fitness sites,
Elite Gym and Mid-Gym. Weight room and cv practices among women in Elite Gym
were quite similar to those in Mid-Gym, with the exception that moderate lifters in
Elite Gym used more progressive weight increases, and a larger handful of women
carried out long cardiovascular workouts o f more than forty-five minutes to over an
hour. Women were much less likely than men to use core free weight spaces,
frequently spent shorter periods of time in the weight room, longer times on cv
equipment, and more often used weight lifting practices known to not build mass.
Some of these practices include keeping the weight the same, using small progressive
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increases on weights, and keeping the number o f repetitions high. Men were more
likely than woman in both sites to use shorter cv workouts and practices consistent
with bodybuilding techniques such as pyramids, ladders, and supersets. Indeed, a small
percentage o f women, often heavy lifters (many o f whom were from Mid-Gym) shared
longer periods o f time in the weight room, and weight lifting practices that build mass
with men (yet, as we will see in Chapter Six, their cv workouts are the longest o f any
group of women). Despite the fact that popular culture typically views men and
women as “naturally” physically different, indeed, a cumulative carrying out o f these
generally divergent fitness regimens could easily contribute to the seemingly natural
corporeal form.
Indeed, women who ventured into GTZ’s, or gender transgressive zones, here
male-dominated core free weight spaces, were viewed as the most controversial and
political terrain. Analyzing the discursive exchanges that occurred when women
challenged the normative use of male-dominated space opened up the possibility to
examine how fitness participants manage evidence o f an overlapping continuum o f
strength and performance by gender. At times, there was overt recognition o f the
performance overlap by gender among fitness participants, challenging notions of
absolute male physical superiority. At other times, broader cultural ideologies about
natural gender difference were employed so as to manage evidence o f the continuum
in ways that recreated ideologies o f dichotomous gender difference. Both challenges
and reproductions to gender ideologies can and did occur simultaneously in some of
the same discursive negotiations, highlighting the patterned complexity embedded in
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social world (Heywood & Drake, 1997). Given shifting definitions o f emphasized
femininity, and a shift upwards of the placement o f a glass ceiling on strength (see
Chapter Five and Eight), future research can and should track the cultural practices
that are used over time to manage (recognize and/or wash out) evidence o f a
continuum of performance overlap by gender.
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Chapter Five-“Holding Back:” Negotiating the Glass Ceiling on
Women’s Musculature
I tell them over and over that they won’t get big...women can’t get big,
they don’t have enough testosterone, and they don’t train hard. I watch
them...I can see when they lift how the weight’s too light— they’re not
doing what they can do...but they’re afraid. I tell them ‘don’t be afraid,’ but
they don’t listen...they think they’re going to get bigger, and they don’t
want to get bigger...
— Jack, a thirty-five year old Chicano male personal trainer,
discussing female clients
I do legs sometimes, but nope, no weights, all cardio and walking on the
treadmill...I gain muscle really fast...don’t want to look masculine... they
say lift light and with lots of reps and you won’t gain mass, but NOT ME! I
gain mass so fast!
— Joelle, a forty year old, white fitness participant who no longer lift
weights.
Well...what I did was I found my max—and I could do that ten or fifteen
times... and I would do 40% of my max and sustain it for two minutes... so
for instance, I’ll do forty pounds on something, but that’s 40% of how
much I could do...I used to do three sets of fifteen, but I never maxed out—
I worried that it’d make me bulk, so I held back...
— Carla, a thirty-two year old white skier, walker, tennis player,
swimmer, biker, and hiker
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Numerous factors affect women’s and men’s choice of fitness activities, some of
which include personal preference, available time, access to and experience with
organized sport or other fitness activities, and the ability to pay for various markers of
membership and training. Other factors impacting such a choice might include issues
covered in the last chapter, such as interactions with others inside (and outside of)
fitness centers, the level o f knowledge or experience with activities, and more. While
some might think that the thick description from Chapter Four on women’s practices is
a direct result o f women’s limited weight lifting experiences, w e will see that women’s
fitness choices concerning weights are also influenced by cultural ideologies about
gender, the body, and musculature.
Fears o f gaining bulk or musculature were commonly expressed by many women,
but not all women expressed this, nor did they share this fear to the same degree. In
fact, I observed a range o f lifting performances, practices, fears, and bodily ideologies
regarding strength and musculature among women. As noted previously, I carried out
in-depth interviews with thirty-three women and spoke more informally with hundreds
more who attended fitness centers during the course of ethnographic work. I grouped
women into three categories according to the degree in which they were immersed in
weight lifting activities: non-lifters, moderate lifters, and heavy lifters. Non-lifters
constituted approximately 25% of women on sites, moderate lifers were 65% and
heavy lifters were 10% o f women on sites. This chapter focuses on the ideologies and
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practices o f the first two groups of women, non-lifters and moderate lifters, while
Chapter Six is reserved for description and analysis of the heavy lifters.
The three groups of women spent different amounts of time on weight training and
viewed strength and muscularity in qualitatively distinct ways. At the same time, there
was also some overlap between the groups. For example, there were moderate lifters
who shared with many non-lifters that they feared musculature and did not want to
bulk or be seen as too masculine, yet these moderate lifters also shared with heavy
lifters that they enjoyed seeking strength and the psychic satisfaction of “pushing
themselves.” Examining narratives on the subjects of gender, bodies, and muscles by
women who occupy varying places along the continuum o f strength helps to flesh out
an understanding o f how different women negotiate a glass ceiling or upper limit on
women’s strength.
The Glass Ceiling on Women’s Strength
Researchers have highlighted how women in male-dominated fields and professional
occupations such as law, science, the military, and business reach a glass ceiling
(Reskin & Phipps, 1988). Such a ceiling might be defined as a limit on professional
success where women attempt to venture upward and are stopped. I argue that this
concept is also useful for understanding women in fitness. That is, women in fitness-
even those who seek muscular strength— may find their bodily agency and
empowerment limited not by biology but by ideologies o f emphasized femininity
(Connell, 1987) which structure how far the upper limit on women’s “success” should
be. Approximately 3/4 o f the women I interviewed within fitness sites expressed an
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awareness of a glass ceiling, which they described as a self-imposed limit on the quest
for muscular strength. This awareness was expressed through a shared explicit fear of,
and repulsion towards female bodybuilders’ bodies, a fear o f becoming too big or
bulky themselves, and narratives of how to structure fitness practices so as to ensure
“femininity.” While there was a shared understanding of a limit that women would
allow regarding their muscular size, the three groups of women (non, moderate, and
heavy lifters) negotiated the glass ceiling in unique ways.
Non-Lifters:
It was common for everyday women in fitness sites to express fears that with the
“wrong” kind of exercise, their bodies might develop “excessive” bodybuilders’
musculature. This was the case despite the fact that professional bodybuilders engage
in rigorous training and eating regimes, and some also take steroids to gain size. Some
non-lifters stated that they did not lift weights since they never learned how to weight
lift and would like to learn, or found the weight room to be “intimidating space” given
that there were so few women in it. Others stated that they did not have time to come
to the gym often (such as single mothers who worked multiple jobs, especially at Mid-
Gym, or women juggled work and family responsibilities at both sites), and did so only
to do cardiovascular work and did not have a fear of musculature. It was quite
common, however, for non-lifters to express a hesitancy around weight lifting due to a
fear o f muscular bulk.
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Fear o f “Masculine” Bulk and a Desire for Lean. Taut. Curw. “Femininity:”
Non-lifters frequently focused on weight work and bulk as “masculine” bodily
villains and cardiovascular work as a “feminine” bodily savior. An example of this was
Alyssa, a thirty-two year old white woman at Elite Gym. She had a small-to- medium
build, a short torso and legs, wore a brown one piece tight body suit, and agreed to an
interview while riding the bike one day, saying it would “be great to pass the time.”
She explained that she was an ex-drug addict who felt that she was “fat” at one time,
but that changed one day when “my boyfriend told me I was fat.” She felt that his
telling her that was “the best thing that ever happened to me. It totally motivated me
to work out.” Alyssa carried out five to seven days a week of cardio activity for at
least one hour a day, with no weight lifting, and stated that her fitness goals were to:
...be more toned, and to bum fat, and to not get bigger...of course
Shari: Bigger?
Alyssa: Yea, I don’t want to be buff, but lean...I don’t want to look
like a female bodybuilder...I don’t ever want to be non-feminine,
women should have curves and be soft to some extent, you know?
Alyssa first explained that she was once larger in size due to what she and her
boyfriend thought was excess body fat, while next she expressed fears of gaining size
that can also come with weight lifting. For Alyssa and some others then, it may be
size— be it muscle or fat— that is the powerfully feared transgression against femininity
(Dworkin & Wachs, 1998). Alyssa participated in defining and being defined by
historical notions of the feminine when she stated that she thought female bodybuilders
and “buff’ bodies were non-feminine while “lean and with curves, and soft to some
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extent” were considered feminine. At the same time that Alyssa stated that women
should be “soft and have curves to some extent,” she did not fear that her five to seven
days a week o f cardio activity for one hour a day would bum “too much” body fat or
contribute to a “loss” of curves. It is striking that the realm o f cardiovascular work
somehow retained its feminine status even as it threatened to revoke femininity
according to the definitions used by some of the participants themselves.
Other non-lifters agreed that cardiovascular work somehow contributed to the
feminine while weights took away from it. Several non-lifters in fact had lifted weights
in the past but stopped due to a tension between what they thought their bodies should
do and knowledge of what their bodies actually do. For instance, Joelle, who was
quoted at the outset of the chapter, was a forty year old, white, very thin fitness
participant from the same site who often spoke to me when we walked on the
treadmills. One afternoon, she bragged to me, as was mentioned in Chapter Three,
that she has come to the club “seven days a week for fifteen years” and declared that
she can: “have any job I want, the body I want, and any man I want.” Her comments
reminded me of the individualistic power and agency expressed through Nike “Just Do
It” ad campaigns. I asked Joelle during an interview what fitness activities she did and
she explained that she walked on the treadmill seven days a week for an hour and a
half. When I asked her about weights, she noted:
I do legs sometimes, but nope, no weights, all cardio and walking on
the treadmill...I gain muscle really fast...don’t want to look
masculine... they say lift light and with lots o f reps and you won’t
gain mass, but NOT ME!!! I gain mass so fast!! I should have been a
man!!
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Unlike Alyssa who had never lifted, Joelle had lifted in the past and found that her
muscles responded to weights in a way that defied what she felt women’s bodies
“should” do. Not only did she describe gaining muscle as a masculinized look that she
disliked, but she did not even see gains o f muscle mass as appropriate to or in the
realm of the fathomable for womanhood: “I should have been a man!!” At the same
time, when asked about her weight lifting activities, she replied that “I do legs
sometimes,” yet she then stated “nope, no weights.” I proceeded to watch her
workout on a number of different occasions over the course of several weeks, and she
indeed lifted regularly with her leg and gluteus (butt) muscles. Noting a possible
divergence between what people say and do (Hammersley, 1998; Hoschild, 1989), I
questioned this practice. I asked her why she said that she didn’t lift weights but lifted
weights regularly, and her reply was: “I don’t really do it, you know, lifting lifting.”
When I then asked her what “lifting lifting” was, she said “you know” while making a
he-man face and flexing her upper body as if she were a physically massive person.
Thus, perhaps she associated “lifting lifting” only with more “serious” lifting or weight
lifting in the traditional male bodybuilding sense that emphasizes upper body strength.
This experience was one of several that taught me to try to track the difference
between what individual fitness participants say they do, and what they actually do.
Lastly, when Joelle stated that “they say lift light and with lots of reps so you won’t
gain mass,” this reflected a common pattern of discourse I found across sites. As we
will see, “they say lift light” is a popularly discussed common sense solution offered by
personal trainers to many female clients’ who were concerned with acquiring big
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muscles. Rather than cheering women on to “Just Do It!” as is suggested in Nike ad
campaigns, this solution instead warns many women to “Just Hold Back!” on weight
lifting. If women do hold back, they can indeed construct a less muscled form, more
appropriately feminine form. Yet, the advice itself leads us to ask questions about the
institution o f fitness and the personal trainers who work in it. How personal trainers
juggle the ironic potential gap between those suggestions that help participants to
adhere to dominant bodily ideals and those that maximize participants’ “health and
fitness” will be discussed in Chapter Seven.
The Economy o f Value Among Fitness Practices:
While many women who did not lift weights stated that they steered clear o f the
weight room to avoid bulk and to maintain femininity,2 1 others also assigned an
economy of value to cardiovascular work while stating that weight work wasn’t
“necessary.” Several non-lifters at both Mid-Gym and Elite Gym did not express an
overt disgust or fear o f muscle, but used expressions such as: “I don’t need muscle,”
“I don’t want muscle,” or “Its unnecessary— I don’t see the need for it.” For instance,
one day while walking on a treadmill, I met Belinda, a thirty year old white woman
who was a film editor. While we walked, she proudly described how she had a job in
the film industry where she “only has to work nine months a year.” On the day we
21
This is not to say that all women who do not lift do so because of a fear of bulk. Indeed, some of the
women from Mid-Gym who worked long hours in the paid labor force, particularly single mothers
and/or working class women and women of color, stated that they felt “lucky” to just get to the gym
once a month to walk on a treadmill. The same was heard from a few white women in Elite Gym w ho
felt they couldn’t’ “break away” from work and worked long hours in the paid labor force.
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spoke for an interview, she wore grey cut off sweats, a simple white t-shirt, and had
her long, straight blonde hair pulled back in a pony tail. She stated that she walked or
ran (or both) on a treadmill for thirty minutes and also did fifteen minutes of
stairmaster five days a week. We talked about how she does not currently lift, but that
this wasn’t always the case. She explained that she used to race track and learned to
lift weights from a male coach when she was on the women’s high school track team.
She remembered that when the girls’ track team lifted weights in the team weight
room, they “kidded and fooled around when the coach left the room.” When I asked
her if she could say more about this, she described how “some girls took it very
seriously— I just wasn’t one o f them.” When we discussed why she chose this mix of
cv work and no weights, she replied, “I just felt like I didn’t need the muscle...you
know? And now, I feel like I just want to stay toned and I don’t really need the
muscle. I mean, I want to be able to lift things at my job, but I feel in shape enough to
do that. I don’t need to do more. Its like, its not like my friends who are actors...they
need to be buff....they have to be buff..If I needed it, I’d do it, but I don’t have to do
it, so I don’t...”
While Belinda referred to “not needing” more strength or muscles for her job or the
rest o f her life, it’s telling that when we talked about her cardiovascular work, she
didn’t use the same referent around “not needing” it for her job or her life. Perhaps
this was because she feels in shape enough to lift the things she needs to lift, or
perhaps she “just felt like she wants to stay toned” and saw cardiovascular work as a
good route to get and stay in shape. Numerous other non-lifters used similar
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expressions concerning “not needing” muscle or finding it “unnecessary.” Several
interview narratives made more clear the underlying meanings o f these popularly
offered statements. Cardiovascular work was indeed referred to as the much more
valuable activity for several non-lifters. It was seen as being of utmost importance
since it offered what was perceived as a need for maximum calorie expenditure
(assumed to be derived from CV work) which was consistent with body size
reduction. For instance, Mariam, a twenty-four year old Latina woman from Mid-
Gym stated that she did not lift weights and instead only chose cardio work because
she had “limited time”and that “the goal is to maximize the amount of calories burned
and cardio gives me the greatest bang for the buck.”
Similarly, Alyssa, who more overtly expressed a fear of bulk previously, also stated
during her interview that “my time is limited, so cardio work is where I spend it.” At
the same time that cardio work is seen as maximizing the use of time concerning
calories bums, many women who had never learned to lift did not often mention the
“calorie burning qualities” of weight lifting.2 2 After hearing from several non-lifters
that weight lifting was unnecessary while cardio provided the best bang for the buck, I
wondered, what’s the buck? For non-lifters, the buck appeared to be maintaining
femininity and avoiding masculine taint through “maximum calorie expenditure,” a
22
However, this doesn’t mean that all women who did not currently lift had never heard of the “calorie
burning qualities” of weights from others. For instance, some non-lifters and moderate lifters
mentioned to me during informal interviews that they had heard or read that the “solution” to
“getting fat” in old age was to increase muscle mass and increase one’s metabolism through lifting
weights.
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practice consistent with the goals of body size reduction. Moderate lifters shared this
“buck” with non-lifters, but departed from it in unique ways.
Moderate Lifters:
Moderate lifters, who constituted approximately 65% of the women on the two
fitness sites, shared complex and contradictory combinations of pleasures and dangers
about lifting weights. Both non lifters and moderate lifters strategically structured
fitness practices to ensure “femininity”— defined as the maintenance of curves coupled
with a desire not to increase body size (from fat or muscular bulk). Both saw
cardiovascular work as integral to the maintenance of “femininity” while too much
weight work was perceived to threaten its construction. However, moderate lifters
also described unique tensions around desiring muscular strength while not wanting to
increase body size. Before examining these unique tensions, I will discuss the ways in
which moderate lifters were similar to non-lifers.
Many moderate lifters shared non-lifters’ fears of bulkiness or a loss of femininity
from weights. I noticed Janet, a twenty-five year old white woman a number o f times
on a stairmaster at Elite Gym. I noted to myself that I had also seen her a number of
times in the weight room, and was pleased when she agreed to let me interview her
one day on site. When I saw her on stairmasters, her brown ponytail bopped around
madly on the back of her head as she stepped up and down rhythmically on the steps.
She sometimes wore pink short tights and a pink crop top which revealed “cuts” in her
belly, and her body was extremely tight, toned, and taut. She informed me that she was
working on becoming a dietician and spoke disapprovingly about her mother’s
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exercise regime. She stated that her mother “walks a few days a week, but she walks
so slow... she barely breaks a sweat.” She seemed ashamed of her mother’s “little
bulge of a tummy after she had kids” and how she “thought gross, which is rude I
know, but I can’t help my thoughts, and I don’t want to be that.” Although her words
showed a harsh contempt for her mother’s body fat, her comments revealed the
historical malleability of constructs of femininity. After all, voluptuous Marilyn
Monroe was considered an ideal feminine form in the 1950's. Were Monroe to return
to the scene in the new millennium, she’d likely be seen as needing to strip herself of
body fat, now generally viewed as a sign of laziness and excess— a failure for taut,
contained corporeal womanhood in the 1990's and beyond. Janet stated that she did
six days a week, two hours a day of cardiovascular work with “light weights for
around a half hour,” and then explained proudly that this “might be a lot for other
people, but it isn’t for me.” When I asked her why she picked this particular
arrangement of activities, she replied:
To maintain...to not turn into my parents...to not gain an inch a year
like they say I will. And there’s definitely an avoidance of bulk. Even
though I know I won’t bulk, I don’t have the testosterone...its..its...
just ingrained in me...
Shari: You think an avoidance of bulk is ingrained in you?
Janet: Yeah., yeah..(nodding)
Shari: Can you think o f how an avoidance of bulk was ingrained in
you?
Janet: Nothing specific. I know it sounds odd. I just don’t like bulk...I
like long...lean... .you know.. .1 was a cheerleader and a gymnast in
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high school...and a cross country runner...(Pause) (Looks directly at
me, one eyebrow is up) H uh, those are all women’s sports, aren’t
they?!?
The power of both perceived biological and cultural rationales regarding bodies is
infused into Janet to the point where she stated that she “knows” she “won’t bulk”
since she “doesn’t have the testosterone” that building muscle mass requires. Yet, at
the same time, she also believed that her fear of bulk was “just ingrained in me,” and
this was part o f the reason for structuring her fitness activities this way— she just was
not sure where this idea came from. Unlike Joelle who stated that she gained mass
and thus avoided weights, Janet stated that she won’t bulk, and yet chose to embark
on long cv workouts with light lifting so as to ensure it. She stated that she “ just
doesn’t like bulk” as if it is a simply stated personal preference while noting that she
also self-selected into numerous women’s sports in high school— ones which required
the bodily aesthetics associated with female-appropriate sports. Janet didn’t fear bulk
to the point o f avoiding the weight room, and lifted light weights for thirty minutes
when she worked out. In this way, she nudged up on the ceiling on strength over non-
lifters while ensuring that she didn’t bulk- or become larger from fat, e.g. “turning
into her parents.” Again, perhaps it is size— be it muscle or fat that is the powerfully
feared transgression. It is this desire for strength, coupled with a fear o f getting too
muscular that makes moderate lifters’ bodily negotiations unique.
Simultaneous Desire For Strength and Fear of Bulk:
Moderate lifters shared similar concerns with bulk that non-lifters expressed, yet
simultaneously and openly embraced narratives o f strength. One such woman was
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Lucia, a thirty-five year old African-American woman from Mid-Gym. I met Lucia in
the weight room at Mid-Gym several times and watched her bounce to a few nautilus
stations such as those for the chest, triceps, hips, buttocks, and abs. Some days, I
watched how she did hundred o f crunches for the abdomen, and one Sunday
afternoon, she looked up to find me, smiled, and said to me “yah gotta keep doing 'em
and doing ‘em...to see results...women have more body fat and it takes more time...”
One day, I explained to her that I am a researcher and asked her for an interview, and
several weeks later, we spoke more formally. She wore black short tights and a big
baggy brown t-shirt, and we had an interview off to the side of the weight room. She
stated that she did cardiovascular work three or four times a week for forty-five
minutes combined with numerous sets of light weights for fifteen to thirty minutes.
When I asked her if she could explain why she does her workout this way, she
explained:
Well, cardiovascular work helps me to lose weight... and I do many
sets of the same weight... and don’t increase it because I don’t want
to be like some women who are losing their femininity, you know...
their curves...I don’t want to be like a female bodybuilder...
Similar to many non-lifters, moderate lifters often described a desire to retain “curves”
and viewed heavy weight lifting as a transgressive activity that could contribute to a
“loss” of femininity. Despite these fears, Lucia didn’t resolve this tension by avoiding
weights altogether (as did non-lifters). In fact, she routinely did many sets o f the same
weight, and strategically soothed fears of masculinization by not increasing the weight
across several sets. This, she noted, helped her avoid being “like some women.” At
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the same time that Lucia expressed distaste towards female bodybuilders, she devalued
skinny bodies. Here, Lucia yelled out during her interview that she had something to
say to “the women in the popular magazines— I ignore you!!” :
...if I could just do Cardio V, I would, but you have to sculpt the
body more than that— if you don’t, and you just do CV, you end up
thin and flabby. Its easy to be thin, hell, just don’t eat to be thin...but
its hard work to be strong...
Here, Lucia highlighted the paradoxical stance of moderate lifters. Moderate lifers
often had in common with non-lifters a fear of masculinization, yet also shared with
heavy lifters a desire to seek strength and “be strong” while expressing disdain for thin
bodies. This disdain was expressed as “ignoring” the women in the magazines and
viewing thinness as being the “easy” way while strength was “hard work.” At the
same time, “you have to sculpt the body,” revealed how Lucia constructs and is
constructed by shifting definitions of femininity where slender is no longer adequate,
while toned, firm, and tight musculature— with curves is (Bordo, 1993).
Other women who lifted moderately shared Lucia’s view that “you end up thin and
flabby” if workouts were limited to cv work. In fact, I formally and informally
interviewed several women who were in their forties who were moderate lifters and
had been drawn into fitness activities during the aerobics boom o f the seventies and
eighties. These women were drawn to weight lifting with a desire to be strong and not
thin, while many still held a fear o f bulk. At that time, the current 90's (and beyond)
expectation for women to lift light weights and meet a “cut” standard of muscle tone
was not yet present. Instead, many women in the 1970's and 80's spent their fitness
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days doing aerobics classes, and some found that burning off all that body fat without
lifting weights and building muscles left them feeling skinny and weak. Lori, a white
forty-three year old woman from Elite Gym was one o f those women.
She said that she had sought weight lifting as a refuge— a way out o f feeling physically
weakened from repeated aerobics classes.
At the same time that Lori stated a desire to seek strength and “be” strong, she
simultaneously believed that women should not have excess musculature and was very
grateful that her own body didn’t gain much mass when she lifted weights. Lori was
very tall and trim, appeared to never get exhausted across long doses of stairmaster,
and no inch o f her body jiggled as she stepped over and over again. She had tight,
thick blonde curls atop her head, wore a tan bodysuit with black thong, and a white T-
shirt that cropped at her waist. She had on blue lifting gloves which covered her hands
while her red fingernails poked out at the open end, and she read a magazine which
was placed on the magazine rack on her stairmaster. At one point, she began to sound
hesitant and sad about working out when she then added that “they tell us to do all this
stuff to get stronger.. .and then sometimes we do it, and we get joint problems.. .back
problems...knee problems...” She then described an excruciating back surgery she had
which she felt was necessary because she thought that her last personal trainer had her
lift much too heavily too soon. She stated that she no longer lifted free weights, and
“only used the machines” because she is “afraid to get it all wrong, injure myself
again...” When I asked her why she lifted weights, she explained:
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...It’s good....lifting is good...it gets me stronger...I mean, I’d never
want to look like a bodybuilder...I think its ugly...its preposterous...I
would never want to look like anything close to that...I asked my
husband the other day— what man would want to cuddle up with a
woman like that?? I mean, they are much stronger than me I
know...and I know they’re very dedicated and devoted and spend lots
and lots of time on their bodies— or they’re naturally predisposed to
gain a lot of muscle— or they take steroids— a lot o f them do that, don’t
they? But some guys who body build like it, I mean. I mean, I have
this friend who lifts a lot and he really likes big muscle in women, but
most guys don’t...I don’t know...I just don’t understand what kind of
guy would like that in a woman! I think its just disgusting!!
Lori associated female bodybuilders with a lack of heterosexual attractiveness and
asked what “kind o f man” would be attracted to a “woman like that.” Her words
signified her perception that working out should result in a body that the “opposite”
sex likes (but noted that “some guys like it”). At the same time, her statements reveal
much about how cultural conceptions o f man and woman are based on assumptions of
oppositional appearances (and how this is assumed to be equated with
heterosexuality). After all— if, in heterosexuality, a man can “cuddle up” with a big,
strong, muscular woman, perhaps she’s wondering what’s stopping him from
“cuddling up” with other big, strong, muscular bodies— men’s bodies?
Lori stated that she did cardiovascular work for one hour six days a week, and
lifted six days a week. When she lifted with the upper body, her weight workout took
fifteen minutes, and when she worked out with weights for her lower body, her
workout took thirty to forty-five minutes. When I asked her if she gained muscle from
her workouts, she nearly yelled:
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Oh, no!! I don’t gain very much muscle at all! I mean, some women
lift less than me and they gain much more muscle than I do...I
mean...I know its very individual...some women gain muscle very
easily, I don’t though! Thank God!!
While Lori was drawn to lifting to “seek strength” after feeling weakened from
only doing cardiovascular workouts, she didn’t want her body to look “anywhere
close” to female bodybuilders. She also seemed to be quite thankful that when she
lifted weights, she was not like “some women” who gain muscle weight more easily
than she does. While some women saw themselves as having no predisposition to
gaining muscle mass, there were many more women who lifted moderately who saw
themselves as predisposed to gaining varying degrees of muscle. Moderate lifters in
fact often used unique strategies to mediated the perceived pleasures and “evils” of
weight lifting not by avoiding weights altogether, but by carefully watching their
bodies for signs of “excess” musculature and “adjusting” their workouts accordingly.
There were three distinct weight lifting strategies that moderate lifters used to mediate
an expressed fear of bulk with a simultaneous desire to seek strength. These strategies
were to stop lifting weights for a period of time, or “back off” in terms of time spent
or number of days in the weight room, “keep the weight the same” across weight sets
rather than increase it, or intentionally “holding back” on the amount o f weight lifted.
“Backing off:”
Jacki, a sixty year old white woman from Mid-Gym boldly declared that she had
been lifting and working out “well before Jane Fonda came out, and then everybody
caught on.” She and I met on site after we rode a recline bike together one day, and
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she discussed with me that she does thirty minutes of cv work five days a week and
lifted for five to fifteen minutes two days a week. Jacki was now married to her second
husband and she stated that he and many members of her family “gave me a hard time
for being so into fitness.” When I asked her why, she said that “they found it out
there.” and offered up a seemingly rebellious smile, wink, and nod. Later in the
conversation, she flexed her bicep as we talked and asked me to feel it, and when I
found that it was mighty iron-like, she told/asked me if she’s “got pretty good muscles,
huh?” At one point, she held up her hand, stopped the interview, flexed her leg at me,
and stated “I ’m very solid!!” Though she was clearly proud o f her pre-Jane Fonda
physical accomplishments, I was surprised to find that she also seemed embarrassed or
secretive of her muscularity. Later in the interview, she leaned in and whispered to
me, as if to share an illicit secret with me: “ I had muscles before I lifted.” Did you? I
asked. “Yes I did” she whispered. “But they get bigger when you lift.” She then added,
slightly louder than a whisper, “I stopped lifting for awhile because I didn’t like the
way bodybuilders’ backs looked...” It is intriguing that Jacki didn’t say that her back
looked like a bodybuilder’s back, but that she doesn’t like the looks o f bodybuilders’
backs, thus she stopped or backed off from weight lifting altogether for awhile.
Perhaps the fear of looking like she had big muscles was a concern since she “already”
had muscles without lifting and “they get bigger when you lift.”
Similarly, I met Annette, a thirty-six year old Asian-American woman from Elite
Gym, who moved through the weight room with a confidence and posture of
athleticism, in the weight room. Her movements lacked the hesitation, fear, or
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uncertainty that many other women’s body postures offered. She often wore full
length dark tights, a short crop top, and sported striated, medium sized muscles. When
we spoke, she explained that she “spun” six days a week (stationary bike class) for an
hour, and lifted weights twice a week for thirty to forty-five minutes. She highlighted
how she used to lift five days a week, “religiously,” for around an hour, but that she’d
decided to “back off” to two days a week. When I asked her if she could help me
understand why, she explained:
I like strength, and I like maintaining my physical structure with
muscles, but I don’t like the look of being too buff. I liked it then, but
now I like lean, fit, a little buff, feminine...I don’t wanna look like
[once professional bodybuilder] Cory Everson...I want to lean out
more...
Annette’s comment reflects the historically changeable notions of “ideal” for women’s
bodies. “The look” she described certainly extended beyond past historical definitions
o f women’s bodies as voluptuous (1950's) or very slim (1960's-1970's) to include
1990-2000's ideals defined as “lean, fit, a little buff, feminine.” Yet, she also
highlighted not just “looks” goals within fitness but other functional uses for strength
described as “the maintenance of her physical structure.” Seeking strength and
desiring longevity for her body structure were part o f why she lifted weights, while not
wanting to “look too buff” limited her time in the weight room. Cory Everson is an ex
female bodybuilder who is well known for her success at landing product
endorsements through her simultaneous adherence to intense muscularity and
emphasized femininity. Although Cory Everson is popular in fitness magazines and is
considered by many to succeed at displaying emphasized femininity, her muscularity
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and mass are profound, and as such, she can still be a symbol of what many women
hope not to become. Thus, several light lifters revealed that there is a tension between
the pride and pleasures of physical strength and the ensuing muscularity or perceived
masculinization o f the body. “Backing off’ on weights or “stopping” weight lifting for
a specified period of time were two of the ways in which moderate lifters mediated the
tension between bodily ideologies (what bodies should do) and body knowledge (what
bodies actually do). Keeping the weight the same across sets was another strategy
used to mediate these tensions.
“Keep the weight the same”
In the same way that“backing off” or stopping for awhile helped structure a
particular bodily look, “keeping the weight the same”served a similar purpose.
Margaret, a twenty-one year old white woman from Mid-Gym, frequently appeared
bored and/or tired in the fitness center judging from her facial expressions and yawns.
Unlike many others, she talk to others much and didn’t look around or seem
stimulated much by the fitness scene. When I watched her lift weights, the same blank
face moved with her. She explained to me how she trekked to the gym five days a
week to do thirty to forty-five minutes of cardio work, and lifted weights twice a week
for twenty to thirty minutes. I asked her how many sets she lifted and what amount of
weight she lifted across sets, and she explained that:
I do three sets of everything. I keep the weight the same across three
sets. I would increase it if I had done it for long enough, if like... I’ve
tried it too much on the same weight...but I’m cautious...I don’t
wanna look like a female bodybuilder...I don’t want to look like a
jock either...and...I want strength, but I don’t want to gain weight
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and sometimes it makes your muscles bigger even if you don’t want
them to...but I guess its ok because that means you’re getting
stronger too...but I really don’t want to get bigger...
Margaret associated the stigma of “bigger muscles” not only with bodybuilding, but
with “jocks,” who might be described as those who participate not in fitness, but in
sport, where the term is often pejoratively used. In general, “jock” has referred to
male athletes, although it may apply increasingly to women. Margaret discussed the
joys of desiring strength yet also revealed that she did not want muscle size, weight
gain, and did not want to look like a female bodybuilder. There was a tension between
wanting strength, “guessing its ok” because “that means one is getting stronger too,”
but at the same time, fearing an increase in muscle size and having to “be cautious”
with weights which “sometimes makes your muscles bigger even if you don’t want
them to.” While there was some overlap between men’s and women’s fitness
practices, I observed that Margaret’s practice of keeping the weight the same across
sets was widely used by women, while many male fitness participants (and female
heavy lifters) increased the weight across three or more sets. Using ethnographic
observation alone might lead one to believe that this is due to women’s lack of
experience with weights, but interviews reveal the self-conscious strategies women
enact to mediate bodily knowledge with bodily ideologies. Other moderate lifters
overtly termed such a strategy as “holding back” on seeking muscular size.
Holding Back;
Kit, a nineteen year old African-American woman at Mid-Gym, was easily
recognizable to me since she had one of the most muscular frames among moderate
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lifters, and she frequently dared to venture into core free weight spaces. During our
interview, she stated that her workout included one hour o f CV work once a week,
thirty minutes of CV work two days a week, and weight lifting three days a week for
fifteen minutes across three exercises (bench press, rowing, and squats). She
discussed how she was taught to lift weights in high school when she was on the track
team, how she used to play basketball in high school, and how she still loved to “shoot
hoops.” She stated that she wanted to “touch the rim” when she shot baskets, and
smiled and added “that’s why I do those crazy squats.” When I asked her about her
sets and reps, she informed me that she carried out three sets on each exercise, that she
started with a weight that “is comfortable” and increased the weight over two other
sets. In this way, she departed from many moderate lifters who “kept the weight the
same” across sets, and instead shared this particular practice with nearly all o f the
heavy lifters. After describing how she increased the weight over three sets, she
laughed, shook her head, and added: “my mother says to not lift too much, that I’ll get
too big... though... so I ’m always worried about that.” When I asked her if she ever
responded to her mom, she stated: “Yea, I tell her not to worry, that women don’t
have to fear getting big because they don’t have a lot o f testosterone.” When I then
asked her why she was “always worried” about her mom’s warning if women “don’t
have a lot of testosterone” to worry about, she replied, “Well, I am worried about
getting bigger. That’s why I keep the reps low and I don’t do too many.”
Similar to Annette, Kit also described a functional use for weight lifting. She stated
that she wanted improved sports performance (touching the rim), and that “crazy
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squats” moved her towards that goal. At the same time, despite “common sense”
beliefs that women “can’t get big,” she was indeed “always worried” about the cultural
dictates that women shouldn’t get too big. To solve the ironic tension between what
women are told they “can’t” do and yet shouldn’t do, she pushed herself enough to get
the improved sports performance she wanted but also “kept the reps low” and didn’t
“do too many” so as to not increase her size.
Similarly, when I first spotted Carla in Elite Gym, she reminded me o f Annette and
Kit with how freely she ventured into free weight and designated “heavy” spaces to
lift. She moved confidently and fluidly, without hesitation. Her posture was proud,
she appeared to be solid and strong, and her mesomorphic form seemed to “say”
athletics.2 3 When we first talked, she was on a treadmill, and I found out that she was
a thirty-two year old skier, walker, tennis player, swimmer, biker, and hiker, who did
some combination o f these activities seven days a week, in addition to recently joining
a pilates studio. She inspired me to research pilates, and I found that it began as a
workout solely for ballet dancers, but was now becoming more and more popular in
mainstream fitness. Pilates emphasizes a combination of components such as spiritual
and postural techniques from yoga, plyometric exercises (which use sudden bursts of
muscle, as a basketball player would need to get a rebound and then jump to make a
shot ), and flexibility exercises. Carla described it as “emphasizing centering, balance,
jumping machines used for dancers,” “posture,” and “lengthening.” She lifted
23
One might call this an athletic bodily habitus (Bordieu, 1984).
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moderately, twice a week for thirty to fifty minutes, and was much stronger than most
of the women (and some o f the men) in Elite Gym. I observed that she did weight
assisted pull ups on what is known as a “gravitron machine,” and she continued these
for an unusually extended period of time-over three minutes straight.2 4 When I asked
her what this type o f workout is for, she informed me that: “its an endurance
workout...for strength...but not to build...” When I asked why she chose this workout,
she stated:
I know my body type and I know I have a tendency to build mass,
and I’ve had that in fact, to some degree, before being athletic...so
my goals now are to lengthen my muscles, and to keep fit to do all
the sports I love to do...
Further along in the interview on a treadmill, I asked her to tell how she decided on
the specific reps and sets in her workout. She explained to me that:
Well...what I did was I found my max—and I could do that ten or
fifteen times... and I would do 40% of my max and sustain it for two
minutes...so for instance, I’ll do forty pounds on something, but
that’s 40% o f how much I could do...I used to do three sets of
fifteen, but I never maxed out— I worried that it’d make me bulk, so
I held back...
What struck me first is that it is common knowledge in the fitness community that
one’s “max”is the maximum amount of weight one can lift on one repetition, not ten,
so Carla’s conception o f a max already held her back from knowing what her max
even was. While it was common to see a number of everyday men on fitness sites
24
A gravitron machine allows a fitness participant to carry out pull ups and dips without having to lift
all of their own body weight up and down. That is, participants can specify the amount of weight to
subtract from their full body weight in order to execute the exercise.
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“max out” on their weight lifting sets, and/or take supplements to make sure that
fatigue doesn’t set in, I observed under one dozen women in the course o f my
fieldwork “max out.” Second, Carla stated that she “used to do three sets o f fifteen,” a
few reps more than the common two to three sets o f ten (or twelve) that I most often
observed across women across gyms. Yet, she stopped doing this, since she “worried
that it’d make me bulk,” so she cut back to forty percent of her max and sustained it
over a more extended period o f time. When I asked her how she began this particular
lifting regime, she stated that she asked a trainer for a recommendation, who offered
her the “40% of max” program she described. She then stated how much she liked the
program her trainer had her doing:
I really like it. I don’t feel bulked up now. Over the years, people
tell me that I look so much better now— and that’s so nice, that feels
so good— I have this more lengthened look...I think its just prettier....
Not unlike the trainers who prescribe light weights and high reps for their clients who
don’t want to bulk, Carla posed a question to her trainer, and he aided her in working
towards the desired look (this will be discussed more in Chapter Seven). While
Carla’s workout served to keep her in shape for all the sports she loved to do, she was
simultaneously pleased to find that she was now “lengthened” and “prettier.” Some
scholars might refer to this “nice” look that “feels so good” as part of our current
historical moment where a highly specified kind of “looking good” can become
conflated with “feeling good”(Duncan, 1994). Thus, while moderate lifters indeed
sought out a desired level o f physical fortitude and strength, blasting past non-lifters,
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they also bumped up against the glass ceiling on muscular size, “holding back” so as to
avoid bulk. As we will see, this was not the case for heavy lifters.
Other moderate lifters added still other dimensions to this desired look aside from
“long and lean” but “not too buff” which was viewed as acceptable for womanhood.
For instance, Robin, a thirty-six year old white woman from Mid-Gym actively stated
that she sought strength, explained to me that she wanted her muscles to not only be
tight, lean, and toned but also “cut” to a certain extent. When I saw Robin at the gym,
I noted that she was tall, lean, toned, “cut,” and lightly muscled. She often wore long
black tights, a small black crop top which revealed most o f her abdomen, she had tiny
sculpted sets of squares for an abdomen, and her body was very streamlined and
compact. After her cardio and weight workout, she often did a combination o f aerobic
dance moves and stretching off to the side o f the gym. Her hair was piled high and
wide on her head in a wild mound o f dark black curls which reminded of the late
1970's. When we had an interview, she described her fitness time as a special respite
from all of her work and family responsibilities by stating that it was the “only time for
myself.” 2 5 She stated that her workout consisted o f cardio work four days a week for
forty-five minutes to an hour and weight lifting for thirty to forty-five minutes four
days a week. When we arrived at talking about her specific weight lifting routine and
25
Ironically, while many lieterosexually married women who work in the paid labor force claimed that
working out is the “only time for myself,” it might also be considered part of a third shift-adhering to
the latest bodily requirements--in addition to working the first and second shifts (Hoschild, 1989).
And, Bordo (1997) challenges women who state that fitness is something for “them” and that they
alone choose the bodily ideals that often fuel their fitness decisions. These ideals, she argues, are
indubitably culturally shaped, and women do not like to “ think that they are pawns of astute
advertisers, or even that they are responding to social norms” (p. 33).
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why she chose it, she spoke o f a mixture of tone, cut, strength, and femininity, and
informed me that she did the same amount of weight across all three sets (three sets o f
twelve pounds) for many o f her free weight exercises. When I asked her how she
learned all this, she stated that her trainer had taught her. Then, she described her
trainer to me as having an “incredible body” and so she “figured she must know what
she’s doing!” She then stated that if she “hadn’t had a trainer, I would’ve stayed the
same...I would have stayed stagnant...nothing would have changed...” When I ask her
what changes she was referring to, she explained that:
Well I...I didn’t want to look like...you know...I wanted to look like
a Ms. Fitness...I didn’t want that masculine look...I wanted to have
a feminine looking body— and still be tight, toned...and still see the
tone in my arm or leg...like if I feel like I’ve lost definition in my
arms, I’ll call her up and say ‘look at my routine, I’d like to see
more definition...’ I don’t wanna get bigger, but I’d like to see a
little more definition on my biceps... or in my triceps...like I don’t
want...like I see women who are big...even though their legs are
really toned...I don’t like that big look...I like lean but still
defined...I mean...I want to wear a dress without looking like a guy
in a dress. I mean, some women are really toned, but I wonder to
myself, you know...what she looks like...when she puts on a
sleeveless dress...you know?
While past bodily ideals may have left “cut” and “definition” out o f the realm of the
fathomable for women, today “cut” and “definition” are at the center of some
women’s bodily ideals...as long as the size o f one’s muscles isn’t too big. The tension
between fit and toned but not-too-muscular fuels the current debate surrounding why
many women may have flocked from female bodybuilding to become “Ms. Fitness”
participants. Ms. Fitness contests feature women who are toned, cut, and athletic
while adhering more closely to emphasized femininity (with body size and moves) than
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do bodybuilders (Heywood, 1998). Unlike bodybuilding which requires participants to
gain a large amount o f muscle mass and then pose to feature it, female fitness contest
participants combine light to moderate muscle gains with a number of cheerleading
and gymnastics moves, such as jumps, splits, and holding one’s body weight on one
palm. Fitness contests also have a beauty round with evening gowns to top off the
evening. Since fitness contest participants more overtly adhere to emphasized
femininity, it is not unusual that “Ms. Fitness” and female bodybuilder icons are pitted
against one another in popular culture, revealing what women’s bodies should and
should not emulate.2 6 Robin’s complex narrative revealed that she lifted weights to be
strong, that fitness was a space which she perceived as absolutely for her, and that she
enjoyed carrying “cuts” on her muscles. At the same time, she described how her
specific mode of training and the questions she asked of her trainer to “ensure she
doesn’t stagnate” are geared to produce a Ms. Fitness-type body, not a larger, more
muscled one. Robin’s confusion over whether those “women who are big” look like
women~or men-- in a dress reveals the distinctive role that large muscles and weight
room time still play in confirming manhood while making womanhood more
ambiguous.
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In fact, in a content and textual analysis of women’s mainstream fitness magazines (Dworkin &
Wachs, 1998), results showed that women’s fitness cover models were never female bodybuilders or
fitness contest participants and were rarely even female athletes. Often, the magazines feature
supermodels, actresses, and an occasional aerobics star such as Jane Fonda, Karen Voight, or Denise
Austin.
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Summary:
Contrary to quick common sense claims that women are categorically different
from men and cannot gain much muscle, this chapter revealed many women’s
awareness that muscle is something that they can and do gain. In fact, based on
tensions between what bodies should do, what bodies actually do, and shifting cultural
standards o f emphasized femininity, approximately 3/4 of the women within these
fitness sites expressed an awareness of an upper limit on the quest for muscular size.
Interviews revealed that non-lifters and moderate lifters used unique strategies to
mediate the tensions between a desire for strength and a feared bodily muscularity by
avoiding, backing off, or holding back on weight workouts. Many non-lifters tended
to see muscle in the realm of masculinity and/or manhood, or as “unnecessary” and
avoided weights. By contrast, moderate lifters’ narratives more often centered on
themes of strength, not wanting to be left weak from cv activities, had some disdain
for skinny bodies, and saw lifting weights as helping to meet the goal of increased
strength. Some moderate lifters also emphasized the functional uses for weight lifting
which led to using weight lifting strength to improve strength in sport skills. In this
way, some moderate lifters shared with heavy lifters’ a joy of seeking strength, some
of the functional uses for it (as opposed to “not needing it”) and a desire at times to
“move up” in weight if a particular weight became too easy. This sense o f pushing
upward on the glass ceiling through wanting to seek strength and muscularity or
needing strength for sports performance was qualitatively different from non-lifters
narratives which did not often include discussions of strength or “needing” i t .
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I argue that the many women who did not lift weights or “held back” on lifting
due to a feared masculinization and wanting to be “feminine enough” reveal a
subjective complicity to what I call a glass ceiling on strength. Holding back on
weights can help constitute a physical form consistent with current or emergent
definitions of emphasized femininity (Connell, 1987), defined as tight, toned, curvy,
and not-too-muscular. Ironically, enacting these practices can at times lead to
outcomes which produce a less powerful, capable, competent, or independent body to
use in daily life—the opposite of what many health and fitness regimens intend to do.
But not all women fear muscle so profoundly...
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Chapter Six— Breaking Through?: The Few, The Powerful
Fiona, a twenty-seven year old white woman enters Mid-Gym, yet again. Three
days a week for one hour or more, she pushes herself on exercise after exercise, rep
after rep, set after set. She pushes harder than nearly every woman (and many men)
across several sites in which I have observed. When she walks in today, there are five
bench presses, one is open. The other four are occupied, as usual, by individual men
and pairs of men. When she approaches the bench press, at first glance, she looks
compact and non-threatening. She adjusts her long brown ponytail, shakes her
shoulders to loosen up before the ritual begins. She bends at the waist, uses her
muscular legs, and sweeps up even the largest of “plates” with arms on a mission. She
whips the plates onto the bar with ease. As soon as she lifts the 45's to place them on
the bar, eyes begin to drift her way. When she lies down, more eyes move to her. She
doesn’t stop at one or two sets of light weight. She does at least six sets, moving up
ten or more pounds with each set pyramid style, then backing down the pyramid. As
she proceeds to press the 45's (and more) up and back, up and back, she yells
“chaL.cha!,” shoving the heavy weight off her chest with a vengeance. Several people
stop what they are doing. At the end of the sets, she does negatives where she starts
at the top of the repetition, elbows extended, and lets the bar down slowly to her
chest, grimacing, eventually shaking. Silent facial features of those nearby who watch
look surprised, contorted. Some even look disgusted. A rare few cheer. One nearby
man says aloud “wow, she’s strong” as he looks at Fiona, and the woman he is lifting
with says back “yeah, but who’d wanna lift that much?!” Nearby, two young men
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begin grabbing one another’s arms and declare “look... look at that!” “No way! No
way!!!,” and a dash farther across the room, words echo from two other men: “Shit
mann...shit! Oh my God...Oh my God, A chick is doing a plate! A chick is doing a
plate!! Look! A girl is putting up a plate!!” “Yea...” the first young man says...and
adds “...she’s strong for a girl!!...”
Fiona, a mesomorphic, powerful woman who ritually sought strength, proudly
sauntered into the weight room. She ventured into free weight spaces with no trace of
hesitation, shoulders cracked back, her stride representing some combination of
experience, pride, and a fiery spirit that one can’t initially explain. Unlike moderate
lifters who enacted the practices of “backing off,” “stopping for awhile,” “lifting light,”
“holding back” or “keeping the weight the same,” she followed several of the
conventional norms of bodybuilding whereby weight was progressively increased, sets
were multiple, and several exercises were carried out per body part.2 7 When I first met
Fiona, she was on the bench press wearing her “usual” worn t-shirt and grey or green
sho rt biking tights that covered half o f her quads. I soon noted that she spent fifteen
to twenty minutes just to complete her bench press sets. She lifted at least six sets o f
weight there and often “maxed” out with a forty-five pound plate plus a five on each
side o f a forty-five pound bar. Fiona lifted weights three days a week for one hour or
more, and also carried out over an hour a day o f cv work, seven days a week. She
27
Unlike bodybuilders, she did not split body parts up across different days but instead worked her
whole body in one day. Bodybuilders typically did several exercises for one body part, and left other
body parts for other days. For example: chest and arms on Monday, abs and shoulders on Tuesday,
legs on Wednesday, etc.
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stated that she regularly hiked through dusty mountain trails on the weekends, hiked,
played softball, and swam or rode a recline bike on a daily basis at home. This list of
activities made her one of the most active women in the sample in terms of overall
time spent on fitness activities.
Fiona introduced several themes that were shared by several other heavy lifters and
were qualitatively different from the narratives o f non-lifters and moderate lifters (but
also overlapped with moderate lifters). She embraced weight lifting strength with a
proud defiance and described a solid commitment to improve upon her strength goals,
physical skills, and power. Like moderate lifters, she also expressed how lifting
weights gave her a useful, functional strength for other areas o f her life— but focused
on how strength helped her to feel more independent and safe when she was alone on
the street, and it also aided her in carrying out daily recreational and routine physical
activities. Unlike many of the other women who stated themes of caution regarding the
subject o f weights, while wanting to be leaner, smaller, more feminine, or feared
becoming masculine, she actively sought out progressively increasing physical
strength, and described what she called a “psychic satisfaction” from gaining strength
in the weight room.
This “psychic satisfaction” derived from weight lifting helped to explain why I
watched her pile the weight plates onto the bench press bar week after week, despite
the steady stream o f mixed comments her athletic feats inspired. Indeed, some of
these comments were quite positive, yet many were ambivalent, cautionary, and
outright disapproving. In terms o f positive remarks, there were numerous times when
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men (and women) spotted Fiona and encouraged her to push out the last rep, cheered
on her performance, and shook her hand with respect after the set, stating “that’s good
work.” Many comments were more ambivalent or cautious about her strength— or
reffamed the event or Fiona’s identity into the realm of manhood. In one example, a
man walked up to her after her bench press sets and said “Hay, girl, that was really
great. Oh, should I say ‘hay, guy?’ It might be more appropriate, given the amount of
weight...” Most days, Fiona was silent when others offered disapproval or warnings—
many heavy lifters chose to deal with what they called “constant commentary” from
others with silence. Fiona voiced similarly that if she “responded to everything that
was said to me in the gym, I would spend too much time not lifting.” One day,
however, she seemed angry at one man who consistently called out to her “don’t get
too big,” and she responded with: “why, worried that women can defend themselves if
they do?”
As I watched some men and women greet Fiona’s accomplishments with
congratulations while others shared more ambiguous, cautionary, or disapproving
remarks, it became clear that her body and athletic prowess were far from neutral. Her
feats, people’s responses to them, and her responses back (if she gave one) revealed
important negotiations and challenges to widely held cultural assumptions of gender as
an oppositional binary where all men are assumed to be stronger than all women. At
the same time, Fiona’s story about her strength was not solely celebrational, but was
simultaneously full of contestation and struggle.
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For instance, when Fiona told stories about her own athletic life, accomplishments,
and strength, there was a mix of shame and pride that ebbed and flowed over time.
Early on, she stated themes that were similar to those of moderate lifters. For
example, she explained that she had “stopped lifting” for a period of time because her
“clothing became too tight.” She discussed how she couldn’t afford to go out and buy
new clothing and therefore couldn’t “risk” having to do so. At the same time, she
spoke critically of her frustration with women’s fashion and stated that women’s
clothing “...especially in the upper body, is not made for women who lift or have any
muscle mass on them— its ridiculous given the number of female athletes that are out
there.” In subsequent years, I noticed that Fiona was lifting less weight, looked
considerably smaller, and so I asked her if she had “changed, or... changed her
routine?” She said that she felt she had “gotten a little too big” and so she had lost
some weight but then couldn’t “lift as much weight...that part sucks.” She then added
with a near brag “but I’ve dropped a handful of pounds,” adding “at least now I get to
go shopping to get new clothes.” I noted to myself how no concern was expressed
about the cost o f clothing on the way down— only on the way up. At other times, it
felt out of character that she was worrying about clothing sizes, for her love of
strength reverberated through conversations as if it were an honor she willingly
defended. For instance, one afternoon, a male trainer asked her how much she was
benching, and she told him with a sad look on her face, that she’s “stuck” on fifty
pounds on a side (which, including the bar, equals one hundred forty five pounds), and
that she wanted to “blast out” from this. He responded to her that maybe she’s
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“plateauing out,” and added that she “must be reaching her genetic potential.” She
immediately disagreed, shaking her head no, and fired back with a sly smile “nahh, I
don’t protein load like the guys do and I bet if I took supplements or piled on the egg
whites I could do more. I can do more.”
Alongside Fiona’s unrelenting commitment to maintain a high level of bodily
strength, she struggled over time to juggle a desire for increased strength with meeting
emphasized femininity and popular standards o f attractiveness. As we have already
seen, she had struggled with the increased size that came with her intense strength and
was happy for a time “to drop a few pounds” but simultaneously felt that it “sucked”
that she couldn’t lift as much weight. Many months later, a similar struggle emerged.
For instance, one day I walked up to her after what seemed like a record amount of
weight to ask her if she had just accomplished a personal best on bench press. She
replied “yes!!” with an excited smile, and was jumping up and down, fists declaring
victory as they shot through the air. I then said “you seem happy! Congratulations!”
She smiled at first, saying “Yea! Thanks!!” Then she paused, her head sloped, and
when she looked back up, she had a saddened look on her face and quietly said “... and
you know...and the thing is...I could do more...I want to do more...but I guess I’d
have to gain weight... and I refuse to gain w eight...” Approximately eight months
later, Fiona again broke through her old record and said that she was feeling “really
strong.” When I asked her if she remembered fearing weight gain, she replied “Huh, I
do remember that. I no longer fear that— gaining the weight.” I asked “why?” and she
declared: “As long as I have low body fat, the muscle is o.k. with me now.” As you
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can see, Fiona’s story celebrated strength and size on a number of levels, yet was full
of ambivalence too—both for her, and for others around her.2 8 This example highlights
how individuals’ ideologies and practices shift and change over time, and illustrates the
lively complexity, contradiction, and “the lived messiness” consistent with Third Wave
feminist analyses of the social world (Heywood & Drake, 1997, p. 8).
Each heavy lifter lifted weights in the gym for one to two hours a day for three to
five days a week. Many described weight lifting as a “must do” part of their lives and
embraced strength in a way that bursts beyond the hesitation and “holding back” that
we witnessed in the last chapter. However, as Fiona’s story showed, though heavy
lifters’ bodies may be larger and more muscled than moderate lifters’, their physical
feats are contested and negotiated in a gender order where power is continually at play
(Messner, 1992). Given the complexity of responses from fitness participants that
were elicited concerning women in GTZ’s in Chapter Four, particularly heavy lifters’
performances and bodies, what might heavy lifters themselves have to say about the
subject of gender, strength, weights, and muscle? The remainder of this chapter
focuses on the narratives of strong women and explores tensions regarding gender,
bodies, and muscle. Three prominent themes emerged regarding strong women’s
narratives about weight lifting:
28
I am grateful to Leslie Heywood for our conversations around the contradictions evident in Third
Wave feminism. In her 1998 book Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy o f Women’ s Bodybuilding,
Heywood describes acknowledging the complexity of social reality as part and parcel of Third Wave
Feminist activism. In this way, women’s desires to be physically stronger while many fear doing so
(and refuse to do so), as it would require getting physically larger, can be seen as part of the inherent
contradictions in the cultural realm.
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• weight lifting gave heavy lifters a sense o f pride and
satisfaction, and independence which often had functional uses
in daily life. (Pride, satisfaction, independence)
• weights aided women in feeling like they would be less likely to
become victims o f physical violence. (Strategic self-defense)
• heavy weight lifting was said to be appropriate when it was
“adjusted” from a man’s workout. This was said to “maintain
femininity.” (Adjusting to femininity)
Pride. Satisfaction, and Independence:
One prominent theme that emerged in interviews with women who lifted heavily
was that weights were an integral part o f their lives and contributed to what I will call
an identity of bodily competence. Unlike non or moderate lifters who were often wary
o f lifting weights (or more weight) and feared “too much” musculature, heavy lifters
often stated beliefs and values of pride, joy, and satisfaction at having physical
competence and strength. Pride was explicitly expressed around being physically
independent— and therefore, less dependent on others. Coupled with this were
descriptions of the functional uses for the strength gained in the weight room, such as
an improved ability to carry out the tasks of daily living and/or improved skills for
sport or recreational activities. Satisfaction was also derived from continually
challenging oneself to push to the next level o f strength or physical competence.
While many non-lifters “just weren’t interested in strength” or moderate lifters were
interested in strength but were afraid that “too much” o f it might negatively impact
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their bodies, several heavy lifters felt that not improving each week or pushing to the
next level in the weight room made gym time less worthwhile or even “pointless” or
“useless.”
While these women’s narratives may have been expressed to me as particular
feelings, these individual narratives are contextualized by structural constraints and
opportunities. For example, many heavy lifters were women who had access to and
experience with organized sport. As such, organized sport may have been integral to
the development o f these feelings and to a bodily competence that comes out of sport.
This bodily competence or “know how” was often (but not always) referred to as
something learned in sport, and was believed to be transferable into other areas o f life.
As has been previously noted, the theme of being physically independent (and
therefore, less dependent on others) is an important one when considering the
relationship between femininity and dependency. Themes of empowerment and
independence were expressed in numerous interviews with strong women and were
well exemplified by Vicky, a slight, tall thirty year old woman who boldy declared her
love o f muscle and bodily strength. Vicky ran track in high school and college which
was where she first learned how to lift weights. She had worked in the past as a life
guard, was presently an outdoor adventure educator, and lifted weights for over an
hour at a time, at least three days a week. She stated that she was “tired of being tiny,”
and unlike many women, stated that she desired increased bodily size and strength.
She especially focused on the enjoyment she derived from the level of independence
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that physical strength brought her, and spoke about how her weight lifting helped to
blast open what people expected her to be able to do in public:
...the other day I bought a computer, and there was this huge guy at
the desk. He puts this huge box on the counter and just looks at me.
He didn't offer any help and I was not going to ask for any. I said
"thanks," hiked the box on my hip, on my side, and left with it under
one arm. He was looking at me the whole time like ‘I gotta see
this.’ And the guy in line behind me brought a friend with him, and
his friend helped him carry out his computer out. Fuck that. So
there. They look at me like ‘she can't carry that’ and I'm like ‘fuck
that, come here, I'll carry you up four flights of steps.’ I just love to
step outside the boundaries of what people expect me to be able to
do...
Vicki and others also stated that they loved “stepping outside the boundaries”of what
people thought they could do, thus bursting others’ assumptions about strength and
gender. One woman explained to me that one of her male friends was trying to move
his bed one day, and:
...I mean he is a big man, he's huge, like 6'2", close to 300 lbs... and
he's tugging on this bed and he can’t move it and I’m like let me help,
and he’s like ‘yea right,’ so I like pick it up and moved it more than 6
inches...and I’m like,look!, and he's like ‘wow’, and it was nice to be
able to...
Several other women said that they too enjoyed blowing away other people’s
expectations of them and— in the process— gaining independence through “not having
to accept help” at the grocery store, or during moves or purchases. Furthermore, they
stated that they enjoyed helping others with moving furniture or heavy boxes.
Looking at these narratives cumulatively showed how having bodily competence
produced a feeling o f pride and independence in daily life.
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Other women specifically relayed enjoyment at being able to “beat the guys.” For
instance, Noreen, a twenty eight year old woman from Mid-Gym stated that “I’m not
just strong for a woman, I’m strong for a person... I really like to beat guys here and
there...when I can....” Similarly, Carmen, a forty year old woman also from Mid-Gym
stated that she liked to “just walk into the advanced training room and say ‘I need the
35's’...” to the men in the free weight dumbbell space. She added “I like to out lift
them....it doesn’t work with the big bodybuilders, but I can out lift the wimpier guys
and some o f the other guys too...” Some interviewees noted that this joy was
unfettered by what others thought of it. Several women mentioned that they noticed
that they could be considered a threat to some men — and that they perceived that this
mattered if a dating relationship was being considered since it could affect men’s
“interest” in a heterosexual relationship.2 9 Still, other women stated that they would
find or had found partners who embraced their strength since they had had partners in
the past who hadn’t. These comments highlight how the conceptualization of “being
too strong” is gendered, for “too much” strength is not often a consideration for men
searching for a heterosexual relationship but can be central to many women’s concerns
about their own strength. However, I did discuss with several gay men that they did
not want to bulk too much. And, it is important to keep in mind Klein (1990), who
found that many heterosexual women found the musculature of male bodybuilders to
be unappealing.
29
As I’ve noted in Dworkin (Forthcoming), this is consistent with what Sabo & Messner
(1993) have referred to as active women's strength being antithetical to male objectification
of women.
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As with Carmen and Vicki, Fiona also described a joy at being independent and
being able to “beat the guys” but spoke more in depth about functional uses for weight
lifting— such as helping to improve her performance in recreational sport. She referred
a “psychic satisfaction” that came with improving her physical skills over time:
I can remember how I weighed one hundred forty before a trip to
Europe, and I lost a lot o f weight there... we hardly ate. I knew when
I got back that I looked too thin...and I felt terrible. Some people said
to me that this was really good and others said ‘hey, get back in the
gym, you don’t look strong anymore.’ When I went back to normal,
the man I was dating said ‘there you go, back to looking strong
again. ’ He got it, you know... there weren’t many women who got
this, who got it, you know, that I wasn’t happy about being thin, I
want to be strong. I like being strong. I like the feeling. I like being
able to hit the ball farther. I like the psychic satisfaction o f lifting
weights, and of watching the ball go farther each week.
Others also expressed functional uses for strength gained in the weight room. For
instance, after interviewing Vicki, I learned that such strength also came in handy
when she was hanging off the sides o f mountains, being led on (or leading) outdoor
adventure expeditions through steep, snowy conditions. At the same time, strength
wasn’t solely functional but provided a sense of satisfaction and challenge, pushing
farther every week, “hitting the ball farther,” and making improvements in strength
and/or physical skill. Other women who lifted heavily explained to me that their jobs
required physical strength, and weight lifting helped them to accomplish more
physically, to avoid injury, or to avoid getting tired at the end of the day. One woman
from Mid-Gym told me that weights helped her on the job where she lifted fifty to
eighty pound rocks doing landscaping work, while another at Elite Gym stated that it
helped her to “push myself to learn new tricks” and “keep my job as a stunt woman—
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no lifting— no body— no job.” Still others stretched to improve without having to use
the body at work. For instance, Sylvia, a twenty-one year old Latina woman from
Mid-Gym discussed that she learned how to lift weights from her coach while she was
on the swim team in high school. She lifted for an hour and a half, four days a week,
and also carried out an hour and a half of cardiovascular work five days a week. She
believed that a lack of goals to improve one’s strength make workouts “useless.” She
also described her own rejection of popular magazines’ dominant standards of beauty,
often featuring “skinny” women:
I’m not skinny and I don’t wanna be skinny...I lift weights to be
strong...beauty is the wrong reason to workout, and looking like the
air brushed magazines isn’t the goal. I lift most in the areas I’m not
strong in, and I do it week after week until its easy, and then I
increase the weight...that’s that. That’s why I’m here.
While non or moderate lifters may have desired strength but were unwilling to seek
more of it for fear of not looking feminine enough, Sylvia saw getting strong as a
challenge (“I do it until its easy...that’s why I’m here...”). She also framed strength as
something antithetical to dominant standards o f beauty for herself, a rejection o f what
many other women specifically chose to construct.
Still other women who lifted heavily pushed to gain strength since they saw
themselves as more of an inspirational “role model” to other women. Chrystal, who
I’ve already introduced in the first half of the chapter as a twenty-eight year old
African American woman from Mid-Gym, danced when she was a child, was on the
track team in high school, rode horses, and occasionally did martial arts. In the past,
she was a power lifter, and was also on t.v. regularly for a few years for her athletic
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feats in various capacities. She was over 5'8" tall, very muscular and symmetrical— and
her long, thick, muscular legs were in proportion to her large, highly muscled upper
body. She was the second most physically massive woman who I interviewed, and she
did not compete in any bodybuilding contests. When I asked her if she competed, she
immediately criticized the sport of bodybuilding as being “very subjective,” and told
me about her friend Bertrice, a female bodybuilder who “places fifth when she’s clearly
the winner” in contests. She then stated that her “goals were no longer about being
number one.” When I asked her what she did for her workout, she explained that she
did two hours of cv and one or one and a half hours o f lifting four days a week. She
also explained that:
My goal is to lose ten pounds...get leaner...when people say they
want to maintain...I don’t believe in that...if you aren’t improving...if
you’re maintaining, you’re getting worse. Its tied up with my ideas
about self-worth, power, feeling good about yourself... if Donald
Trump had a son, his son will be blessed with power,
money...financial power...Donald Trump’s son...when he walks into
a room, they’ll know him....they’ll know who he is...for his financial
power...what his father gave him...my family couldn’t give me that
type of wealth, but I think I get superior genetics... that’s my gift... so
I will work on that, and I will get noticed for that...and then in turn,
I will help another. People say, oh, how do you work out for that
many hours, but I can’t let up, I have to work harder...I have all
these people looking to me...so that helps me to push out one more
rep...
Chrystal’s narrative revealed that unlike many non-lifters who didn’t see weights as
“necessary” and unlike moderate lifters who consciously didn’t increase the weight,
she felt that “maintaining” and “not improving” her weight lifting performance was
“getting worse.” At the same time, it is unclear if her definition o f improvement is
bodily or performance related, or both, as she also stated that she wanted to lose ten
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pounds and get leaner. Chrystal does relay a sense that her improvement is also
focused on her weight lifting performance when she expressed pressure to “work
harder,” felt like she “couldn’t let up” and found a way to push “out one more rep” to
please “all these people looking to me.”
Unlike the other narratives, Chrystal’s also included what might be read as a more
overt structural explanation for an interest in fitness. Here, she may be articulating the
effects of a more open opportunity structure for whites whose class status might allow
for movement into business careers. At the same time, her description included how
people of color may be experiencing a more limited structure o f opportunity, especially
in the case of working class blacks who are often tunneled towards sports or bodily
accomplishments (Messner, 1992). She stated that she has “this gift” and puts her all
into it (“I will work on that”), noting how her perception of “superior genetics” leads
her to continue to culturally construct her body. When I asked her how her many sets
and reps of weight she does, her words revealed the seriousness of her weight
workout— and the degree to which this “gift” is worked:
I do a warm up set... which doesn’t count.... and then I do
pyramids...four or five sets or more...like the first set I’ll do 90... 25
on a side (each side o f the bar, for bench press) and then maybe 25
again, then 35, then 45, then 55...always five or more sets, always,
always, always.
Compared with the moderate lifters who consciously “held back” by doing two to
three sets of the same weight and did not increase the weight across sets, Chrystal did
a warm up set which “doesn’t count,” followed by “five or more sets” of “pyramids”
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where she increased the weight progressively across the sets. When I asked her how
she got into lifting, she stated that:
My boyfriend used to work out at a gym...I’ve known him since
age 12...he brought me for a month ...and I would watch him...I
had no interest in lifting...I was just there for him...and I didn’t see
a lot o f girls there anyway... he never pushed me into it or
anything...and one day, I saw this girl walk in...she benched two
quarters...
Shari: Two quarters?
ChrystakYea, 2-25's. She was benching 95 pounds, and I was like
WOW! I was impressed...Later on...after she left, I had to try it,
and they had different weight bars back then, 25, 35, 45., and I tried
the 25, with nothing on it, and I couldn’t do that! I was like, she did
95 and I can’t do 25? I said God, I’m really weak..I really looked
up to her...and she had a great figure...
Unlike the numerous other women who worried about getting bulky, Chrystal was
inspired by a woman in the weight room who lifted a lot of weight in core free weight
spaces and she “really looked up to her.” Women who lifted heavily didn’t just lift
weights because it gave them pride, satisfaction, or functional independence. Weights
were also integral to a strategy of self-defense.
Lifting as Strategic Self-Defense:
The second major theme that emerged among heavy lifters was that weights were
integral to helping women to keep from feeling like they will become physically
victimized. Weight lifting helped to define them as empowered bodily subjects with an
improved physical ability— or psychological comfort— concerning self-defense. Fiona
illustrated this theme when she explained that:
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...Its like, I don’t feel so unsafe in the streets anymore...if someone
grabbed me, I think I could have a chance...to get away. I could hit
them really hard now and run away— or kick them in the nuts and run
away. I think I could stand a chance... of not getting hurt. I think
people are less likely to see me as a victim because I don’t look like
a victim, I don’t walk like a victim, I present myself differently now.
In a violent world where women frequently fear being the objects o f attack, some
women feel that they benefit from using weight lifting as a gladiator-like self-defense
mechanism (McCaughey, 1997). Another one of these women was Olivia, a twenty-
five year old Chinese-American woman from Mid-Gym. When I first spotted Olivia, I
admitted to myself that I was somewhat intimidated by her mesomorphic, strong
frame. Draped in black from head to toe, she looked silent, serious, and focused, as
her long, black hair whipped left and then right while practicing martial arts, snapping
out sets of rapid, controlled kicks. The free weights she lifted for the upper body at
times looked larger than life; the free weight area is where I first approach her to talk.
“What are those for?” I asked her, as she sat on a bench near the dumbbells facing a
mirrored wall, placing her arm flat on her leg to do wrist curls. “Forearms...grip...” she
said, looking down at her leg without looking up at me. “Yeah, but what for...why?” I
ask. “Grip” she repeated, and I realized that perhaps she didn’t want me to bother her.
I continued anyway “Grip what??” I asked. “Its to have muscles” she struck back
sharply, but then added as she finally made eye contact, “I just love having muscles.
My lower body is really strong from soccer and martial arts, but my upper isn’t as
strong.”
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A few months later, I interviewed her at night at a martial arts studio where she
worked. When I entered the studio at night near closing time, I noted the weight of
the warm humidity in the room compared with the cool, dry, post-rain air found
outdoors. Two or three white robed couples were working out on a blue and red
matted floor in the small studio. Punches, kicks, grunts, and lightening fast moves
scrambled in front me as I waited for Olivia to arrive. She asked to goto a coffee shop
to “grab some caffeine,” and on our walk there, a man stopped in the middle of the
street as he crossed it and glared at Olivia, looked her up and down, and took in every
inch of her body with his eyes. I turned around to look at him, and noted that he was
then staring at her from behind as well. “Did you see that guy staring at you?” I asked
her. “Nope” she replied confidently and dryly. “I never look at them... never make eye
contact.”
I learned that she was a black belt in martial arts, and she discussed how she began
playing soccer at age five, tennis at age ten, and thought that she had “always been
athletic— from birth.” At the time we met, she did at least seven hours of martial arts a
week, three days of lifting for one hour or more, and said she was “lucky” to do two
cardiovascular workouts a day if she could find the time— one in the morning, and one
at night. Unlike many women who lifted moderately who told me that they learned
how to lift from a personal trainer, Olivia told me that she learned how to lift “through
sports,” and when I asked her why she lifted weights, she touched specifically on
issues o f self-defense:
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I like to do it mainly...but I also do it because I like having good
control over my body... a lot of people aren’t aware of their
bodies...and after you’re aware of your body, there is a confidence
that comes with it...and this is important for self-defense...a lot of
people get preyed on because they appear to be in a weaker
state...and when you have this confidence...and lifting helps this...it
shows through...and its real...
Not unlike Olivia, JoJo, a twenty-nine year old Vietnamese-American woman from
Elite Gym, referred to herself as “someone who lives in the gym.” Some days, she was
wearing a backwards baseball cap, shooting baskets on the basketball court. She was
always in the company of a number o f men, and was often the only woman on the
court. Numerous other days, I watched her lift weights with her backwards baseball
cap, short hair, silky silvery sweat pants, and a short crop top which shows off her tan,
flat belly. When I first walked up to her, she was chatting with some o f the people at
the front desk, and I later learned that her new office job is a result of networking
through contacts at the fitness site.3 0 When we sat down for an interview, I learned
that Jo-Jo spoke fondly of the role o f her father in her fitness life, and told me about
her trip to the U.S. from Vietnam on a boat in the early 1980's. She relayed the awe
she had at her father’s “big and powerful” muscular body, how they were a wealthy
family, and how, when she was young, “the whole family was up early doing jumping
jacks...my mom...the maids...the housekeepers... the gardeners... lots o f girls were there
too.” She also discussed that she can now “see the things my father should have done
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This is not unusual in privileged circles, as not only did I (and several others) receive job offers in
business during my fieldwork at Elite Gym, but many other individuals also did business and career
networking here. (And, as was noted in Chapter Three, there were business networking breakfasts
formally built into the culture of this site)
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with his body,” and compared his “mistakes” to Jack LaLanne, who she said “also had
a puffy tummy.” “Bodies are built differently now,” she ended, noting the historically
constructed and perhaps arbitrary regimens of fitness which produce particular bodily
forms. Jo Jo also talked about her love o f women’s sports, how “behind” women are
in it, but how excited she was to see their advances, and she spoke o f weight lifting as
part of her love of physical power. She stated that she lifted weights for over an hour
four or five days a week, splitting up the muscles she worked each day into groups
(e.g. Monday— shoulders and back, Tuesday— biceps, triceps) while trying to “force”
herself to do three days a week o f CV work. While she said that she hated CV work:
“I mean hate with a double underline doing cardio,”she described enjoying weight
lifting much more when she stated that: “I LOVE lifting!!! Just the strength that you
get— and that’s a comforting feeling...being a woman in this world...smashing the idea
that women are fragile and breakable things...”
When she began to tell me about her choice of activities, she spoke explicitly about
stepping outside the boundaries o f gendered expectations. Unlike Fiona who actually
felt that her physical strength would aid her in defending herself should she need it in
the streets, JoJo stated that lifting provided more o f a psychological protection at
home. She stated that “strength feels good, you know?? Being at home...alone...not
being afraid...mentally..it makes you feel better...” While individual women
experienced an improved level o f psychological comfort when alone at home and an
increased confidence to ward off attacks from outsiders, this “comfort at home” might
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be somewhat ironic given that many women experience domestic violence and rape
from loved ones within the home itself (Crites, 1987; McCaughey, 1997; Russell,
1986; 1990).
There were also several women I met who had lifted heavily in the past but
currently lifted moderately or not at all. While Annette from the last chapter
mentioned a desire to back off on weights to not be as bulky, these women mentioned
feeling more fragile now and discussed it as something they didn’t like and at times
feared. We have already heard from Fiona that she felt “weak”and “terrible” after
taking some time off from the weight room and losing weight on a trip from Europe.
Other women who used to be heavy lifters but were currently non or moderate lifters
also expressed these thoughts, for instance, Chevonne, who was a twenty-five year old
bi-racial woman from Elite Gym who used to be a heavy lifter:
...like now I really want the waify thin look, but like six months
ago I wanted like, the Karen Voight body and six months before
that God, I wanted to be like Ms. Olympia, it's like really
reactionary...I'll get to one extreme, and then I'll be like ohhh...oh
no, no, no no, no...you know like now I'm too thin, like the other
day I was looking at my arms and I ’m like god they're too thin,
and someone grabbed my arm and like said ‘My God! I didn’t
realize you were so fragile’, and like, like a friend of mine pushed
me...pushed me...he said I didn’t realize you're so fragile and like
that bothered me, I was like, my God I'm fragile...me!...
Shari: What did that mean to you?
Chevonne: Weakness. I don’t want to be weak, you know?...He
said ‘I didn't realize you were so fragile’ and I was like woah....
Shari: Woah,what?
Chevonne: Like woah, if I’m this weak, can I do the things I need to
do? And...like...can I...you know...protect myself?
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Heavy lifters and several past heavy lifters describe how weight lifting can help them
to feel physically confident, stronger, or more solid about their ability to self-defend,
while women who have “lost” muscle or weight room time sometimes missed the
strength they used to have.3 1 Even if women cannot actually self-defend better, they
may feel more able to self-defend, and this feeling may translate into a protective
bodily habitus or psychological comfort.
Bodily Responses. Societal Circumstances:
A confident posture or “pose” that women may choose to use in public is an
individual response in a society where structural forces lead to sexual harassment or
violence in or outside the streets (Gardner, 1995). Looking at this pose as a response
to such forces might be considered somewhat analogous to Richard Majors’
observations (1995) that African-American men use a “cool pose” in response to the
structural conditions and constraints they face. This confident bodily pose for women-
-across racial groups— involved how they “carried themselves,” as articulated by
Olivia, who stated that “...when you have this confidence...and lifting helps this...it
shows through...and its real.” This “confidence” is one often seen in athletes’ postures,
and may be best described as part of a learned athletic or fit bodily habitus (Bordieu,
1984; Bordieu & Wacquant, 1992), that is antithetical to what some might call a more
“vulnerable feminine” habitus (McCaughey, 1997). For women who fear violence,
such a posture might give off an aura of physical competence or a you-can’t-mess-
31
This narrative points to yet another fruitful area of inquiry within this field which is to focus on the
more postmodern nature of the changeable, flexible, plastic body.
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with-me stance, that can perhaps push beyond the level o f individual empowerment
and towards a collective one of “armed sisterhood” (McCaughey, 1997). Whether or
not such women can more easily defend themselves in cases of actual violence,
harassment, or rape is an empirical question for future research.
At the same time that heavy lifters blasted through the glass ceiling, embracing
unique narratives of bodily competence, satisfaction, and strategic self-defense while
rejecting not-too-muscular emphasized femininity, it is vital to note that there was not
always a clean or solid break through the glass ceiling. That is, despite their
(sometimes) more massive physical size and willingness to spend long hours lifting
heavy weights over multiple sets, several strong lifters also stated that they had to
“adjust” their intense weight lifting workouts to “ensure” their femininity.
Adjusting to Femininity
JoJo, who has already been discussed as someone who loved weight lifting and
strength, also stated that she adjusted her workout if certain areas of her body bulged
“too much” :
I do three to six sets of everything I do...at least ten reps. If I feel
great on the first round, I’ll add two more reps or so. I go up on
certain things, though, and not on others. Like if I get too big in
certain areas and it becomes unattractive...I’1 1 do more reps and
tone instead o f building more muscles. I have gone up on a number
o f things, and I see my muscle..bulging out a lot... so it was a little
too much...but I go up on curls and other things...
In the earlier part o f JoJo’s interview, she asserted that strength “smashes the idea
that women are fragile and breakable things,” while it gave her a “mental” feeling o f
safety at home alone. Here, her narrative resonated with MacKinnon’s (1979) and
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McCaughey’s (1997) analysis o f how women’s participation in sport and fitness
activities can be antithetical to patriarchal notions o f women as weak and docile and
can act as a feminist strategy for empowerment. Yet, in the latter part of the
interview, JoJo described how she will only go up in weight on certain things, and not
on others since getting “too big” in certain areas becomes “unattractive.” In this way,
she departed from moderate lifters’ practices who often lifted lightly or kept the
weight the same over two or three sets. However, she shared a sense of holding back
with moderate lifters given that she “won’t go up on everything” for fear o f being
“unattractive,” here, defined as muscles “bulging out.”
Similarly, there was Carmen, who I’ve already introduced as a forty year old white
woman from Mid-Gym who stated that she loved to venture into the weight room and
out lift some o f the guys. Carmen was one o f the few women who pulled up a bench
in the free weight area and stayed there for some time, moving through numerous
exercises for the chest, back, arms, and shoulders using free weight dumbbells for
every exercise. Her “look” was a mix of physically explosive power and tight
adherence to emphasized femininity— her frame was long, trim, curvy, and lean, but she
has apples for biceps and the most incredibly clear vascularity (bulging veins near the
surface of the skin) in her arms. Her hair was strawberry blonde, traveled three-forths
o f the way down her back, and she wore plenty of thick makeup coupled with red
painted nails. At the same time, she also wore a thick, tan leather weight belt and
sported thick, black lifting gloves— both of which were used by very few women in the
weight room. She wore a tight, grey tank top, short black tights, a clear or sheer
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pantyhose on her legs, and had a knee brace on her left knee which was necessary due
to injuries from a motorcycle accident. Whenever she sat down on or reclined onto
any machine, she placed a clear plastic mat underneath her. When I asked her about
this, she described how she felt it is “gross when sweat is everywhere,” and that she
was trying “not to sweat all over the machines” “to be courteous” to others.
Carmen lifted weights for one hour five days a week, split up her weight workout
into two body parts per day, and also did one hour and a quarter to one and a half
hours daily of cardiovascular work. She stated that she played soccer, football, and
“lots o f sports” when she was young (community and intramural). When I asked her
how she first became invested in lifting, she described how (like Lori, a moderate lifter
from Chapter Five) she “used to do only aerobics at first, but then I got too skinny and
I began lifting weights.” When she first started lifting weights, she said that she
“learned about it through reading—and all the books were written for men back then.”
Then, she described how the books “progressed,” and were soon written by women.
She stated that she “loved having muscles,” loved “being strong,” “can’t imagine
myself without lifting,” and spoke about how she thought “that lots of women are
afraid of lifting a lot.” When I asked her what she thinks of these fears, she stated
that she “has been lifting heavily for fifteen years” and “hasn’t feared gaining muscle
mass.” In her words:
My friends are all scared they’re gonna look like a little man in a
bathing suit, you know, but I keep telling them lift as hard as you want
and you won’t look like that. I’ve been lifting as hard as I want, as
hard as I can, and I still look like a woman. I don’t get big...I mean, I
know some women who can, but I’m just not one of them, I guess.
What I do is I adjust men’s weight routine a little...you know...they
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want big, bulging biceps...we want a more small look...so you adjust
the men’s routine some...do fewer sets...or lighten up on the weight...
Carmen’s narrative began with a declaration that she routinely lifted “as hard as I
want, as hard as I can,” since she might be one of those women who was not
“genetically predisposed” to gain large amounts of muscle mass. Yet, simultaneously,
she also found it necessary to “adjust men’s weight routine a little” since men and
women “want” different bodily outcomes, and women “want a more small look.” She
highlighted a somewhat paradoxical stance, then, for if she wasn’t “one of those
women” who get big, then it is unclear why she would have to adjust her workout to
create a smaller look. Unlike light or non-lifters, she routinely lifted very heavy
weights over long periods o f time and ventured openly into free weight spaces. Not
unlike moderate lifters who “back off,” “keep the weight the same,” or “hold back,”
the struggle between wanting to be strong and wanting to “look smaller” than men
was accomplished by “adjusting” men’s bodybuilding routines. She ensured a smaller
look by doing fewer sets, lighter weights, and adding long doses o f cardio work.
Though her weights were heavier and sets more abundant than moderate lifters, these
“adjustments” were still carried out even though she claimed to lift “as hard as I want,
as hard as I can.” Perhaps her words reveal that there is a difference between what she
can do and what she wants to do. This reveals the complexity and contradiction
contained in individual narratives.
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The woman who lifted most heavily did depart more so from the limits that
moderate lifters placed on the amount of weight lifted or the number o f sets. Chrystal,
a twenty-eight year old African-American woman from Mid-Gym who has already
been introduced was highly embracing of muscularity yet also found ways to “adjust”
her workouts to maintain femininity and not bulk too much. When I mentioned to
Chrystal during our interview that she “lifted a lot,” she nodded in agreement, and
thought back on her childhood:
I was thin my whole life...I used to get beat up, people would take
my lunch money...I went to private school...you would think private
school kids don’t do that...but they did in class...and after school,
well, the public school kids would mess with me (laughs)...that’s
probably why when I got older, I got into this...you know, so I could
be strong... so I wasn’t a pushover... and people see me now... if I
have a muscle top on...people get intimidated, or get the wrong
impression...they see muscle and they think oh, she must be
tough...but my exterior is different from my interior...which has
never changed...
While I’m fascinated by her account of the inside -vs- the outside o f her materiality, I
asked her “people get intimidated?,” and she replied:
Well, yea, sometimes. But I usually get positive feedback, actually.
And I’m blessed...I’ve kept my femininity...and I have my
muscularity too...people are in awe o f me...I’ve kept my muscular
size but I still wear a size five or seven... when I take off my top, you
can really see my muscularity....I have kept both....some women go
overboard and look masculine... most women look fit and look
feminine, I have the best o f both I think, but yea, I’m blessed, I have
maintained my feminine lines and basically, my boyfriend is in charge
o f what I lift... I don’t emphasize the chest, back, biceps bulging in
my workout as a man would...and I stretch a lot...and I cross train a
ton...but yea, I ’ve kept my femininity as a result...
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This narrative works to show how Chrystal was an active agent in constructing what
could be called muscular emphasized femininity. Chrystal built large amounts of
muscle that would likely be seen by the average woman as tainting femininity, but
Chrystal didn’t perceive this as hurting femininity since she found a way to “keep” her
“femininity” and “not go overboard.” Chrystal was proud to have “kept” her muscular
“size” while also keeping consistent with dominant norms of female body size (e.g.
“I’ve kept my muscular size but I still wear a size five or seven.”) At the same time,
recall that earlier, she stated that she “can’t let up, I have to work harder...I have all
these people looking to me...so that helps me to push out one more rep.” It was telling
that she was physically very large, acted as a role model to other women and felt that
she had to push to get out one more rep, yet simultaneously distinguished herself from
the women who pushed even more and “went overboard” and “looked masculine.”
She first stated that she was “blessed,” perhaps suggesting a solely genetic explanation
for her look, yet then explained how she has actively ensured her femininity. With the
help o f her boyfriend, who was in “charge” o f her workout, she described how she
avoided weights for specific muscle groups in the upper body. She discussed above
that she did not “emphasize the chest, back, biceps bulging in my workout as a man
would,” distinguishing her workout-and her body— from a “man’s.” The combination
of lifting heavily, avoiding heavy weight lifting with some body parts, and cross
training “a ton” has helped her “keep” (construct) her “femininity,” here, muscular
emphasized femininity. In this way, she nudged the glass ceiling up considerably
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higher than the women in the last chapter (and the rest o f the women in this chapter)
yet indeed shared a limitation on the strength of certain body parts to “adjust” to what
was perceived as feminine.
Since heavy lifters often blasted past moderate lifters in terms o f the degree to
which they embraced strength and carried out practices consistent with these beliefs,
one might think that this meant that heavy lifters held fast to ideologies consistent with
such practices, or recognizing a continuum o f overlapping performance by gender.
This was not necessarily the case. When Chrystal told me that she used to “get beat
up,” I said to her later in the interview that: “I bet no-one beats you up now... you
outlift nearly all of the women and many o f the guys.” She replied that:
Well, no matter how much you lift, women shouldn’t try to lift more
than a man. Some women who compete do. But I would want my
man to protect me, if I had to protect him, I wouldn’t feel
comfortable. I wouldn’t be with a small man. I’m not putting down
small men, but he’d have to be able to stand up for me, I mean...he’s
my man.
Although I repeatedly watched Chrystal outlift numerous men, her first response to my
noting this was that women shouldn’t try to lift more than a man and that women who
compete do this. She then moved to a description of her man, and not wanting him to
be weaker than her to ensure that he kept his historical role o f patriarchal protector
(and she kept her role of requiring that protection). Despite her incredible strength
and size and my own observation that she was a likely candidate for self-protection,
men were viewed as having to be stronger than and physically protective of women.
Chiystal doesn’t phrase being stronger than a man as something she or other women
cannot do, after all, she is indeed one woman who outlifts quite a handful of men,
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rather, as something women shouldn’t do when in a heterosexual relationship. It may
be true that building strong bodies works against conceptions of women as weak or
dependent. Yet, at the same time, the very woman who spoke out about having to
work her gift and push out one more rep, representing evidence of a continuum of
gendered bodies and performances, also touted ideals of male protection and female
dependency on that protection. In this way, despite the fact that heavy lifters’
ideologies and practices were generally consistent — e.g. pride in strength and practices
that blasted out in the weight room, not all ideologies and practices were consistent.
In this way, heavy lifters’ bodies, ideologies, and practices may generally be resistant
against conceptions of male physical superiority and female inferiority, but were also
simultaneously reproductive at times.
Summary
Chapter Four and Six revealed that heavy lifters’ bodies and practices were by no
means apolitical, but rather, were the means through which powerful debates about
gender, bodies, and muscular strength and size were played out. Narratives with
heavy lifters revealed several core themes concerning pride, independence, and
satisfaction. Heavy lifters frequently described the pleasures o f having bodily
independence and not having to ask for help, were glad to “step outside the
boundaries” o f what others expected o f them, found satisfaction in “beating the guys,”
or prided themselves on acting as a role model for other women. Many also stated
that there were functional uses for weight lifting such as being able to carry out daily
life tasks such as shopping, moving, carrying, an improved performance in recreational
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sport, or at jobs which required physical strength. These functional uses for strength
contributed to an identity of bodily competence, and provided a strategic self-defense
or comfort to defend oneself given the possibility of attack. Instead o f avoiding the
weight room or “holding back,” several heavy lifters expressed satisfaction from
challenging themselves to push harder each week. Often, strong women learned to lift
weights from organized sports, and sometimes, they learned from books, a male
relative, or a partner.
Simultaneously, some of the strongest women in the sample who were proud of
their intense quest for strength also shared with moderate lifters a type of complicity in
holding back on weight lifting practices. Some held back by “adjusting a man’s”
workout, by “avoiding” the larger muscles of the upper body such as chest, back,
biceps (“as a man would”), or lightening up on the number of reps so as to ensure that
certain muscles didn’t bulge in an “unattractive” manner. Thus, while the women in
this chapter had a willingness to venture into largely male core free weight spaces,
frequently sported large muscles, and carried out athletic performances which
destabilized and challenged ideologies o f natural difference, some practices and
ideologies were less consistent. Ideologies at times revealed inconsistencies between
strong bodies and practices, for instance, the idea that individual women “should not
try” to lift more than a/their man or that their man should be larger than they are. This
ironically left more strength to the realm of manhood while also highlighting that
muscular strength is in part constructed through practice. Despite recognition of the
long list o f benefits of lifting weights, several heavy lifters “adjusted” to femininity, a
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unique negotiation of the glass ceiling on women’s muscular strength. The question
remains as to whether the fitness industry has some influence in structuring ideologies
and practices regarding gender, bodies, muscle, and strength. Does the personal
training industry— rife with “experts,” trained in the “science” o f gender and bodies,
help women to break out o f the glass ceiling— or does the industry reinforce it— or
both? The next chapter examines these subjects, along with the certification materials
that professionally socialize personal trainers on gender, bodies, health, and fitness.
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Chapter Seven— The Personal Training Industry:Gatekeepers of Bodily
Knowledge
As we have seen, women’s narratives and their choice of fitness practices do not
reveal unpattemed or idiosyncratic tendencies. Rather, women make strategically
patterned fitness choices while juggling ideologies concerning what women’s bodies
can’t do, what bodies actually do, and cultural ideals surrounding emphasized
femininity. These decisions may seem to occur at the individual level upon first glance,
but are group based agencies that are also contextualized within interactions and
cultural, and historical contexts. This chapter examines the fitness industry, and
personal trainers in particular, to examine how women’s group based agencies shape
and are shaped by institutional forces.
Personal trainers were only one key part of a network of information for fitness
participants who faced and interpretted numerous messages from individuals,
institutions, social circles, and the culture at large. And, while trainers had varying
degrees of interaction with fitness participants, they were often vital to fitness center
culture. This was due to the fact that average fitness participants were not “trained” in
the “science” o f “fit” and “healthy” bodies, had many questions on these subjects, and
often sought out trainers as part of their information gathering quests. I observed that
personal trainers were in fact one of the first points of contact to a fitness participant
during orientation, were available on an ongoing basis during gym, and were of course
also available for paid personal training sessions. It was in fact during the course of
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my research that I noticed the prominent role that trainers had as fitness experts and
informants for women (and men) that I moved to include them in this analysis.
Personal trainers were also critical to an analysis of fitness, gender, and bodies due
to their unique social location. First, trainers transmitted knowledge to a host of
fitness participants as part of a multi-billion dollar fitness industry that was set up to
profit from anxious individuals ready to make bodily changes. Second, trainers were
intermediately positioned within fitness organizations that were located between wider
cultural ideologies about the body on the one hand, and women’s day-to-day decision
making about fitness activities on the other.3 2 Third, their social location was also
unique since they were socialized through personal certification programs or degree
requirements to be experts in the “science of bodies.” That is, trainers were immersed
not only in larger cultural ideologies, but were socialized through an industry which
often produce systematized “scientific” knowledge about gender and bodies. Personal
training manuals depend on kinesiological (the study of human movement),
biomechanical (analyzing the load placed on a joints and muscle by resistance,
combined with anatomy and kinesiology), and physiological (understanding the
cardiovascular, cardiorespiratory, nervous, and muscular systems) science. The
science in these fields may contain cultural assumptions about gender that become
infused into discussions o f muscles, genes, hormones and more (Fausto-Sterling,
1985; Wingaard, 1997). Fourth, personal trainers were in a unique position to view
32
When I asked trainers whether men or women approach them more for information, most responded
with a resounding “women.” The same held true for perceptions of who more often used their
personal training services.
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and manage the continuum o f performance by gender on site. They had to juggle their
access to viewing a continuum o f overlap by gender with wider cultural ideologies of
difference, and a “science” o f gender, bodies, and fitness. Trainers could therefore use
their expert status as gatekeepers of bodily information to reinforce or challenge the
placement of a glass ceiling on women’s strength.
This chapter first focuses on trainers’ certification materials to explore what kinds
o f cultural assumptions about gender and bodies were included in industry training
manuals. Next, the chapter moves to interview data with personal trainers to explore
trainers’ narratives about gender and bodies. Some questions that will be considered
are: How do personal trainers mediate knowledge of a continuum o f difference on site
with larger cultural ideologies that favor ideologies of dichotomous difference? Does
the manner in which personal trainers use the information gained during professional
socialization reproduce or challenge assumptions of natural and dichotomous gender
difference? Does this help women to break out of the glass ceiling, or does this
reinforce it?
Personal training certification:
Different fitness sites required different “levels” of certification in order to qualify
as a personal training employee. At Mid-Gym, management explained that no college
degree was required to do personal training, while a personal training certification was
required. If an individual did not have a certification, he or she could still be hired by
pursuing one shortly after being hired. At Elite Gym, membership managers stated
that it was preferable for personal trainers to have a college degree and a certification,
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though personal trainers stated that it was sometimes possible for employees to be
hired without either. Managers and trainers stated that it was preferable for trainers to
have a degree either in sport science, or a “related degree, such as sports management
or sports marketing. I encountered trainers who had degrees in kinesiology,
biomechanics, physical education, physical therapy, exercise physiology, and business.
The kinds o f personal training certification found among trainers differed according
to site. At Mid-Gym, the most popular form o f certification that personal trainers had
was known as ACE— American Council on Exercise. The ACE course and exam was
easily accessible to the public at large, and there were no prerequisites to take it. At
the end of a forty hour class and studying a five hundred page manual, there was a one
hundred fifty question multiple choice exam. Not all of the trainers--but most were
certified at Mid-Gym. At Elite Gym, nearly everyone was certified, and there were a
greater variety of certifications including ACE above, ISSA-Intemational Sports
Sciences Association, IFPA-Intemational Fitness Professional’s Association and
NASM-National Academy of Sports Medicine, ACSM-American Council o f Sports
Medicine, and more. The most popular certification at Elite Gym was NASM, and
several trainers at Elite gym who had ACE certification often spoke o f “wanting to
get” NASM since it was considered more prestigious than ACE. The main difference
between all of the certifications was that the NASM and ACSM were deemed by
trainers to be more scientific, since these organizations were linked to sports medicine
organizations. Second, these two certification programs— unlike the others—required
a practicum exam in addition to the written exam and course requirements. On the
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practicum portion o f the exam, trainers had to watch someone execute a weight
exercise and comment on how/why the form o f the exercise was done correctly or
incorrectly. Due to these two reasons, the NASM and ACSM were considered to be
more “professional,” “scientific,” and “rigorous” certifications than the ACE. In the
next section, I will examine some of the text in the manuals of the three most popular
certifications in the sites--ACE, NASM, and EFPA.
The manuals were read with two goals in mind 1) to see if “scientific information”
on bodies was laid out by gender, or if there was a gender-neutral athlete assumed, and
2) to see if the material that was laid out by gender viewed men and women as
categorically different or as sharing an overlapping continuum of performance and
bodies. I also read the materials to see whether personal trainers were shown to
evaluate and assess clients’ health and fitness goals using the definitions of health and
fitness given in the manuals, or if other considerations were used. The three areas to
be covered will be muscles and hormones, body fat and body composition, and health
screening and client assessment.
Muscles and hormones:
Two of the three manuals (NASM, IFPA) handled muscle physiology in similar
ways, while a third manual (ACE) differed. Cross sections of muscle diagrams were
offered in all three which focused on muscle cells, proteins, and fibers. The types of
muscle fibers— slow twitch (also called “Type I,” said to be good for low intensity
endurance work and do not fatigue quickly) and fast twitch (also called “Type II,” said
to be good for bursts o f strength but fatigue quickly) were covered, as were the
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components of muscular contraction, and adaptations to resistance training (muscle
growth). There was no mention o f gender differences regarding muscle types, sizes,
or growth, or whether or not men or women will respond differently to weight training
in the IFPA or the NASM sections on muscles. However, the ACE manual did lay out
information on muscle types, sizes, and growth by gender. Regarding muscle types,
the ACE manual noted that:
there are no differences between males and females with respect to
fiber type distribution. In fact, there is no physiological difference
between the muscle fibers in a male and a female; there is no such
thing as a “male muscle cell” and a “female muscle cell (p 18).
Many other factors were mentioned in the three manuals that were said to influence
muscle growth such as age, individual capacity, nutrition, behavioral factors, hormonal
stimuli, metabolic factors, and protein supplements (NASM, p 197). Gender was not
explicitly mentioned as one of these factors in NASM or IFPA manuals, and
information on these factors was not presented separately by gender. It was not clear
if this was because the manuals assumed a gender neutral fitness participant, if the
unmarked norm was male, if the manuals do not expect gender differences, or if the
teacher o f the course discussed the principles by gender during class time.
One small section in the NASM manual did mention the affect that hormones
played in the hypertrophy process (muscle growth), but did not mention gender and
hormones, and only noted that:
hormonal stimuli alone do not determine the growth in muscle size
with strength training. For example, there is a poor correlation
between blood testosterone concentrations and the degree o f muscle
hypertrophy experienced during strength training. More research is
needed in this area (p 197).
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The ACE manual, however, more explicitly linked hormones to gender and muscle
growth where it stated that:
when men and women are exposed to the same strength training
program, men will generally hypertrophy to a greater extent than will
women. This is primarily because of higher levels of the hormone
testosterone in men than in women (p 22).
This hypertrophy (and the presence of testosterone in men, said to be a “male sex
hormone” in the ACE manual) was also said to be important when considering gender
differences in strength performance. At the same time, the ACE manual noted that
strength differences may be related to differences in weight between men and women,
for when strength was “evaluated on a pound for pound basis, men and women
demonstrate similar strength performance and when assessed in terms of lean body
weight, average strength performances for the men and women were almost identical
(p 245).” Thus, the ACE manual noted a general, not absolute tendency for men to
hypertrophy more than women on the “same training program” due to hormones
(which were not mentioned as also being present in women along a continuum). The
ACE manual also left open the possibility of a continuum of overlapping strength by
gender when it noted that men “generally’ hypertrophy more than woman. This manual
noted that there were no differences between males and females with respect to fiber
type distribution or types o f muscle cells. Lastly, it highlighted that strength
differences between men and women may be size differences— and when men and
women were evaluated on a pound for pound basis, their strength performances were
“almost identical.”
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In terms o f bodily responses to weight lifting and how many sets and reps to do, all
three manuals agreed that light weights, fewer sets, and higher reps was typical for
novices or individuals who were not building muscle size. For advanced lifters, or for
those seeking improved hypertrophy (size), heavier weights, more sets, and fewer reps
was recommended. Since more women than men may be novices at any given time in
the weight room, strength goals (e.g. those who are seeking to build strength or size -
vs- those who are not) might be said to parallel gendered patterns. However, this
information was not laid out as specifically gendered patterns in the NASM or IFPA
manuals. In the ACE manual, it was noted that a low rep, heavy weight program will
lead to “significant hypertrophy in most males,” while most females “because of
naturally low levels of testosterone, will not generate significant hypertrophy even with
this type of program” (p. 22). The definition o f “significant” hypertrophy was not
noted. While heavy weights were said to make most men much larger and not most
women, conversely, it was argued that “a low resistance, high rep program will
generally lead to little hypertrophy even in males” (p. 22). Thus, it was accepted that
light weights and high reps will not build much muscle mass in men or women while
heavy weights will make most men, but not most women significantly larger. The
wording “most” men or “most” women certainly left room for assumptions o f overlap
by gender, but did not note that cultural practices might interact with hormones and
what is considered the “natural.” What these individuals might be eating or burning
off (or gaining) with CV activities was also not considered in the hypertrophy section.
The section then ended by noting that: “ Many women shy away from strength training
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because of a fear o f the body-builder hypertrophy. You can allay their fears by using
lower resistance programs” (p 22).
Several facets of the quote (directly above) deserve attention. First, it was
significant that cultural ideologies about women, weight lifting, and a feared
masculinization o f the body were so widespread that they were written into the
“science” o f gender and bodies under the “muscle fiber adaptation” section o f this
personal training manual. A single solution was offered to women regarding the
perceived fear/problem of masculinization— light weights. Numerous other solutions
could have been: “you’re not a female bodybuilder,” or “you can allay their fears by
noting that bodybuilders tend to eat 2000-5000 calories daily, protein load with 13-15
cans of tuna fish a day and lift very heavy weights for 2-5 hours a day.” Instead of
embracing strength training programs for participants’ health, fitness, physical
functioning, psychological esteem, bodily competence, or other benefits, women’s
fears were allayed by essentially telling them to “back off.” Ultimately, this reveals
how a glass ceiling was institutionalized into the handbook for women through the
fitness practice o f “backing off”and lifting more lightly. Furthermore, it reveals how
trainers were being socialized to help female clients to meet gendered bodily ideologies
that can overrule health and fitness goals as defined in the manuals themselves.
Health was defined in the manuals as the absence o f injury or disease, and fitness
was defined as cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance,
body composition, and joint flexibility. It is telling that these “scientific” rationales for
weight lifting were not offered as options for trainers to use when dealing with female
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clients’ fears o f weight lifting. As we will see in the interview data, trainers often
stated that women “can’t” get big while prescribing the institutionalized practice of
“holding back” which ensures that women’s bodies “won’t” get big. In Chapter Four
and Five, I explored ethnographic and interview work which revealed that “backing
off” was indeed a strategic fitness practice used by many light and moderate lifters.
To highlight how weights and muscles were normalized as belonging in the realm
o f the masculine while cardiovascular work was framed in the feminine realm, imagine
for a moment that the same quote were written in the manual regarding cardiovascular
work:
Many women shy away from running (or biking, or stairmaster)
because of a fear of the “marathoners” ectomorphism (extremely
thin and lacking musculature). You can allay their fears by using the
suggestion to run (or bike, or step) slower or less. Or, you can tell
female clients that they can increase their caloric intake or lift
weights to increase musculature and size.
It was compelling that coverage of cardiovascular work didn’t include women’s fear
of spin classes leading to “professional bicycling legs,” nor did the manual include that
long treadmill workouts lead to women’s fears of looking like Joan Benoit (world
class marathoner). And, there was indeed something paradoxical as to why manuals
claimed that women had “naturally low levels of testosterone” and “will not generate
significant hypertrophy” on heavy weight programs, yet found it simultaneously
necessary to offer light weight and high repetition programs for “many women.”
(Remember, this type of program, “a low resistance, high rep program” was said to
“generally lead to little hypertrophy even in males.”) We will return to this specific
point when examining trainers’ narratives on these same subjects.
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Body fat and body composition:
The NASM and EFPA handled the material on body composition in somewhat similar
ways. First, there was recognition of “human energy” by defining what calories were
and how energy was expended by human bodies. There was a basic overview o f how
bodies used carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Next, there was a summary o f what
metabolism was, how to calculate one’s resting metabolism, and lastly, there were
recommendations as to how to alter one’s body fat and/or lean body mass (muscle)
through cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting. The NASM noted that the chapter
offered “only scientific solutions” (NASM, p. 213). At the same time, this NASM
section also noted that the chapter had been assembled with the “typical” client’s goals
in mind— to “improve body composition, i.e. their idea of looking better” (NASM, p
213).3 3 Thus, the chapter on body composition was openly assuming that “typical”
fitness goals were not specifically health or fitness goals (e.g. improved health or
cardiovascular or muscular functioning from body fat reduction), but “looks” goals
based on current norms o f body composition. Regarding whether genetics or “learned
behaviors” (or both) were important in changing body composition (specifically fat
loss and weight loss), the NASM manual noted that “genetic inheritance, more than
any other basic factor” influences one’s chances o f becoming fat (p 229).” Like much
of the NASM manual, this section did not explicitly mention sex as one o f the
“genetic” factors which influenced weight regulation, but rather, mentioned factors
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Whose idea is “their idea” of looking better? Is one ideal around body composition dominant? Why is
body composition now so central to the “look.”
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like stress, hormones, drugs, and smoking. The section concluded by noting that it
was not possible to alter genes, which were assumed to be fixed, but it was possible to
“control whether genes are allowed to fully express themselves” (p230). In this way,
biology was seen as a somewhat preset condition where cultural practice can only
“fool” the body into avoiding an expression of its already known, fixed, biological
properties. An alternative would be to think of culture as interactively shaping and
changing biology (Fausto-Sterling, 1985; Wingaard, 1997).
Both the NASM and the IFPA manuals moved through various fitness goals— such
as a desire to gain muscle mass, reduce body fat, or both— and how to attain them.
These sections did not mention gender, but in the IFPA manual, it was noted that
“sex” is one o f the factors which impacts the “efficiency” of fat burning (p 46). How
this efficiency was caused was not discussed. In examining the ACE manual, body
composition did not occupy a central space, nor were different body composition
goals discussed explicitly. Rather, information on body composition was briefly found
across various parts of the manual. For instance, in the chapter on muscular strength
and endurance, it was discussed that an increase in muscle mass increases metabolism
and that increasing muscle mass was therefore a good strategy for older people to
avoid the fat gain (and muscle loss) that accompanied old age. Physical fitness plans in
ACE were not separated out according to specific body composition goals such as
gaining muscle mass or losing fat. When exercise programs (whether weight or cv)
were discussed, clients goals were laid out with respect to both general health and
fitness benefits, such as “gains in muscle endurance,” “increased feeling of power and
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control,” “increase resting metabolic heart rate,” and general body issues that might
include body composition goals such as “reshape the body,” “lose body fat,” and
“maintain desired weight.” In this way, the ACE manual did not presume that
“typical” clients only have “looking good” goals and did not solely consider changing
body composition as a health and fitness program.
Sections in the NASM, IFPA, and ACE manuals did discuss body fat ideals by
gender. The NASM chapter on body composition showed a chart which diagrammed
how much body fat “very lean” “healthy” and “obese” men and women should have.
The manual stated that very lean males have < 8 percent body fat while very lean
females have <15 percent. Healthy males were said to have 8-12 percent body fat,
while healthy females were said to have 18-22 percent, and obese men had higher than
20 percent body fat while obese females had higher than 30 percent body fat. The
IFPA also had a chart o f “recommended” body fat percentages, where men were
recommended to have 8-15% and women 18-25%. The ACE manual had many more
gradations in its tables since it offered body fat charts which broke down the
classification of men and women’s body fat into recommendations such as: “essential
fat” (e.g. 10-12% for women, 2-4% for men) “athletes” (14-20% for women, 6-13%
for men), “fitness participants” (21-24% for women, 14-17% for men), “acceptable”
(25-31% for women, 18-25% for men), and “obese” (>32% for women, >25% for
men). In this way, the IFPA charts showed men and women to have no overlap in
body fat between categories and did not use separate categories for those who were
training in different intensities-- or were untrained “average” citizens. The NASM
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numbers showed a continuum of overlapping body fat for men and women, yet the
meanings attached to these categories were different. In the ACE manual, there was
again overlap acknowledged between men and women, although each of the
categories again had different social meanings attached to them. In this way, two of
the three manuals acknowledged an overlapping continuum o f body fat between
women and men, and merely assigned different cultural labels to bodies at the points of
overlap. Whether or not the meanings attached to the areas of overlap have changed
over time (or if overlap is acknowledged at all) would be a useful area for future
empirical analysis, perhaps revealing constructionist tendencies regarding conceptions
of gender and body fat.
Although it has been determined that the average male has less body fat than the
average female, there is some question as to whether trained males and females are
“average” males and females and whether trained individuals have even more similar
and overlapping continua of body fat. For instance, Bolin (1992a) noted the difficulty
one can have in identifying male and female athletes from a distance or in pictures
when they participate in competitive long distance endurance events. The training for
these events tends to produce bodies that are extremely lean and can appear to be
somewhat indistinguishable by gender. Fausto-Sterling (1985) also argues that men
and women have an overlapping continuum o f body fat and muscle and highlights the
role that physical activity plays in producing such bodies. She too argues that highly
trained female athletes have body fat levels that approach those of men’s. Significantly,
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the ways that eating and exercise practices influence these “average” or subcategory
differences were not discussed in the manuals.
Another subject covered on body composition in personal training manuals was
spot reducing, toning, and firming. All of the manuals’ main goals was to debunk the
“myth” of being able to reduce body fat in one particular part of the body through a
specific exercise, e.g. sit ups. The NASM and IFPA sections on spot reducing noted
that toning was a myth and that in order to lose body fat, individuals had to expend
more calories than they consumed. These manuals also noted that different clients will
lose body fat from different places on their body first-this section was laid out by
gender. In the NASM it was argued that women may lose body fat in their upper body
first, even if their fat stores may be more concentrated in the lower body. Men were
said to lose fat stores from their arms and legs “prior to losing weight in their waist
area” (p. 262). It was said that eating “properly” was also key to losing body fat.
Weight lifting was discussed as not necessarily toning the body. This was said to be
the case since gains in muscle tissue were said to “push out” the layers of fat on
individuals and clients may therefore appear to be larger. However, it was also stated
that when clients build muscle, they were said to increase their “ability” to bum food,
fat, and calories more efficiently, contributing to an ease o f weight control. This
particular NASM section ended with a note that the “bottom line” was that clients
should build muscle to increase their ability to bum fat, and this will help bum calories
(p 263). This “bottom line--” that clients should build muscle to increase their ability
to bum fat is the exact opposite suggestion from the previously discussed ACE
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strategy for women to “just lift lightly” in order to avoid muscular hypertrophy. Thus,
some manuals contradicted other manuals. It was somewhat intriguing that “clients”
were not gender marked in the manuals yet so many trainers on sites advised women
to just lift lightly while encouraging men to lift heavily.
Finally, sections on spot reducing warned clients to avoid wasting time on specific
exercises or exercise videos for this goal. And, clients were cautioned against iust
doing resistance training which will increase the size of the muscle.3 4 Rather, clients
were urged to eat less, bum more calories, and lift weight to “increase lean body
mass.” No differential recommendations were made for men and women. One
exception was the ACE manual, which stated that increasing lean body mass was not a
suggested method for “toning” the body, and “toning” the body was only mentioned
with regard to women. This particular manual noted that: “Many female clients may
want to eliminate the fat deposits and “tone” the inner thigh. You will have to teach
them that spot-reducing does not work and that they must exercise aerobically to
decrease body fat stores (ACE, p. 91).” (This was somewhat contradictory to the
NASM manual which stated that the “bottom line” was to increase muscle mass so as
to increase one’s ability to bum fat.) Later in the ACE manual, spot reducing was
again discussed. A gender neutral “client” was presented as concerned with losing fat
deposits in the upper thigh. It was suggested that “specific exercises” would not
diminish body fat, but “systematic aerobic exercise and nutrition” would (p. 92).
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Elsewhere in the manual, however, in cases where muscle hypertrophy (growth) was said to be the goal,
the text stated that weight lifting, proper nutrition, and meal supplements or substitutes may be all that
was necessary, while cardiovascular work may not be (NASM, p. 242).
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Thus, there were two different “bottom lines” across the three manuals on spot
reducing and toning. One bottom line was that (gender neutral) clients should build
muscle to increase their ability to bum fat, and this will help bum calories and tone the
body. The other bottom line was that aerobic exercise and good nutrition would
decrease body fat stores. Although changes to body composition were not often
linked to specific gendered suggestions in the manuals, there was indeed some
question as to how personal trainers applied the advice by gender on site. The above
examples revealed one place where body composition goals in the manual were said to
be changed through aerobic activity and not weight lifting (for women) while another
manual offered a different “bottom line” for the more gender neutral fitness
participant.
“Health Screening” and “Client Assessment”
The three manuals included a call for a health screening and client assessment. The
screening and assessment first determined the past physical fitness history and
problems o f the client through a health risk appraisal. The health screening included a
description o f a physical activity readiness quiz, a battery o f physical tests such as
heart rate, blood pressure, aerobic capacity, and strength and flexibility. This first area
o f the health risk appraisal focused on the medical risks of the client to exercise given
their past medical history, and their relative degree o f physical “readiness” to embark
on an exercise program. Simultaneously, the client assessment that was collected also
focused on the “fitness and health goals” of the client. To reiterate, “health” was
defined in the manuals as the absence o f injury or disease, and “fitness” was defined as
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cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, body
composition, and joint flexibility. On paper, the client was to check off what his/her
goals were (and these forms changed depending on the site), including speed, power,
aerobic endurance, muscular endurance, body weight, improved posture, muscle gain,
muscle tone, etc. Both manuals described how the personal trainer needed to develop
an exercise program by listening to the goals and interests o f the client. “Progress”
towards these goals were said to require a combination of “behavioral science” and
“sport psychology,” in addition to safe exercise form, good nutrition advice, and
“exercise science principles.” However, in the numerous vignettes in the NASM and
EFPA manuals that were used to teach trainers how to talk to clients about their stated
goals, rarely did health risks, fitness readiness, medical concerns, or “health and
fitness” as defined in the manuals take center stage. For example, in one vignette, the
EFPA manual noted that Jane, a twenty-nine year old married career woman, told her
trainer that she wanted to “get back in shape,” and the trainer replied to her in the
following way:
Make no mistake, this program you’re about to embark on is no
walk in the park. You are going to train harder than you can
possible imagine right now. I’m going to expect you to make
sacrifices in the way you eat. We call it delayed gratification...
Please remember that nothing you can eat could taste nearly as good
as lean and mean feels. I promise you that if you get committed to
this program that lean, sexy, hard body you dream about will
become a reality. Guaranteed (I.F.P.A., p 141).
The vignette ended by showing how the trainer “really listened” to Jane’s goals and
how this helped to “close the deal.” However, despite the fact that the entire manual
went on to define “health” as the absence of injury or disease, and “fitness” as
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cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, body
composition, and joint flexibility, the main focus of the interaction was about
convincing the client that her goal was attainable through hard work and “sacrifice.”
The goal was “that lean, sexy, hard body.” Another vignette began:
Theresa is 28 years old and 40 pounds overweight. She is unhappy
about her weight and is suffering from low self-esteem because of her
physical shape. I requested that Theresa go through various fitness
magazines and find pictures of bodies she would like to have. She
was to bring these pictures to me. We studied the pictures in detail. I
pointed out specific muscles and muscle groups in the pictures. I
painted a picture o f how her strength training would not only give her
the sleek, sexy contours she saw in the pictures, but also how the
increase in her lean body composition would increase her metabolic
rate (I.F.P.A., p 147).
Theresa was said to be suffering from low self-esteem and wanted to improve her
“physical shape.” Yet, her trainer didn’t seem to discuss her health goals concerning
cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, or other fitness
goals. Rather, the trainers asked her to look through a magazine to find pictures o f
the bodies she liked, and this became the “fitness” goal to work towards. Body
composition was especially central to the goal, and the trainer explained that if Theresa
increased her lean body mass, she would experience an increase in her metabolic rate.
There was a third vignette, called “negative reinforcement” to help clients reach
goals after an assessment. This was a story about Anita, who was said to be “thirty-
nine and holding,” a married housewife, who was in “relatively good shape,” but “not
in the shape she was in years ago.” Anita was said to have the goal of wanting “to get
back into good shape” and was described as feeling some anxiety since her husband
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“had recently hired a new nurse, who according to Anita, was twenty-four, attractive,
and built like a brick outhouse.” The vignette continued with how consistent Anita
was in her workouts, but that when she became tired or distracted from her “goals,”
the trainer would say to her “how is that new nurse working out in your husband’s
office?” Instead o f using the science of health and fitness materials to motivate the
client, the trainer instead drew on beliefs about gender and heterosexual marriage-that
men will leave their marriage partners for younger, more attractive, and fit women.
This ideology o f lack around bodies was used to motivate and move the client towards
her specific goals (IFPA, p. 144).
In the NASM, though specific vignettes were not used, it was noted that clients
“goals” may be unrealistic, and unrealistic was not discussed according to physical
functioning or performance, but according to a bodily look. Here, the manual warned
trainers:
Most people’s goals are lofty in every aspect of life, yet the price
they’re willing to pay does not match their aspirations. How they
want to look is no exception. First, member’s long- term goals are
usually unrealistic. This does not mean they couldn’t reach the
desired body fat and lean body mass percentages. It means that if
they do, they may not look the way the person in the magazine or
television advertisement looks... (NASM, p 223).
The vignettes provided in the ACE manual differed in a number o f ways from the
above two manuals. First, the vignettes featured information which appeared to be
closer to definitions of health and fitness such as family history o f disease, dietary
habits, smoking status, and personal history of disease. It also discussed personal
health, fitness, and appearance goals. Second, the vignettes moved through exercise
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program progressions over time if existing health problems (such as hypertension or
high cholesterol) subsided. Third, the vignettes mentioned pleasure, physical
functioning, and health goals and not just aesthetic goals regarding the body. For
example, one vignette covers a thirty year old male client with no major risk factors as
having the following goals: “He is especially interested in adding muscle bulk to
improve his golf game, which is his weekend passion” (ACE, p. 321). Another
examined a forty-five year old woman with some risk factors given her family history
as wanting to “lose weight, improve appearance and muscle tone, and decrease risk of
heart disease (ACE p. 319).
While all manuals move through the “scientific” topics of biomechanics, exercise
physiology, body composition, nutrition, and program design, the lack of application
of this information for “health and fitness” goals and the use o f this information for
bodily aspirations, especially in the IFPA and NASM manuals was striking. In these
two manuals, it was noted that most clients’ goals were not to ski more proficiently,
slam dunk a basketball better, or run faster at their next weekend race. Rather, the
manuals acknowledged that most clients’ goals were centered on a particular “look.”
(This was consistent with what nearly all of the personal trainers stated during both
formal and informal interviews). In both the vignettes from IFPA, and in the
description of “client goals” in NASM and trainers’ assessments of these goals,
materials were often removed from “health” and/or “fitness” or physical functioning
or skill assessments. Discussions of these assessments moved towards descriptions of
how to “give the customer what they want”—a highly gendered, culturally desired
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look. Client goals were frequently infused with larger cultural ideologies about gender
and bodies and were often accepted and not questioned, so long as it was “realistic.”
This may be because personal training, as part of a highly profitable industry, is a
business which succeeds when helping clients to fix perceived bodily anxieties and
lacks. However, there may be differences between what practices trainers might
suggest to meet “health and fitness goals” and what practices might be advised to meet
dominant bodily ideals. While both may be infused with larger cultural ideals— the two
can certainly be antithetical to one another.
In the next section, I explore the extent to which personal trainers in fitness sites
state that they in fact accept clients’ goals in this manner, or challenge them. Did
trainers use “scientific information,” and/or popular bodily ideologies regarding gender
and muscles, and how might this information contribute to the enforcement or
cracking of a glass ceiling on women’s strength? How did personal trainers describe
their responses to female clients’ common concerns about bodies, muscles, and weight
lifting?
Personal Trainers’ Narratives:
During in-depth interviews with twelve personal trainers and more informal
ethnographic interviews with approximately two dozen other trainers, I gathered
numerous stories about female clients’ goals, bodies, and fears. Trainers’ often
recognized women’s widespread fear of gaining size and muscular mass, and raised the
subject themselves during interviews. Trainers described that many women feared that
lifting weights “will make them big,” “look like a man,” or “look like a female
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bodybuilder.” Many trainers stated that they chose to confront clients about this
concern during orientation, personal training sessions, or regular workout time, since
the concern was frequently perceived to be a myth. Some trainers even joked that they
had a “talk” or a “speech” prepared to deal with such fears, which were considered to
be a response to “popular misconceptions,” a “lack of understanding about biology,” a
“lack of workout knowledge,” or a lack o f understanding concerning “what it takes”
to get big. Several of these trainers stated that they had to repeat the talk with so
many people, and with such frequency, including several times with the same person,
that it was frustrating. For example, Megan, a thirty-two year old trainer said that she
was so “tired o f hearing about” women who feared getting big, she was “going to spit
if I hear it again.” Jack, a thirty-five year old male personal trainer from Mid-Gym
who also taught weight lifting classes at a college site, said he had “to begin every
weight lifting class” covering the “myths about weight lifting,” including “the myth
that weight lifting makes women big or look like men.” It was significant that when
size referenced big muscles, the connotation was look “like a man.”
The “talk” which responded to women’s fears that weights will give women big
muscles and/or make them look like man frequently relied on knowledge that trainers
acquired during the personal training certification process (or during their college
degrees). There were four ways that trainers paradoxically managed 1) having access
to seeing a continuum of overlapping performance between women and men 2) larger
cultural ideologies of categorical difference, and 3) “scientific information” gained
during professional socialization on gender and bodies:
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• Women can’t get big—biologically, this is impossible (Biology is
Destiny)
Women should just lift light weights (Just Hold Back)
• Women have to lift weights for metabolic or medical reasons
(Metabolic or Medical Mandate)
• Women won’t get big because they don’t work hard in the weight
room (No Pain, No Gain)
Women Can’t Get Big :
The first and most frequent response— that its biologically impossible for women to
get big— was commonly used by both male and female trainers. This “can’t happen”
was not often explained as something that was linked to how much lifting women
actually do, (that is, that most women don’t spend much time in the weight room, or
don’t increase the weight across sets, or hold back and lift moderately and therefore
won’t get larger) but was often explained as not possible due to women’s biology.
Jasmine, a twenty-four year old Latina trainer at Elite Gym ironically stated both. She
explained that men in the fitness center “generally bodybuild while women do not,”
and that “women usually do more reps, lighter weight than men and men do heavier
weight, less reps.” She stated that this is because “women aren’t usually into building
muscle unless they’re very thin” and that they’re “not interested” because “women
don’t want to be too big...too masculine.” When I asked her if she responded to
participants about this, she said yes. When I asked her to describe what she said to
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participants when they stated these fears, she explained that: “I tell them that its not
possible to get too big--they don’t have enough testosterone to get big.... unless they
have an unusual amount of it.”
Jasmine first told me that numerous women use light weights and high reps because
they fear becoming “too masculine,” highlighting how bodily ideologies impact the
choice of fitness practices, which in turn help to construct body size. Yet, the
biological “fact” of hormones, and not the actual practices that are being carried out
are used to assuage women’s fear of getting bigger. This was similar to one o f the
paradoxes covered in the textual analysis of trainers’ manuals where it was stated that
women will not gain significant mass even on a heavy weight program, but that many
women who fear muscular gains can have their fears allayed through lifting lightly.
Guenivere, a twenty-six year old Asian-American woman at the same gym offered a
similar narrative, and again used essentialist arguments using her exercise physiology
“knowledge” about gender, when she stated: “ ...women think resistance exercise is
going to make them big, but this a myth...this is not physiologically possible.” When I
ask her if she could “explain the myth” to me, she replied:
...well that’s just one myth, there’s a lot out there...but like
yesterday, I had a client who was doing flies and she said ‘will this
make my shoulders really big’...and I was like ‘women can’t get
upper body strength, they don’t have the testosterone to do
that’...(pause)...and well, there are two types of muscle fibers...type
one and type two. There’s the female muscle type and the male
muscle type...men have more type two, they get bigger, and have
lots o f testosterone... women can’t get that...that’s why women
don’t have big upper bodies...but guys do...
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Previously, I have highlighted how personal training manuals noted that there was no
“male” or “female” muscle type. Manuals also did not include any piece of material
which stated that women physiologically “can’t get upper body strength.” Manuals
do mention that women will gain less muscle mass than men on average from the same
weight lifting program. However, instead of assuming (as seen in the ethnographic
accounts in Chapter 4), that men often have large, strong upper bodies and small lower
bodies in part because they often lift vigorously for long periods of time with their
upper bodies, use multiple sets, employ the use of ladders, supersets, pyramids, protein
supplements, and short cardiovascular workouts, men were thought to just have the
right hormones and muscle types (again, however, note that the manuals stated that
men who use a light weight, hi repetition program will also not gain muscle mass).
Instead o f noting that women were often smaller in the upper body in part because
they frequently engage in long doses of cardiovascular work coupled with light lifting,
holding back, keeping the weight the same across sets, etc., (especially when lifting
with the upper body), women were often said to just not have the right muscles and
hormones, and “can’t get that.” Similarly, Herbert, a thirty-one year old African-
American trainer from Elite Gym stated that:
The general comment I get is I don’t wanna get big. You know, they
fear big bulging muscles. So I tell them, you’re a woman, two
things— the first is testosterone and the second is growth
hormone...you are very deficient in one o f those, so the odds o f that
happening are slim to none...
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Despite the fact that trainers had access to seeing a visible continuum of performance
and bodies which overlap by gender, it was often the case that they drew on
essentialist arguments o f categorical gender difference to soothe women’s fears of
acquiring large muscles. Body differences were often presented as physiological,
dimorphic facts, even when different programmatic choices by gender were frequently
made. Paradoxically, when personal trainers used these kinds o f arguments-- that
women simply cannot gain muscle mass in the upper body, or don’t have the
testosterone or growth hormone to get big muscles— this may have led women not to
fear weights. This may have contributed to women feeling more comfortable lifting
weights— or heavier weights. Thus, the use o f a false essentialism paradoxically
asserted categorical differences between women and men, yet may also have led
women to weight practices that push upwards on the glass ceiling. This practice could
feasibly lead to larger muscles on women and the production o f more of an overlap o f
performances and bodies by gender. This would not be the case for the next response
that trainers offered— holding back and lifting lightly.
Just Hold Back:
At the point in the interview where Guenivere explained to me that there were two
different muscle types, I began to frame an emerging paradox in my head. On the one
hand, there were many trainers’ assumptions o f dichotomous gender difference
concerning muscles, genes, and hormones; and on the other hand, there were the
actual practices (e.g. lifting light or not lifting, backing off, keeping the weight the
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same, long doses of cv work, etc) that many women carried out which helped shape
their lightly muscled, compact frames. I therefore asked Guenivere to explain this
emerging paradox:
Shari: So...um...on the one hand, you said that women can’t get
big...physiologically speaking... but on the other hand, you said that
they don’t want to get big, so they lift light weights. If women lift
light weights... they won’t get big... (pause) but, if women lift heavy
weights... what then?
Guenivere: They’re gonna gain mass...that’s true...just not as much
as a guy...but women here don’t want to lift heavy...and we find a
way to give them a muscle bum using light weights...but women’s
muscle is different, the fibers aren’t the same as guys.
Guenivere managed this paradox by falling back on the biologically essentialist belief in
different male-female muscle fibers— a belief that ran contrary to the ACE manual (the
certification that Guenivere has). The ACE manual stated that there was no
physiological difference between the muscle fibers in a male and a female; there was no
such thing as a “male muscle cell” and a “female muscle cell” (p 18). At the same time
that she said that biologically, women can’t get big from weight lifting, she
simultaneously stated that women don’t lift heavily because they don’t want to. Thus,
at the same time that she claimed essential gender difference, she also identified
women’s conscious and deliberate desires to construct different bodily forms.
Furthermore, she identified that she “helped” female clients construct that difference
through the commonly used strategy of low repetitions and light weights. This
particular strategy was indeed reviewed in the ACE manual as a “solution” to
women’s fears of “bodybuilding hypertrophy.” Ultimately, her narrative highlighted
one common nature/culture paradox concerning women’s bodies— that women are
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simultaneously believed to be essentially different from men and not “able to” get big,
yet are continually prescribed practices which ensure the construction of that
difference.
Many other women approached trainers for ways to avoid bulk, and several trainers
used similar “just lift lightly” solutions, which ironically reinforced and institutionalized
a glass ceiling on women’s strength. For instance, Gerie, a white twenty-eight year
old trainer at Mid-Gym, stated that numerous “women fear bulkiness” and when I
asked her “what do you say to them when they say that to you,?” she replied:
I said don’t worry about it, you don’t have the testosterone to get
big— I mean some women do have more...or are bigger boned...but I
was honest with a lot of them.... I had them do lower weights and
higher reps if that was the case....”
Categorical distinctions between women and men, e.g. “you don’t have the
testosterone to get big” were used to imply that the myth of weights making women
bulkier was false, and that only men have the testosterone to get big. However, her
comments “I mean some women do have more,” simultaneously pointed to differences
among women, highlighting that categories of size and strength may be better
conceptualized as a continuum of overlap between women and men. What practices
men and women actually do on site was not mentioned, as it was in Guenivere’s
narrative, and Gerie’s “answer” to the situation was “lower weights and higher reps.”
As seen in the manuals, lower weights and higher reps tend to “tone” and not build
muscle mass on the body while heavier weights and fewer reps tend to build size, and
bulk. Thus, it seems her “honesty” stems from seeing more testosterone, having
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“bigger bones,” or bigger muscles as problems for women which are “solved” through
lifting lower weights and doing more reps. This prescription, as we have seen, is what
many moderate lifters do (with or without the advice o f trainers) in the weight room,
even in free weight spaces. By contrast, lifting heavy weights over multiple sets was
normative, as we have seen, for many men in the weight room, and a small percentage
of women. Thus, while women were often claimed to not “be able” to get big through
lifting weights, it was interesting that they were simultaneously prescribed “light
weights.” This paradox challenged the way in which many trainers framed the issue
and the solution as physiological--for if women could not get big, then we would not
have to prescribe light weights so frequently to ensure that they don’t.
Furthermore, Gerie’s “honesty” did not seem to focus on health or fitness goals,
but rather, was focused on not triggering certain women’s propensities to acquire
aesthetically displeasing muscles. If health and fitness goals such as improved
muscular strength and performance (or bodily competence or functioning) were the
goals and not subduing a fear o f masculinization, perhaps trainers would push women
to lift more instead o f prescribing light weights. It was somewhat ironic that the
fitness industry profited from new, more muscular images of fit women that pulled
women into fitness centers to “fix” their bodily anxieties, yet, once women arrived,
many trainers used weight prescriptions of “holding back.”
The role o f practice in constructing particular bodily forms was recognized more
explicitly by a few trainers. For instance, Herbert, who was introduced earlier in the
chapter as responding to women’s fear of size with: “you’re a woman~2 things— the
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first is testosterone, and the second is growth hormone...you are very deficient in one
of those, so the odds of that happening are slim to none...” Later in the interview, he
described a more constructionist approach to the body. Here was Herbert’s response
to what he says was people asking him how he “got his body,” which was highly
muscled, large, and lean:
People ask me all the time, how long did it take you to get that
body...and the honest answer is seventeen years. Really...seventeen
years of consistent training and eating and a family that ate well and
blessed me with their genetics too. So I tell people, like say they’re
an engineer and they never played football or baseball..or a
lawyer...how long did it take you to become a good lawyer???
Without school?? And they’ll say like eight years. And then I ’ll say
add in the school— and they’ll say twenty years or something like
that...double digits at least...and they get it...
Though Herbert thought that women didn’t have the right hormones to gain mass, he
made no mention of these hormones for men and instead extended a constructionist
account of how he “got” his body (coupled with “blessed genetics”). He described
“how long” it took him to “earn” his body, yet previously, didn’t describe women as
having bodies constructed out o f their practices rather, they were described as simply
“deficient” in growth hormone or testosterone. Ultimately, “just lift lightly” solutions
help to institutionalize a glass ceiling on women’s strength. Despite definitions of
health and fitness which seek to develop a more competent or fit body through fitness
regimens, holding back can lead to a less powerful, independent, or healthy/fit body.
While biological explanations and “just lift light” solutions were the most popular
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responses from trainers concerning women’s fears of muscularity, other trainers
described how weights shouldn’t be feared since metabolic and medical mandates
require weight lifting.
Metabolic or Medical Mandate:
Several trainers perceived that women’s fears of gaining muscle mass were soothed
when they framed weight lifting as consistent with a calorie burning and metabolism
boosting strategy— or as a medical mandates to avoid or help osteoporosis. For
instance, Jene, a twenty-seven year old Asian male described his script for “the talk”
when women fear weight lifting and muscle gains:
So I have to sit down with the women and have this talk— most of
the time, I tell them, you have to do weight lifting and you have to
gain some muscle mass to bum more calories and increase your
metabolism.
Jene specifically mentioned “gaining muscle mass” as necessary to burning calories and
increasing metabolism. This gave women a place to reconsider their disdain for an
avoidance o f weights and replace it with approval given that weight lifting practices
were described as being consistent with calorie burning strategies. A few other trainers
strategically deployed weight lifting as consistent with the promises o f boosted
metabolism, fat burning, and size reduction in order to nudge women out o f a mind set
that gaining muscle mass was an inherently tainted activity. Several young women and
many older women in fact mentioned to me that part o f their weight lifting enjoyment
came from not fearing old age and its accompanying fat gains as much once they
learned that weights increased metabolism.
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Trainers also negotiated women’s fears of weights by reminding them of specific
medical mandates- that weights could be used to increase bone mass and ward off or
help osteoporosis. I learned a lot about this subject through Megan, a white, thirty one
year old personal trainer. When Megan and I met for a first interview, I had not noted
that she trained a lot of older (female) clients. As I watched her more over the years, I
realized that many older women came to her and I then asked her for a second
interview. Prior to the second interview, I told Megan that I noticed that a lot o f older
clients goto her and asked her if this was the case. She replied yes. I asked her why she
thought so many older clients go to her. She stated that in addition to her “getting
along well” with older people, that numerous older women were essentially
“summoned” to lift weights due to poor osteoporosis tests which reported deficient
bone masses. Deficient bone masses were said to be built up through lifting weights or
other weight bearing activity. When we met for a second interview, we talked about
whether women’s fear of weights that she had mentioned previously were relevant to
older women.
Shari: When we met several years ago, you mentioned a fear of
weights and a fear o f bulk that women have... around the weight
room. Do you remember?
Megan: (laughs) Yes. (Nods)
Shari: And now you train a lot o f older women. Do you find this
fear in older women or no?
Megan: Yes, and its sad to me....its...its like they don’t come to the
gym to be more capable people— or more independent for say,
carrying their own luggage or something...or to be functionally fit.
They see this as medical. That makes it ok.
Shari: What do they see as wrong with it?
Megan: They say...and I hear this all the time...age doesn’t matter:
‘I don’t want to get bulky...I don’t want to look like a man.’
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Ironically, though women were often told in popular culture and by trainers that they
can’t get bigger since they don’t have the right hormones or muscle fibers, even older
women feared that the practice of weight lifting will make them big and “look like a
man.” Next, I asked Megan if and how she responded to this fear. Her “talk” with
women considered numerous factors:
Shari: Do do you respond to that fear?
Megan; Yes.
Shari: What do you tell them?
Megan: I say trust me...you won’t...its a matter of educating them—
all about muscle structures and different propensities to gain
mass... and the different types of training you can do.... not doing high
weights and low reps but doing low weights and high reps— and
concentrating on strength and stamina, not size...I mean, they do
come in...like after two weeks...and say, hay, I tried to put on my
shirt this morning and it feels tight around my arms...
Shari: What do they say about this?
Megan: Well, usually that its not their ideal body image...its not
what they see as beautiful...they see it as ugly...they like some
muscle, but not a lot... and with most o f them... there isn’t a
resolution...it comes back to osteoporosis— usually, I’ll say ‘do you
want to work out or don’t you?’ And they’ll still want to work out—
so there’s this medical reason on the one hand... and this body image
on the other...(pause)...so they usually end up doing what’s
beneficial to their bone density...medicine wins...
Megan’s approach in dealing with women who feared muscle began with “educating
them” on genetic propensities to gain mass (though she didn’t link it necessarily to
gender, nor categorically), and the practices that shaped the body in various ways.
She offered the common “solution” to a fear o f bulk— e.g., not doing high weights and
low reps but doing low weights and high reps, and added a focus “on strength and
stamina,” “not size.” With older women, many seemed to face a dilemma where there
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were medical dictates that presented weights as beneficial on the one hand, and
problematic due to bodily ideals that demanded thinness on the other. Megan didn’t
necessarily challenge this in the way that she stated during her interview above, e.g.
“its sad to me....like they don’t come to the gym to be more capable people~or more
independent for say, carrying their own luggage or something...or to be functionally
fit. They see this as medical. That makes it ok.” Rather, when she confronted them, it
sounded like it was in a rather frustrated vein, e.g. “do you want to work out, or don’t
you?” She then stated that her clients generally responded with a yes— that
“medicine” won out in the end. While health and fitness arguments were used (e.g.
building bone density), the particular notion that muscles were problematic on
women’s bodies was left rather untouched. Ultimately, demanding that women should
lift weights either to increase their metabolism— or to conform to medical dictates—
might push them to lift more weights than they otherwise would, helping to break out
of a glass ceiling on strength. Ironically, using an argument concerning body size
reduction and metabolism might reinforce dominant ideologies concerning size
reduction, but it may also push women to lift more weights than they might otherwise.
No Pain No Gain:
A few trainers offered to soothe women’s fear of weights outside of the suggestion
that women either couldn’t get big due to biology, should just hold back, or were wise
to lift weights which could decrease body size through increased metabolism or help
improve bone mass. These trainers suggested that women just don’t put the time in
the weight room to truly have rational fears of weight lifting. One of these trainers
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was Jack, a thirty-five year old Latino man from Mid-Gym. He explained to me that
women fear big muscles, so they avoid weights, but that with no pain, there is no gain:
...since they see the guys getting bigger and they see female
bodybuilders getting bigger, they’re worried, and I tell them,
you’re only lifting here like one hour a week and that’s not enough
to get big...women don’t spend the time!! Bodybuilders lift five to
six hours a day, some of them! These women don’t put the time
in! They lift and they’re like ow! Its hard!...(pause)...except the
ones with sports experience...(pause) (says more quietly)...with
sports experience...and without...two different
worlds...(pause)...two different worlds...one they push and one
they don’t...
Jack explained how women feared the musculature o f “the guys” and “female
bodybuilders.” He used arguments that focused on the constructed nature of bodies to
help soothe women’s fears that they will not get big from weight lifting. He argued that
women don’t put enough time in the weight room to have a fear of gaining size. At the
same time, he recognized that the category woman is by no means unified and offered
an awareness that organized sports experience— or a range o f physical practices—might
play a role in constructing different bodily forms (some “push” and some say “ow, its
hard” and “don’t”). Although Jack thought that the women on site feared “the guys”
and “female bodybuilders,” perhaps some of the women on site also feared those
women (from a different world) who had organized sport experience and “pushed.” In
either case, it was clear from this and Chapter Five that most women admired some
degree of strength, but that women ideologically positioned certain women as having
gone “too far.”
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Another trainer who agreed that women don’t put in the time was Gertie, a twenty-
eight year old African American trainer at Mid-Gym. She first told me that women
were “always afraid of getting too big,” and then laughed when I asked her to explain
what she said to such women:
I tell them that you can’t get too big. It takes a lot more than coming
in here and using basic equipment and doing what they do and eating
what they eat...it takes a lot more than what they come in here and
do...you have to eat and eat and train and train... to put on mass...
Megan, who was introduced in the previous section stated that women just don’t do the
weight lifting practices that contribute to building large muscles. In her words:
...if I put a woman on a bench press and picked a weight where she
could do four or five reps... and did four or five sets, and came
back and did it every other day for a month, she would have big
arms and a big chest...most women don’t lift very much at all
though...
Unlike many o f the trainers’ narratives that emphasized biological impossibility
concerning large muscles, Megan highlighted that actual weight lifting practices made
women’s bodies larger. As was noted previously, several women came to Megan after
a few weeks of lifting weights and said, “hay, I tried to put on my shirt this morning
and it feels tight around my arms.” Three other trainers briefly mentioned clients who
come back to them to say: “hay, you told me I wouldn’t get big from weights, but I’m
getting bigger!” One example of this was from Jene, a twenty-seven year old Asian-
American male from Elite Gym, who stated that:
There is definitely this phase when the body adapts to training and
women feel bigger and are a little bigger-but its what the body is
learning... some bodies do bulk, but a lot of times, it goes away, its
not like something’s really going on...
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Jene spoke to the possibility that practices shaped the body, and stated that some
bodies do bulk, and women “feel bigger and are a little bigger” but then saw this as a
“phase,” where “its not like something is really going on.” Greg, a thirty-four year old
African-American trainer from Mid- Gym described a story with me where something
“really” seemed to be going on:
I have this one woman who got HUGE biceps, I mean huge
(laughs)...she had a propensity to get huge biceps— she only came to
me every couple of weeks, she did some weights on her own
too...so I couldn’t take the blame. We increased the reps and were
more cautious about what we did. Some bodies are more prone to
that...
Greg framed big biceps as something he “won’t take the blame for,” and he provided
the well known solution of lifting light, and being more “cautious” when the
“propensity” or practices (“she did some weights on her own too”) were there. The
glass ceiling on strength seemed to be particularly well reinforced on women who were
“predisposed” or perceived themselves as being predisposed to gaining mass.
Summary:
Personal trainers on fitness sites acted as specialists and “experts” of bodily
knowledge. They were uniquely positioned in between larger cultural ideologies on the
one hand and women’s day- to-day decision making about bodies and practices on the
other. Trainers were also in the unique position o f not only seeing a continuum of
performance by gender on site, but o f having the opportunity to use their expert status
to reinforce or challenge the placement of a glass ceiling on women’s strength.
However, they were also socialized through materials which contained cultural
assumptions about bodies, gender, health, and fitness. Indeed, given the profitability
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that comes with training numerous women to move towards the more muscular bodily
ideals that have developed over time, the industry is in a unique position to help women
to push upwards on a glass ceiling on strength.
Personal training manuals were presented as “scientific” materials on health and
fitness, yet the advice trainers were shown giving during client assessments and goals
did not frequently adhere to the health and fitness criteria as defined in the manuals
themselves. Rather, personal trainers were shown to frequently uncritically accept
clients’ gendered bodily ideals and did not challenge assumptions that muscle was
problematic on women’s bodies. The lack of discussion about the potential difference
between dominant bodily ideals and health and fitness goals— and the varying solutions
that might be offered to clients for each— points to how health and fitness goals were
being uncritically conflated with looks goals (in two o f the three manuals).
Furthermore, “holding back” on weights was institutionalized into a manual as a
solution for women who fear large muscles. This was striking given the lengthy list of
health and fitness benefits that were laid out for weight lifting and the profitability that
the industry has enjoyed from increasingly muscular ideals for women over time.
Trainers’ narratives concerning women, muscle, and weight lifting were
contradictory and paradoxical. Trainers did not often push women to lift weights out
of embracing the goals of health and fitness or to seek a more physically competent and
independent body. Rather, trainers often relied on essentialist arguments that women
can’t get big due to “physiological impossibility,” or hormone or muscle fiber
differences between women and men (this was often contrary to what manuals stated).
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Ironically, the use of essentialist assertions may have eased women’s fears of gaining
larger muscles, and may have pushed women to lift more weights, helping them to push
upwards on the glass ceiling on strength. For those women who trusted their trainers’
assertions that it was impossible for women to get big, and subsequently immersed
themselves in weight room practices, some were said to have return to training sessions
with larger muscles. Ironically, trainers’ own claims that women can’t get big helped to
close the muscle gap between men and women that was asserted to be a biological or
physiological impossibility. At the same time, women whose bodies did respond
quickly to muscle gains or were perceived as being predisposed to gaining muscle mass
were considered unusual women who were then offered a solution to this bodily
problem. Instead of allowing these instances to stand as evidence of a fit or physically
competent person or how practices contributed to a continuum of overlapping bodies
by gender— trainers often warned women to “hold back.” Rarely was the assumption
that muscle was problematic for women’s— and not men’s— bodies challenged.
Trainers also ironically helped women to push beyond limits on strength. They did
this not only through the use of arguments about what women’s bodies can’t do, but by
cheering on the “calorie burning qualities” of weights or by reminding women of
medical dictates which suggest more weight lifting to prevent or correct decreased
bone mass that can lead to osteoporosis. As some trainers noted, many fitness
participants who purchased personal training services did not see weight lifting as
contributing to a more capable, independent, or functionally fit person who can
accomplish the tasks o f daily living. Rather, weights were part and parcel o f the
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struggle that women engaged with regarding emphasized femininity and muscle. This
chapter sheds light on how women, as agents, negotiated individual, cultural, and
institutional forces that pushed in paradoxical and contradictory ways on the glass
ceiling on women’s strength.
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Chapter Eight: Conclusion
Debates concerning women in fitness, particularly within weight rooms, are lively
and contentious, offering powerful challenges to “what we see” as taken for granted
assumptions about bodies and natural difference. Common sense often tells us that
flesh and blood bodies are largely shaped by biology and that women’s bodies are
naturally more weak and lacking in musculature when compared to men’s. Common
sense therefore also assumes that women cannot gain much muscle mass, unless an
individual woman is a genetic aberration, or unless she accomplishes this through
“unnatural means.” However, bodies are also shaped, constrained, and defined through
cumulative social practices, wider cultural ideologies, structures of opportunity,
interactions with others, the institution of fitness, and more. Many women in the two
fitness sites in which I observed were acutely aware of or feared their own
predisposition to gain muscle mass. Compounding the tensions around essentialist
beliefs that women “can’t get big” were the bodily experiences women actually had
and/or feared when weight lifting, along with ideologies of emphasized femininity—
what bodies should do. Using fitness centers as key sites in which to ask how women
negotiate these paradoxes as day-to-day fitness participants, I set out to answer three
main questions about fitness, gender, and bodies:
® What do women and men do in the spaces of fitness centers?
• How do women actively negotiate widespread awareness of a
culturally-imposed upper limit on muscular strength and size?
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251
What assumptions about fitness, gender, and bodies are
contained within training manuals? Do personal trainers use the
information gained during professional socialization to reproduce
or resist the placement of a glass ceiling on women’s strength?
In the first empirical chapter, Chapter Four, I described gendered fitness practices.
Women were less likely than men to use core free weight spaces, frequently spent
shorter periods of time in the weight room, longer times on cv equipment, and much
more often used weight lifting practices such as not increasing weight across sets, using
high numbers o f repetitions with light weight, and not using practices that were
commonly known to build mass. At the same time, core free weight spaces were male-
dominated, men tended to carry out shorter cardiovascular workouts, longer weight
workouts, tended to use practices consistent with bodybuilding techniques such as
pyramids, ladders, and supersets. Cumulatively carrying out these historically specific
practices help to shape the bodies we see.
Indeed, examining movements into particular spaces is instructive in uncovering
how spatial territories--and the categories of manhood and womanhood are policed and
negotiated. And, analyzing the more frequent verbal exchanges (e.g. ambivalence,
refraining) opened up the possibility to examine how fitness participants managed
evidence o f an overlapping continuum of strength and performance by gender. Women
who ventured into gender transgressive zones (GTZ’s), here male-dominated core free
weight spaces, were viewed as the most controversial and political terrain. This was
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252
particularly the case with heavy lifters’ performances and bodies. Ethnographic
responses showed that while encouragement was not the most frequent response to
those women who entered GTZ’s, women who lifted heavily were cheered on and
encouraged and not merely chastised or stigmatized in “forbidden space.” This opened
up a space of possibility for women to embrace and enact strength in the same spaces
as men. At times, there was recognition o f a performance overlap by gender among
fitness participants, challenging notions o f absolute male physical superiority. At other
times, wider cultural ideologies were paradoxically leaned upon so as to manage
evidence o f the continuum in ways that recreated dichotomous gender difference.
Uncovering how cultural spaces are politicized realms where dominant ideologies can
be simultaneously reproduced, negotiated, and/or challenged is a central third wave
feminist goal (Heywood & Drake, 1997). Women’s actions were not simply shaped at
the individual level or within small group interactions, but also revealed group-based
agencies and constraints concerning negotiating on the subjects of strength and size.
Examining narratives from women along a continuum of weight lifting (non, moderate,
and heavy) helped to flesh out these forces.
Agency. Constraint, and the Glass Ceiling
Many women expressed awareness that muscle js something that many women can
and do gain. In fact, approximately 3/4 o f women had an awareness of a culturally-
imposed upper limit on the quest for muscular strength and size. Interview narratives
revealed that non-lifters, moderate lifters, and heavy lifters used unique strategies to
mediate tensions around emphasized femininity (what bodies should do) and bodily
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experiences (what bodies actually do). These strategies included avoiding, holding
back on, or adjusting weight workouts respectively.
Non-lifters constituted approximately 25% o f women on the two sites. While non
lifters might not lift weights due to time, preference, access to knowledge about
weights, multiple jobs, or work and family responsibilities, many argued that
cardiovascular work was the preferred or more valued activity since it contributed to
femininity. Weights were perceived as taking away from femininity. Many non-lifters
negotiated the above tensions through a strategic avoidance of the weight room so as
to prevent an increase in body size while embracing cardiovascular work, to help
decrease size and maintain curves. These women actively defined and were defined by
recent definitions o f emphasized femininity as small, lean, toned, and curvy to some
extent. In this way, non-lifters stayed safely below the glass ceiling, did not frequently
challenge dominant bodily ideals, and can be described as enacting a bodily agency that
is reproductive of these ideals.
Moderate lifters, who constituted 65% of the women on the sites, generally agreed
with non-lifters on the above issues, but departed from non-lifters in critical ways. In
addition to rejecting ideals o f thin, weak bodies and an avoidance the weight room,
moderate lifters juggled ideologies of strength alongside careful monitoring o f the body
for signs o f muscular excess. To mediate a desire for increased strength with an
adherence to tight, toned, not-too-muscular 1990's (and beyond) emphasized
femininity, moderate lifters used unique strategies which included: holding back on the
amount of weight lifted, limiting the time/number o f days per week spent in the weight
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room, and struggling with whether or not to increase the amount of weight across sets.
Moderate lifters indeed inched past non-lifters, nudging upwards towards the glass
ceiling, but then bumped up against it and “held back.” In this way, moderate lifters
represent a negotiated bodily agency that actively pressed beyond thinness ideals but
were also held back by fears o f masculinization and a loss o f heterosexual attractiveness
(e.g. see Dworkin, Forthcoming).
Heavy lifters, who were 10% of the women on sites, powerfully embraced themes of
bodily pride and independence and enacted weight lifting practices that were generally
consistent with these beliefs. Heavy lifters’ more muscular bodies symbolically rejected
definitions of emphasized femininity as small, curvy, and compact and frequently chose
practices which pushed well past non and moderate lifters. While too much muscle or
fat were powerfully feared transgressions for non and moderate lifters, muscle was
desirable for heavy lifters, so long as soft layers of fat didn’t cover bulging muscularity,
and so long as femininity was perceived as being maintained. Heavy lifters also shared
themes o f avoidance and holding back on weights with non and moderate lifters. For
instance, they described how they avoided large muscle groups in the upper body, cut
back on certain body parts, or “adjusted” weight workouts from “a man’s” so as to
construct a “smaller look.” Though most heavy lifters adjusted to femininity, they
pushed well beyond moderate lifters and frequently blasted past the glass ceiling on
muscular size, enacting a transeressive bodily agency. Furthermore, this trangressive
agency at times extended beyond particular bodily looks to include numerous functional
uses for bodily practices in daily life such as independence, bodily competence, and
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strategic self-defense. Table 8.1 charts the above discussion of bodily ideologies, bodily
knowledge, and practices across the three groups of lifters.
Table 8.1: Bodily Ideologies, Practices, and Experience
Non-Lifters Moderate Lifters Heavy Lifters
Body
Ideology
-fear of bulk and
bodybuilders’ mass-
bulk is bad
-women should be
lean, taut, curvy
-weights are
unnecessary and can
hurt femininity,
cardio is
valued/necessary and
contributes to
femininity
-desire for strength
and value a degree of
weight lifting strength
-fear of bulk and
bodybuilders’ mass
-women should be
lean, taut, curvy, and
some muscle is o.k.
-disdain for skinny
bodies
-heterosexual
attractiveness
-strength is highly
desirable
-smash the idea
that women are
fragile or weak
-strong body
necessary for
strategic self-
defense
-pride in bodily
competence and
independence
Body
Knowledge/
Experience
problems with
increased body size,
fear of “excess” fat or
muscle
-bodies do bulk with
lifting
-careful monitoring o f
muscle
empowerment and
pride with strength
and size
Bodily
Practice/
Strategy
-avoid weights
-carry out
cardiovascular
activities
-cv plus moderate
weights negotiates
size and strength
-weight strategies:
back off on days per
week, hold back on
weight amounts, keep
the weight the same,
and avoid “maxing
out”
-multiple weight
sets
-long periods of
time in weight
room
-use o f pyramids,
supersets, ladders,
and “maxing out”
Glass Ceiling stay well below glass
ceiling
nudge up to glass
ceiling and then
“back off”
-blast through
glass ceiling
-“adjust” to
femininity on
certain body parts
or exercises
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Table 8.1 (continued)
256
Outcome reproductive agency negotiated agency- resistant/
re: emphasized new defns of E.F. transgressive
femininity agency
Fitness as an Industry
Performing a textual analysis to examine core cultural assumptions surrounding
fitness, gender, and bodies within training manuals helped to flesh out some of the
institutional forces at work in the creation and dissemination o f gendered bodily
knowledge. Personal training manuals stated that there were no differences between
males and females with respect to muscle fiber type distribution, and that the role of
hormones in muscle response was complex. Manuals also noted that men will generally,
but not always hypertrophy more from weight training (allowing for a continuum of
overlap), and stated that men and women have average body fat differences, while
assigning different social meanings to similar percentages. Manuals contained vignettes
on client goals that usually accepted and did not question what the client wanted to look
like (e.g. meet emphasized femininity) and helped “move them there.” In this way, what
a “healthy,” “fit” functional body is, and what ideal bodies look like according to larger
gendered bodily ideologies were easily conflated. That is, seeking dominant bodily ideals
(e.g. tight, toned, not-too-muscled, slender bodies) for women was not frequently
questioned by trainers according to the definitions o f health and fitness used in the
manuals (except as to whether or not they “could” look like the picture in the magazine).
Rather “scientific” information on body composition was used to move clients towards
corporeal ideals which were in fact the latest historical prescriptions for successful
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womanhood or manhood. Such prescriptions retained a link between heterosexual
attractiveness and body image under today’s definitions of emphasized femininity that
are continually in flux.
Trainers’ narratives regarding women, muscle, and weight lifting were contradictory
and paradoxical. Since the fitness industry profits from the anxious consumers who seek
help from personal trainers to fix bodily “lacks,” one might think that the industry would
profit from and encourage the more muscular ideals that have been put forth for women
over time. However, one of the most popularly used manuals revealed that the industry
institutionalized a glass ceiling on women’s strength through the suggestion that
women’s weight lifting fears could be solved if they just “held back.” And, consistent
with this suggestion, many trainers’ narratives revealed the popularly offered solution of
“just lift lightly.” The assumption that muscle was somehow problematic for women’s
bodies and should be avoided was not often directly challenged. Ironically, while
immersed in a health and fitness setting, “just holding back” can lead to a less powerful,
capable, competent, or independent body to use in daily life. This may be antithetical to
the goals of health and fitness while it helps women to meet current ideals o f emphasized
femininity.
While several trainers advised women to “just hold back,” institutionalizing a glass
ceiling on women’s strength, many others relied on essentialist arguments that women
can’t get big due to “physiological impossibility” or hormone or muscle fiber differences
between women and men (this was often contrary to what manuals stated). Ironically,
the use o f essentialist assertions may have pushed more women to lift weights, helping
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258
them to push upwards on the glass ceiling on strength. That is, when ideologies are put
forth that women can’t get big, this may soothe women’s fear of weights which may
then lead them to lift more weight, increasing their musculature and challenging the
ideology itself. Similar outcomes might occur when trainers encouraged women to lift
weights by cheering on the “calorie burning qualities” of weights, or how weights were
consistent with size reduction goals since they increased one’s metabolism.
Table 8.2 highlights the above discussion by examining the relationship between
trainers’ ideologies, emphasized femininity, and bodily outcomes. It focuses on the
paradoxical nature o f personal trainers as gatekeepers of gendered bodily information.
At the bottom o f the chart is women’s agency, indicating how trainers’ advice does not
necessarily directly impact women’s bodily outcomes. Ultimately, it is women who will
negotiate the numerous tensions they face at the individual, cultural, institutional, and
social structural level, making strategic choices about their practices, bodies, and fitness
lives.
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Table 8.2: Trainers as Paradoxical Gatekeepers of
Gendered Bodily Knowledge ______________
Trainers’ Ideology Emphasized Femininity Bodily Outcome
Just Hold Back
Reproductive
(Institutionalizes Glass Ceiling)
Can lead to a less
competent,
powerful,
independent, or
healthy/fit body
Biology is Destiny
Paradoxical/Ironic
(Essentialist ideology is
reproductive of ideology o f
categorical gender difference
yet bodily outcome may
challenge it)
Can lead to less fear of
weights, more lifting,
and increased
musculature
Medical o r Metabolic
Mandate
Reproductive or Paradoxical
Metabolic:
(Weights seen as helping to
construct e.f. since it aids the
goals of body size reduction
through increased
metabolism)
(Weights used help women to
meet e.f., but increased
weights ironically leads to
increased musculature)
Medical:
(Muscle still problematized on
women’s bodies but medical
mandates used strategically)
Can lead to either of
the above outcomes
Can lead to less fear of
weights, more lifting,
and increased
musculature
WOMEN’S AGENCY
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The Glass Ceiling and the Range o f Emphasized Femininity: An Historical Overview
The glass ceiling on muscular size is not necessarily imposed on women through
larger cultural ideologies, interactions with others, or the personal training industry.
Rather, women actively respond to it, and in turn shape its future placement. Women
in fitness sites are immersed in an arena o f continual negotiation as to the placement of
the ceiling which is impacted by historically shifting definitions o f emphasized
femininity. Given that 65% of women on these two popular fitness sites were moderate
lifters who bumped up against the glass ceiling while 10% o f women blasted through it,
this may be an indication that the present state of emphasized femininity is tipping
towards muscularity rather than away from it. That is, despite the fact that many
women “held back,” 1990's (and beyond) definitions of emphasized femininity may
indeed include more musculature than the last several decades.
Figure 8.1 illustrates chart shifting definitions of emphasized femininity and the
placement of a glass ceiling over time. It illustrates where the present moment might
stand in contrast to the 1940's-1950's and 1960's-1970's surrounding the range of
emphasized femininity and the acceptable boundaries of muscle and fat on women’s
bodies. Just as there are always women who publicly embody the most honored form of
emphasized femininity in an era, there are always women who occupy territory above
the ceiling— e.g. fat women and bodybuilders. Those who occupy territory at or below
the ceiling might be said to occupy reproductive or resistant territory, as has been
discussed above.
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261
Figure One: An Historical Look at the Glass Ceiling and Emphasized Femininity 194CTs-1990's
Panel A: 1940's-1950's
Fat Muscle
Range of transgressive
bodily agency
Range of transgressive
bodily agency
Glass Ceding Range of acceptable E.F
Center-Marilyn Monroe
Panel B: 1960's-1970's
Fat Muscle
Range of transgressive bodily agency
R ange of transgressive
bodily agency
Glass Ceiling
— X
R an g e of A cceptable E.F.
Panel C: 1980's-1990's
Fat Muscle
Range of transgressive bodily agency
Range of transgressive
bodily agency
Glass
Ceiling
Center»Gabtielle R eece
Range of
Acceptable E.F.
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262
Those who occupy territory above the ceiling— e.g. fat women, some heavy lifters, and
bodybuilders might be said to occupy transgressive space in third wave feminist politics
(Heywood, 1998; Lamm, 2000).
The first panel shows the 1940's-1950's. The marking of the range o f emphasized
femininity and the placement of the glass ceiling with a tilt to the left, that is, towards
fat and away from muscle, reflects the bodily ideals of the decade. An icon for the
“center” of this ideal might be Marilyn Monroe, who was soft, curvy, voluptuous,
carried far more body fat, and less muscle than do today’s ideals. The placement o f the
line attempts to highlight how women’s bodies at that time were monitored more in
terms o f size and body fat than strength and muscle, as dominant ideals did not
frequently consider muscle or weight lifting for women. A more maternal femininity
coupled with inner vulnerability that was displayed by Monroe was said to be due to the
resurgence o f Victorian like attitudes after World War Two (Banner, 1983). After
women were thrust back into the home after the war, the “feminine mystique” enforced
domesticity and motherhood, and sexual suggestiveness characterized subordinated
attitudes towards American women at that time (Banner, 1983; Bordo, 1993). Indeed,
more athletic and independent sportswomen who had been featured during the 1920's
and 30's in the public eye faded from view at this time (Banner, 1983; Cahn, 1994).
The 1960's and 1970's might be better characterized by much thinner ideals. This is
reflected in the way in which the dotted line flattens, highlighting the emphasis on body
fat as increasingly a “sin,” low muscle mass, and more slender bodily ideals. An icon for
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the center o f the ideal at this time might be Twiggy who exemplified a more lean and
slender bodily ideal than was seen during the 1940's-1950's. This change in bodily
ideals might be described as a rebelliousness against the limits of a more domestic and
maternal cult o f true womanhood and a move towards a more androgynous boyishness.
This change has been associated with the second wave women’s movement, and the
increasing movement of women from outside the home into more masculine realms
such as law, business, politics, and higher education (Bordo, 1993). Ironically, though
this rebellion was viewed by many as a symbol o f power against an unempowered
domesticity and lack of public authority, it was also a retreat to a more infantilized, pre
adolescent, powerless body (Bordo, 1993;Chemin, 1985).3 5
The last panel considers the 1980's- 1990's whereby we then saw a tilt towards much
more muscle in the range of acceptable femininity. The glass ceiling on strength indeed
includes more musculature than the last two panels, with an attendant emphasis on
decreasing body fat, perhaps even more than the 1960's and 1970's bodily ideals. An
icon for the center o f the ideal might be Gabrielle Reece or Karen Voight, a more
athletic and fit ideal than the past, with intense emphasis on low body fat and a careful
monitoring of muscle size. The current arena of emphasized femininity— where
moderate amounts o f muscle and low amounts o f fat are sought after— is a historically
35
Others highlight the racist and classist assumptions in these historical accounts. For instance, bell
hooks (1984) notes how it is a middle and upper middle class privilege to stay at home and view
domesticity as oppression, and empowerment as moving outside the home. She highlights how this
assumes that the workplace would be an “empowering” arena and notes that many working class
women and women of color often face menial and degrading labor in the paid labor force and
therefore do not view domesticity as the major source of oppression in their lives.
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2 6 4
specific and changeable definition of femininity. Indeed, this was where so many
moderate lifters within this study resided as they struggled to construct and negotiate
the current definition of the most honored expression o f femininity. The participants
from Elite Gym more often physically exemplified the latest ideal, perhaps in part due
to their ability to buy off a second shift, consume products, and carry out practices
which contribute to the construction of today’s emphasized femininity.
A continual push upwards on the glass ceiling over time is due to numerous factors,
some o f which might include: Title IX and women’s increased access to organized
sport, an increase in personal trainers for fitness participants, featuring more strong
women within media coverage, feminist consciousness concerning bodily ideals,
women’s collective actions towards, experiences with, and responses to dominant
bodily ideals, and more. Thus, not only does the institutional level (here, fitness
centers) interact with shifts in the larger gender order to shape and constrain individual
agents in fitness, but women’s every day acts actively reproduce, negotiate, transgress,
and shift this institution that is continually contested and at play.
Moving Bevond Individualized Bodily Politics
Confronting only the reproductive, resistant, and transgressive bodily agencies that
women enact in fitness sites can lead us into a realm o f individualized bodily politics
that can be too far removed from issues o f collective struggle within institutions. After
all, given that there were more heavy lifters from Mid-Gym (where fifty percent o f the
women on site were o f color-this shifted to forty percent after renovations) than at
Elite Gym (where nearly all the participants were white), studies of the body are also
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clearly linked to other feminist issues such as distributive justice and structures of
opportunity (Dworkin & Messner, 1999). For instance, those women from Mid-Gym
who used their bodies in the paid labor force often did so in the fields o f construction
work, landscaping, firefighting, and police work while at Elite Gym, women who used
their bodies in the paid labor force were more often employed by the film and fitness
industry (e.g. stuntwomen, aerobics or personal training). While both needed to keep
their bodies strong and healthy for their livelihood in the paid labor force, the former
more often had jobs which required their bodies to be functional for hard physical labor
while the latter more often adhered to a middle or upper middle class aesthetic ideal.
Furthermore, whether or not women could even make their way into the gym was
also dependent on one’s social location and position within wider structures of
opportunity. Venturing into the realm of fitness is not only about bodily ideals and
politics but is also about how much free time individuals can take away from work in
their respective occupations, whether or not individuals were forced to take multiple
jobs, whether or not they had someone helping them juggle household labor and/or
children, how many family members they had to care for, and more. Many women at
Elite Gym were in a position o f great financial comfort to juggle these strains alongside
a regular fitness regimen. For instance, as discussed in Chapter Three, I spoke with
many more women at Elite Gym who were much more likely than those at Mid-Gym to
buy off the second shift so as to adhere to the latest bodily requirements, highlighting
how inequality between women and men is maintained through class privilege. And,
having more time to construct the most idealized form of emphasized femininity
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266
reinforced notions that elite women represented the most desirable form of femininity.
Less privileged women with fewer resources might not have had resources for the
accessories, personalized training, time and money that helped to construct dominant
bodily ideals, and also may reject them. Women at Elite Gym were also less likely to be
heavy lifters than women at Mid-Gym, highlighting and reinforcing the historical fact
that women o f color and/or working class women may be rejected by and rejecting o f
dominant bodily ideals.
Lastly, although there were very few lesbian and bisexual women in my sample,
sexuality too may be another axis of social location that may be important in
understanding negotiations concerning dominant bodily ideals. Yet, instead o f linking
fitness acts and dominant bodily ideals to broader issues o f social location (race, class,
sexual orientation) and structures of opportunity, the fitness industry and culture at
large often presents women as equally “able” to meet dominant ideals if they are only
“motivated” enough. Anyone outside o f this dominant ideal, then, who may be less
likely to embrace or adhere to regular regimens are seen as simply not working hard
enough, not measuring up to standards of femininity~or showing signs of moral
laxitude (Featherstone, 1991).
Pulling back to a larger institutional analysis, researchers have pointed out several
trends regarding how, once women have made inroads into sport, they seem to end up
increasingly under the coaching, guidance, and surveillance o f men. For instance, in
1972, 90% o f college women in sport used to be coached by women but in 1996, this
percentage dropped to 47.7% and most college women are now coached by men
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(Acosta & Carpenter, 1996). Similarly, Ryan (1995) highlights how women in the more
“feminine” sports such as ice skating and gymnastics are subject to intensive scrutiny
around their body fat levels, food intake, and are in the literal and symbolic hands of
male coaches (Dworkin & Messner, 1999). The same trends may be true in fitness.
The fact that I found that heavy lifters who often chose boyfriends who were larger
than them, that women who lifted heavily often had male coaching and guidance, and
that women faced an increasing number o f personal trainers on fitness sites (often male-
-who advised women to “just hold back”) on weights may reveal interesting parallel
tendencies concerning the scrutiny of women in fitness. At the same time, increasing
access to organized sports and courses which teach weight lifting, increases in the
number of women in the weight room, and increases in the number of male and female
personal trainers who were wary of and critical of conflating health with dominant
bodily ideals will perhaps shift these dynamics over time. Furthermore, future research
can and should extend an analysis of the implications that “holding back” and adhering
to definitions of emphasized femininity can have on women in various male-dominated
occupations such as firefighting, construction work, and the police force.
The Wider Tapestry o f Gender Relations:
Much has happened in the last five years which could contribute to increasingly
muscular ideals for women in the U.S. In 1996, the U.S. enjoyed widespread media
coverage o f the “year o f the Woman” in the Olympics, winning gold medals in
gymnastics and strong team sports like soccer and softball. In 1997, the Women’s
Sports Foundation published a Title IX “Report Card” in order to put pressure on the
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268
numerous schools at the collegiate level which were not in compliance with gender
equity regarding organized sports teams. Also in 1997, the WNBA enjoyed its opening
season. Further, in the 1998 Winter Olympics, women enjoyed another gold medal, this
time in ice hockey. In 1999, the U.S. Women’s World Cup Team enjoyed a widely
publicized and celebrated victory. Team sports which require non-traditionally
feminine bodies emphasizing strength, power and speed moved into the public eye in
unprecedented ways. Although it is difficult to ascertain exactly why dominant ideals
have moved to become more muscular over time, it may be that women had increasing
opportunities to participate in sport at the high school and college level, more women
had increasingly muscular public role models through publicized sporting events, and
new advertising campaigns framed women as strong and able to “have it all.” Indeed, a
combination of forces led more women to seek new forms of bodily strength,
competence, and independence in ways which may depart from traditionally feminine
activities such as running and aerobics classes.
At the same time that my ethnographic work revealed that approximately 65% of
women on these two fitness sites were moderate lifters who struggled with tensions
between fit-and-toned-but-not-too-muscular, relevant debates ensue in the larger fitness
realm. Recently, there is some question as to why many women have flocked female
bodybuilding to become “Ms. Fitness” participants. Ms. Fitness contests feature
women who are toned, cut, and athletic while adhering more closely to emphasized
femininity than do densely muscled bodybuilders (Heywood, 1998). Unlike
bodybuilding, female fitness contest participants combine light to moderate muscle
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2 6 9
gains with a number of cheerleading and gymnastics moves, and also compete in a
beauty round with evening gowns. During ethnographic work, I indeed found many
fitness participants (particularly non and moderate lifters) who expressed disgust
towards female bodybuilders, and several who overtly stated that they would prefer to
look like a “Ms. Fitness contestant” or a “fitness industry professional” (e.g. Karen
Voight, Jane Fonda, etc.).
This “preference” for women in fitness to be moderate lifters and look more like
fitness contest participants— and not larger— can be further understood when
contextualized within the tapestiy o f gender relations at large. In the wider cultural
realm, there have been intensive attacks on affirmative action and reproductive rights,
cutbacks in programs which aid battered women, and calls for traditional curriculum in
schools (Heywood, 1998). The current gender order is also one in which we see an
increasing numbers o f female athletes, female firefighters, police officers, and military
personnel on the one hand, and a feminist backlash, flight from female bodybuilding,
and increasing monetary rewards for fitness contests (but not female bodybuilding) on
the other (Heywood, 1998). The fact that we see both an increased acceptance of
strong women and a simultaneous backlash against the strongest and biggest makes
more clear why many women may either stay safely below or bump up against the glass
ceiling on strength. This finding is consistent with those researchers who highlight that
many women in fact choose to seek and construct a body that embodies dimorphic
gender difference while idealizing emphasized femininity due to the cultural rewards
that are offered (Butler, 1990; Dworkin, Forthcoming; Lloyd, 1996; Markula, 1996).
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2 7 0
Defined according to the latest commodified eroticization of heterosexual femininity,
many women remained aware o f how much muscle is “allowable,” how much is “still”
attractive (Dworkin & Messner, 1999). While heavy lifters were clearly transgressive in
their practices and challenged ideals of emphasized femininity, the power of
“heterosexy” messages was also internalized across much of this group. This was
evidenced through their desire to “adjust” their workouts and avoid certain body parts
in the upper body so as to construct a “smaller” body than men’s. This highlights the
power o f fitness and emphasized femininity messages to “normalize” across categories
o f weight lifters, and across different races, classes, and sexualities (Bordo, 1993).
For now, despite numerous fitness ads such as Nike’s which seem to cheer athletic
women on to “Just Do It,” ideals o f emphasized femininity simultaneously lead most
women in the weight room to seek strength and “Just Hold Back.” The self-monitoring
to an upper limit on musculature which constitutes the glass ceiling on many women’s
muscular size (and strength), while men are free to pack on thick layers of muscle
symbolizes the gendered nuances of everyday power and privilege. As women
increasingly flock to fitness sites, daring to cross into the previously male-only territory
o f the weight room, we must ask whether a contained and “held back” musculature for
women is now the heterosexy standard that simultaneously creates “new” womanhood
as it recreates “true” womanhood.3 6 We must also ask how to stretch “true”
36
This of course refers to ideologies of true womanhood which often exclude women of color, working
class women, and lesbian & bisexual woman. Within fitness, we must ask, to which women do
athletic modem bodily ideals speak? At the same time, perhaps the commodified eroticization of
muscles is merely a new profitable way to move historically more marginal women’s (working class,
of color, lesbian/bi) bodies towards the white middle and upper middle class mainstream at this time.
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271
womanhood and manhood so as to increase the range of choices and the quality o f life
available to all fitness participants and all members of society at large.
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2 7 2
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West, C. and D.H. Zimmerman. (1987). Doing Gender. Gender & Society. 1:125-151.
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284
Appendix One: Survey ofWomen and Men
1. How often do you come to this club (days per week?)
2. When do you come to the club each day? Do you come the same time each
day/aftemoon/night, or do you come at different times?
3. For how long have you been a member here?
4. Do you belong to another health club right now? Which?
(Probe-Have you been a member at other health clubs in the past? When? For how
long?)
(Probe-How often did you go there?) (During what times o f day did you goto the other
club?)
5. When you work out, what fitness practices do you carry out?
(Probe-do you do both C V and weights? Which/How much time on each?) (Probe-
Each workout session?)
6. For how long do you--do—CV? Weights? (Probe: Is it a different period of time
each time— why/what determines)
7. How did you learn how to use the cv equipment? (Probe: Did anyone teach you?
Who?)
8. How did you learn how to use the weight equipment? (Probe: Did anyone teach
you? Who?)
9. Do you have fitness goals? (Probe: Why do you workout?)
10. (If yes) What are your fitness goals?
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2 8 5
(Probe: Generally speaking, what are your fitness goals?)
(Probe: Specifically speaking, what are your fitness goals?)
11. Do your fitness goals change over time?
(Probe: How have your fitness goals changed over time?)
(Probe: Why have your fitness goals changed over time?)
12. Think back to when you first started working out.
When did you begin working out? (For how many mos/years?)
13. Why did you begin working out?
14. Did you have a specific fitness goal when you began working out? If so, what?
15. Do you do cv work outside o f this site? (What/For how long -eg run bike blade etc)
(Probe-where?) (How often?) (With whom?)
16. Do you do weights outside of the gym ?
(Probe-where) (How often?)
(Probe for home equipment) (With whom)
17. How do you decide on how much cv to do? (Reprobe for how did you get the
know how?)
18. Has the amount o f cv work you do changed over time? Why? Why not?
(Probing- did a trainer/friend/relative/partner/coach influence the levels and/or the
change, and listen— do they mention popular media sources?)
19. Why do you continue to work out over the last ?
20. Are there other reasons why you work out?
21. For how long do you lift weights when you come to the gym?
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22. What weight lifting routine do you do when you come to the gym?
(Probe— how many days a week, what exercises, how many sets, how many reps)
23. Do you do the routine you just mentioned every time or do you change your
routine?
(Probe How/Why). (Probe-Has this weight lifting routine changed over time? Why/why
not?)
24. What body parts do you work when you lift? (Probe: Some? All? Why?)
25. How did you decide on this weight lifting routine?
(Why?)
26. How did you choose the weights to “start” at? How did you choose the starting
place for your cv work?
27. How do you know how much to lift during sets? How do you know how much cv
to do?
28. How do you/did you decide on how much to lift? CV intensity/level/length?
29. Do you do a certain number of sets when you lift? Do you do a certain number of
reps?
(Probe: Do you increase, decrease, keep the weight the same across sets? Why?)
30. How did you decide___________ <— (answer to #29)
(Probe-Did someone teach you how to lift weights? Who?)
31. If you find a weight is getting easier over time-what do you do? (Do you increase
it? Decrease it? Why why not?) If you find that a weight is getting harder over
time-what do you do? (Probe do you increase/decrease? Why)
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32. Do you do the same weight lifting routine over time? How do you determine
when/what to increase? decreases
(Probe: Do you do the same weight routine for all body parts? Some?) (Probe Why X
and not Y? Why not?)
33. Do you have a goal when you lift? CV?
(Probe- if yes, what are your main goals when you lift?)
34. What are the benefits o f weight training for you?
35. What are the detriments of weight training for you?
36. What are the benefits o f cv for you?
37. What are the detriments of doing cv for you?
38. Did you do a high school or college sport? (If so, what)
(Probe-what training did this entail, if any?)
39. Did you do a community, city, or local sport? (If so, what)
(Probe-what training did this entail, if any?)
40. What is your age?
41. What is your race?
42. How long ago did you get into fitness? How did you get into it?
43. What is your sexual orientation? (Probe: Heterosexual/Bisexual/Lesbian). Are you
coupled?
44. (If heterosexual) Are you married or single?
45. Do you have any children? (Probe-Who cares for them? Daycare? You? Someone
else?) (When you workout? when you work?)
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46. In what occupation do you work? In what field? (Probe-What kind of work do you
do in it?)
47. Do you subscribe to, buy, or read any fitness magazines?
48. Do you read other magazines that talk abt fitness? which?
49. What do you find useful in fitness magazines, if anything? (Probe-generally,
specifically)
50. What do you find useful, if anything, in other magazines that talk about fitness?
(Probe)
51. Show the picture/cartoon from magazine. Ask to comment on picture— think aloud
with me. What do you think when you look at these pictures? Comment on any aspect
or anything about the cartoons.
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Appendix Two
Description of interviewees: Women and Personal Trainers
Women:
Non-Lifters
1. Joelle, 40, white, real estate agent, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
2. Alyssa, 32, white, merger & acquisition researcher, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
3. Belinda, 30, white, film editor, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
4. Mariam, 24, Latina, student, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
5. Phyllis, 28, white, therapist, married, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
6. Lynette, 31, white, sales rep, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
7. Jeannie, 21, African-American, student, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
8. Uni, 24, Asian-American, financial advisor, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
9. Noreen, 19, white, student, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
10. Chevonne, 26, Latina/biracial, counselor, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
Moderate Lifters
1. Carla, 32, white, full-time housewife, married, heterosexual, Elite Gym
2. Janet, 25, white, grad student, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
3. Lucia, 35, African-American, administrative assistant, married, heterosexual, Mid-
Gym
4. Lori, 43, white, business entrepreneur, married, heterosexual, Elite Gym
5. Jacki, 60, white, retired, married, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
6. Annette, 36, Asian-American, fitness instructor, married, heterosexual, Elite Gym
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7. Margaret, 21, white, student, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
8. Kit, 19, African-American, student, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
9. Robin, 36, white, executive assistant, married, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
10. Gloria, 22, Latina, office manager, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
11. Katie, 26, white, researcher, single, lesbian, Mid-Gym
12. Jen, 24, Asian-American, fitness administration, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
13. Marianna, 39, white, full-time housewife, married, heterosexual, Elite Gym
14 Harriet, 40, white, full-time housewife, married heterosexual Elite Gym
15. Eve, 28, business owner, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym (interview cut)
Heavy Lifters
1. Fiona, 27, white, teacher, married, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
2. Chrystal, 28, African-American, sales, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
3. Vicky, 30, white, outdoor adventure educator, single, lesbian, Mid-Gym
4. Carmen, 40, white, purchasing, married, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
5. Sylvia, 21, Latina, student, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
6. Olivia, 25, Chinese-American, office manager, single, heterosexual, N/A, Elite Gym
7. JoJo, 29, Vietnamese-American, assistant to a CEO, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
8. Beatrice, 27, African-American, bodybuilder, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
9. Jen, 28, white, marketing rep, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym
10. Christina, 36, Latina, single, heterosexual, Elite Gym (interview cut)
11. Anne, 33, white, construction, single, heterosexual, Mid-Gym
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2 9 1
Personal Trainers:
1. Jack, 35, Latino, Mid-Gym
2. Greg, 34, African-American, Mid-Gym
3. Jasmine, 24, Latina, Elite Gym
4. Guenivere, 26, Asian-American, Elite Gym
5. Herbert, 31, African-American, Elite Gym
6. Gerie, 28, white, Elite Gym
7. Megan, 32, white, Mid-Gym
8. Jene, 27, Asian, Elite Gym
9. Phil, 30, African-American, Elite Gym
10. James, 28, White, Elite Gym
11. Sophia, 25, Latina, Mid-Gym
12. Dave, 38, White, Mid-Gym
13. Gertie, 28, African-American, Mid-Gym
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Appendix Three: Survey of Personal Trainers
Trainers
1. When a new member joins the club, how does the club decide who takes them thru
their initial testing and evaluation? (Probe: Whoever is here? Do you pair by same sex?
Opposite sex?)
2. What goals do your clients seek? Generally? Specifically?
3. Do you see a pattern regarding clients’ goals? (Probe: Are there divergences?)
4. Do you train women— men— or both? (% o f each probe)
5. What do you think is the main benefit of having a personal trainer?
6. What do you think is the main detriment of having a personal trainer?
7. How do you choose a particular exercise for a particular body part for your clients?
8. How do you choose a starting weight for an exercise for your clients?
9. How many sets do you encourage your clients to do? How many reps? Why?
10. How did you get interested in personal training?
11. How did you get into personal training?
12. Are you certified? With what certification? How did you get certified?
13. Can you estimate the age range of the male clients who come to see you? Women?
14. Do you work out at this club? How often? Why or why not?
15. Do some, many, or all trainers work out at this club? (Why do you think so (few,
many) work out here?)
16. What are your hours of employment here?
17. What do you charge an hour here?
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2 9 3
18. How much of the price charged per hour goes to the trainer?
19. Do you also work outside of the club? In personal training? In another field?
20. If you are a personal trainer outside the club, how much do you charge per hour
there?
21. At this club, when people want to train with a personal trainer after the initial
meeting, how is it decided how clients and personal trainer gets paired up?
22. Do members switch personal trainers? How often? When or why?
23. Do you find that there are certain trainers who are very busy and others who are
not? Who? Why do you think this is the case?
(Probe: What perceptions do you think clients have about the more popular trainers?)
24. What do you do for your own workout? CV? Lifting? Why do you do this
workout?
25. How many days per week do you work out/How long is each workout session-
Cv/Weights? Why?
26. Were you on a sports team in high school? College? If so, what?
27. Have you ever played for a Community, City, Corporate or local team? If so what
28. What is your age?
29. What is your race?
30. What did you do before you were a personal trainer?
31. Show the picture/cartoons from fitness magazine. Ask to comment on picture—
think aloud with me. What do you think when you look at these pictures? You can
comment on any aspect or anything about the cartoons.
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2 9 4
Appendix Four: Map o f Mid-Gym
Women'*
Lockets/
[S how ets_
Men's
Lockets/
Showers
Basket
Bel
Court
0
[Women's Gym [ 1 |
® 0
Skin Care,
Facials
M assages
0
Cafe
Bar
0
Hair
Salon
Sporting ®
Goods Storel Enhance/Front Desk
" 0 ’
Spinning
Free
W eig h ts-
0
ftacketbdO Courts
0
Restaurant
0
^ a a
85
Nautilus
N autius
0
0
D unbbefc | y j P uB e« j- |- j Free Weiflht*— f j J £
■ . cm $
[ T | Barbells 1 — 1 £ •
a 0 f
S un
deck
07 >
I I
0
8
0
<
3
MI
Ellipsis and RoBhg Stairs
Treadm ils
0
Bikes, freadmiMs, Slairroaslets
r
f i
Mid-Gym’s Map and Gendered Spaces
l=all male, all female
2=mostly male, mostly female
3=mixed gender
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Appendix Five: Map of Elite Gym
2 9 5
W omen'*
L ockets/
Showers
Men's
L ockers/
Showers
Basket
Bel
Court
m
[Women's Gym [~i~|
® a
Skin Care,
Facials
M assages
a
Cafe
Bar
a
Hair
Salon
Sporting ®
Goods Storel Entrance/Front D esk
~a ■
Spinning
Free
RacketbaB Courts
W erghts Dumbbells p r i
a s
a
Restaurant
Neutib*
Nautilus
a
Pulleys QTj Free W eights™ [Y ]
[ T 1 BaibeBs
a
< Q f t
s i
a
a
a
S un-
deck
cn >
§ f r -
a
S ’
a
<
s '
v
o
Z
Ellipsis and Rolling Stairs
| T readm its |
9
a
y
4 Bikes. T readmiBs. Stairmasters
Elite Gym’s Map and Gendered Spaces
l=all male, all female
2=mostly male, mostly female
3=mixed gender
R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Dworkin, Shari Lee (author)

Core Title "Holding back": Negotiating a glass ceiling on women's strength

School Graduate School

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Sociology

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,women's studies

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Messner, Michael A. (committee chair), Glassner, Barry (committee member), Grant, Judith (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-173421

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