Aspects of the ideal of socialist masculinity and its disintegration – From the “iron men” to the man-centaur

Abstract

The paper studies the socialistic interpretation of the Bulgarian sportsmen called “iron men” i.e. the sportsmen competing in the highly developed in socialist Bulgaria “power” sports (wrestle, boxing, and weightlifting). The article claims that the development of “power” sports along with the generally negative Communist conceptualization of the rough power serves the skillful balance between the explicit rules and the hidden requirements of the system. In its second part the paper studies the turning of this sportsman into the “mutra” – one of the popular masculine figure on 90s in Bulgaria. The “mutra” is conceptualized as a man-centaur – a masculine figure which body mixes bestial and human characteristics. The article claims that in a way this kind of body evokes not only fear or disgust but also admiration and envy and it constitutes one of the ideal types of masculinity in Bulgaria after 1989.