From ‘bro, do you even lift?’ to ‘bro, do you even science?’: How the relationship between science and broscience can inform the development of allied image and performance enhancing drug harm reduction

Abstract

It has long been noted that people who use image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs) generate and disseminate their own IPED knowledge, and that it is this knowledge that informs IPED practice, including harm reduction. Described as the ‘ethnopharmacology’, or (borrowing a bodybuilding term), the ‘broscience’, of IPEDs, this knowledge has rarely been explored. IPED broscience has generally been dismissed as dangerous, and as part of the risk environment of IPED use. However, in recent times some academics have recognised the potential of broscience to reduce harm, and thus be part of the enabling environment of IPED use. However, the potential for broscience to reduce harm has not been investigated. This paper, by taking a holistic perspective on broscience and examining it in context, seeks to identify ways that broscience can inform IPED harm reduction. Specifically, it describes the findings of an online ethnographic study of the IPED broscience of enhanced bodybuilders. It asks the questions, ‘why does IPED broscience exist?’, ‘what is IPED broscience?’, and ‘how is IPED broscience generated, disseminated and used?’. But most importantly it asks, what is the relationship between IPED broscience and professional knowledge, and how can understanding broscience guide us forward in our efforts to reduce IPED harm?