From supplements to steroids: Substance use and the discourse of self-management in dominant bodybuilding culture

Abstract

The vast array of methods promoted in a deeply commodified US bodybuilding and fitness culture includes the use of various substances. From nutritional supplements to anabolic steroids, the use of such substances has been shown to be primarily practiced not in the contained world of elite sport competition but amongst the general population. Ranging from gym-goers to clients of anti-ageing clinics, ordinary citizens have increasingly come to understand their use of such substances in terms of enhanced well-being, an indispensable technology for achieving higher standards of fitness, ability, and health. As a consequence, lobbying against State attempts to regulate such substances is put forth precisely as a defence of the right to self-govern one's own body, health, and life more generally. Focusing on the US context of the 1990s-2000s, the present paper looks at high-profile cases of regulation of such substances and the corresponding reactions inside bodybuilding culture. The latter I draw on in its capacity as an extreme yet symbolically crucial faction of the broader fitness culture that relentlessly emphasises individual responsibility and self-discipline. Ultimately, I will attempt to show how the very definition of health is not a static given but rather a core stake in these debates, as well as how the discourse of self-management is implicated in negotiating individual and group identities.