The Strength to Diet: If it Fits Your Macros Dieting as Masculine Body Work

Abstract

Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of 76 “day of eating” vlogs, this article explores how cis men adhering to the “If It Fits Your Macros” diet dynamically negotiate the meanings of their eating habits and their bodies to bolster their claims to hegemonic masculinity. Employing Foucault’s theory of disciplinary technologies and critical masculinities scholarship, the analysis serves as a case study of how the body work of dieting men reinforces normative discourses of masculinity. While dieting has previously been framed as a “technology of femininity,” this article argues that dieting similarly operates as an embodied practice through which men perform masculinities. Extending the literature on the subjective experiences of dieting men, I suggest that men navigate the ostensibly “feminine” terrain of dieting by via repertoires of self-discipline and embattlement against fat. Using these discursive tools, men portray dieting as a moral-aesthetic project that bolsters and secures their own hegemonic constructions of masculine status.