Pushing Up on the Glass Ceiling of Female Muscularity: Women’s Bodybuilding as Edgework

Abstract

Women bodybuilders exemplify gendered deviance and risk a social stigma on top of the physical risk of partaking in this demanding sport. In the current study, we utilize Stephen Lyng’s (1990, 2005) theoretical concept of “edgework” to understand what motivates women bodybuilders to engage in this high-risk behavior. Our qualitative analysis of 29 women bodybuilders' responses to open-ended survey questions reveals that the three components of edgework (activity, skill, and sensation) are evident in their training and dietary regimens. Overall, this study offers an important theoretical contribution to the study of women’s bodybuilding while also extending Lyng’s edgework model to this understudied phenomenon.

Notes

1 Forbes and colleagues (2004) utilized an “Ambiguous Heterosexual Orientation Scale” in their study of hypermuscular women. This scale inquired about the perceived sexual preferences or lesbian and bisexual tendencies of hypermuscular women. Results from their study showed that hypermuscular women were rated as more likely than “average” women to have an ambiguous sexual orientation.

2 For example, women bodybuilders often begin their training by building up muscle mass while also integrating cardiovascular exercise into their training. If they build up muscle but do not engage in the correct dietary practices, then body fat masks their muscular development. If they engage in too much cardiovascular activity or do not follow strict dietary regimens, then they risk losing muscle mass. Thus, their exercise and diet patterns must be carefully balanced.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meredith G. F. Worthen

MEREDITH G. F. WORTHEN is an Associate Professor of Sociology and elected faculty member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at the University of Oklahoma. She is interested in the sociological constructions of deviance and stigma, adolescent sexuality, LGBTQ identities, feminist criminology, and gender differences in adolescent delinquency.

S. Abby Baker

S. ABBY BAKER is a recent M.A. recipient from the Department of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma. She is interested in feminist studies, sociology of the body, deviance, and stigma.