The gendered economics of bodybuilding

ABSTRACT

This article sheds light on the gendered economics of bodybuilding, a topic that, to my knowledge, has not previously been studied. First displaying its history, it examines how the economy of such a sport was born, focusing on the principles and values of capitalism and then creating the ‘bodybuilding’s industry’. In particular, the article stresses the gendered dimension of such an industry relying on ‘hegemonic masculinity’, especially through the relevant media, which are at the core of this gendered framework. I use a qualitative methodology to understand the subject, analyzing the French magazines related to bodybuilding, which embodies the whole functioning of such an industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Bodybuilding
• industry
• gender
• hegemonic masculinity
• qualitative methodology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Guillaume Vallet holds two PhDs, one in economics and the other in sociology. He is Associate Professor of economics at the University of Grenoble-Alpes (France), and associate researcher at the Institute of Sociological Research in Geneva (Switzerland) and at the CADIS in Paris (France). His main fields of research are on the Swiss economy and monetary system, particularly within the context of the European perspective, and on the history of economic thought, in particular the work of Albion W. Small. He also works on gender.

ORCID

Guillaume Vallet http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8359-649X

Notes

1 He died in 2013.

2 Whose value is estimated at around $ 500 million (Lafrance 2012).

3 More details on the research are available on demand.