Definition Diets and Deteriorating Masculinity? Bodybuilding Diets in Mid-Century America

ABSTRACT

In the late 1960s Steve Davis, a young strength athlete turned bodybuilder, prepared for an upcoming photoshoot by consuming nothing but meat and water. Far from unique, Davis represented a new line of bodybuilders who engaged in extreme dietary behaviors to achieve a lean and muscular look. Three decades prior to Davis’ photoshoot, Dave Willoughby, an influential weightlifter and fitness writer, promoted a diet defined by its wholesome foods eaten in moderation. Comparing the contrasts between Davis and Willoughby’s approaches, the following article sheds light on the still relatively unexplored area of bodybuilding diets in twentieth century America. Studying the shift in bodybuilding from health to purely aesthetic concerns, this article argues that food for the 1970s bodybuilder became a means self-fashioning. This change was driven by a conflux of competitive, chemical and societal factors. The article thus addresses the nexus between food, sport and gender in the United States

KEYWORDS:

• Diet
• American history
• bodybuilding
• gender
• sport history

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dr. Jan Todd and Cindy Slater for their contributions to the present work. This article would not have been possible without Dr. Todd’s tireless collection efforts or Ms. Slater’s support in finding key materials.

Notes

1. SCPC, David P. Willoughby Collection, Willoughby to Philip Rasch, January 25, 1979.

2. Ibid.

3. As competitive female bodybuilding did not emerge until the late 1970s, this article focuses specifically on male bodybuilding. Todd and Harguess, “Doris Barrilleaux and Women’s Bodybuilding.”

4. Tunc, “The ‘Mad Men’ of Nutrition,” 190.

5. Ibid.

6. Sobal, “Men, Meat, and Marriage,” 137.

7. Tunc, “The Mad Men of Nutrition”; Pace, “Feast of Burden,” 1–19; Sobal, “Men, Meat, and Marriage,”135–58.

8. Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 216–20.

9. Adams, Sexual Politics of Meat, 12–45.

10. Vester, A Taste of Power.

11. Pilcher, “Introduction,” xvii-xxviii.

12. Shprintzen, “Looks Like Meat,” 113–28.

13. Stearns, Fat History.

14. Gregory, Of Victorians and Vegetarians.

15. Sushinsky. Eating the Vince Gironda Way.

16. Bordo, Unbearable Weight.

17. Ibid., 151.

18. Klein, Little Big Men.

19. Vigarello. The Metamorphoses of Fat, 1–25.

20. Hackenschmidt. The Way to Live, 35–50.

21. Miles, Better Food for Boys, 12–34.

22. Dyreson. “The Emergence of Consumer Culture,” 261–81.

23. Addison, Hollywood and the Rise of Physical Culture, 45–78.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Atlas, Everlasting Health and Strength, 12–34.

28. Ibid.

29. Atlas, Dynamic Tension Lesson One, 5.

30. Fair, Mr. America, 1–22.

31. MacFadden. The Encyclopedia of Health and Physical Culture.

32. Hunt, Body Love.

33. Massey, American Adonis.

34. Ibid., 12–34.

35. Fair, Mr. America, 1–12

36. Ibid.

37. Kasson, Houdini, Tarzan, and the Perfect Man, 1–12.

38. Fair, Mr. America, 171–180.

39. SCPC, Box 1, Folder 026, Jim Weber to Ray Rogers, July 19, 1982.

40. Grimek, “As I Remember Dave Willoughby,” 6.

41. Fair, “George Jowett and American Weightlifting,” 4–13.

42. Mazur. “U.S. Trends in Feminine Beauty,” 284.

43. Willoughby, “The Human Figure Ideal and Real,” 21.

44. Cooney. Balancing Act.

45. Currell. “Introduction,” 3.

46. Ibid.

47. Armengol, “Gendering the Great Depression,” 59–68.

48. Eldridge, American Culture in the 1930s.

49. Coffey, “The American Adonis,” 185–202.

50. Willoughby, “How Much Bodyfat is Normal?”

51. Ibid. That Willoughby celebrated a muscular white physique as timeless was common for the time. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that Black, African American, and Latino bodies began to be celebrated within the sport.

52. Willoughby, “Have Athletic Records Reached a Standstill?”

53. Ibid.

54. Willoughby, “The Master Method of Health.”

55. Ibid.

56. Ibid.

57. Ibid.

58. Ibid.

59. Applegate and Grivetti, “Search for the Competitive Edge,” 869S- 873S.

60. Willoughby, “The Master Method”.

61. Ibid.

62. Ibid.

63. Ibid.

64. Dyreson, “The Californization of Olympian Love,” 36–61.

65. Ibid.

66. Whiting, Pop LA: Art and the City in the 1960s.

67. Ozyurtcu, “Living the Dream,” 20–35.

68. Kennedy, Hardcore Bodybuilding, 118.

69. Halliwell. American Culture in the 1950s.

70. Ibid.

71. Hall, and Fair, “The Pioneers of Protein,” 23–34.

72. Hoffman, The High Protein Way.

73. Cottrell, Sex, Drugs, and Rock’ n’ Roll.

74. Bowers and Hunt, “The President’s Council,” 1496–1511.

75. Fair, Mr. America, 153–57.

76. Ibid.

77. Conant, ConVINCEd, 1–44.

78. Roach, Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors, 447–70.

79. Schlesinger Jr, The Politics of Hope.

80. Liokaftos, “Professional Bodybuilding,” 318–39.

81. Gironda and Kennedy, Unleashing the Wild Physique.

82. Tunc, “The ‘Mad Men’ of Nutrition.”

83. Testi, “The Gender of Reform Politics,” 1509–33.

84. Gironda, Definition: New Revised.

85. Buscemi, From Body Fuel, 58; Neuhaus, Manly Meals, 216–20; Adams, Sexual Politics of Meat, 12–45.

86. Gironda, Definition: New Revised.

87. Roach, Muscle, smoke, and mirrors, 45.

88. Ibid., 332.

89. Gironda, “Eggs & Steroids.”

90. Roach, Muscle, Smoke, and Mirrors, 132–45.

91. Gironda Master Series Course, 12–16.

92. Ibid., 33–45.

93. Ibid., 88–110.

94. Knight, “An Alliance with Mother Nature,” 102–22.

95. Ibid.

96. Heywood, Bodymakers.

97. Hall and Fair, “The Pioneers of Protein.”

98. Lurie and Robson, Heart of Steel, 147; Roach, Muscle, Smoke, and Mirrors, 416; Davis and Weis, Raw Muscularity, 64–68.

99. Davis and Weis, Raw Muscularity, 64–68.

100. Ibid.

101. Fussell, Muscle, 12–34.

102. Lurie and Robson. Heart of Steel, 147.

103. Dyer, White, 146–170.

104. Gilman, “Stand Up Straight,” 57–83.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ryan Murtha

Ryan Murtha is currently a Ph.D. student in the Physical Culture and Sport Management program at the University of Texas at Austin. He has published on the legal issues surrounding the intersection of sport and the first amendment, and his writing has appeared on popular sites like Slate and Deadspin. Ryan’s academic interests include the role of sport in the development of identity, sport as a tool for community building, and Irish sport history.

Conor Heffernan

Conor Heffernan is Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin where he works at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports. His research interests include physical culture, Irish and British history, gender history, political history, and the history of medicine. He is the author of The History of Physical Culture in Ireland (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021). He has published articles in Women’s History Review, the International Journal of the History of Sport Irish Studies Review, Sport in History, and Rethinking History.

Thomas Hunt

Thomas Hunt J.D., Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin where he also holds an appointment as Assistant Director for Academic Affairs at the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports. He is the author of the book Drug Games: The International Olympic Committee and the Politics of Doping, 1960-2008. With research interests that include sport law, history, and international relations, he has published articles in, among others, the Journal of Sport History, the International Journal of the History of Sport, and the International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.