Bodybuilding: A New form of Masculinity

Factory jobs and work involving manual labor are rapidly becoming non-existent. As technological advances are continually made, and companies further seek cheaper labor (i.e. outsourcing) the number of industrial jobs available are diminishing (Hagenbaugh). As stated by Barbara Hagenbaugh, “Fifty years ago, a third of U.S. employees worked in factories, making everything from clothing to lipstick to cars. Today, a little more than one-tenth of the nation's 131 million workers are employed by manufacturing firms.” The United States has entered the era of “the office job” and this could be effecting the male population in effect.

It is a drastic transition from working factory jobs, in which the work is strenuous, tiring, and typically difficult to perform, to sitting in an office filling out paper work and typing all day. Men might view this new line of work as less masculine, and will attempt to compensate for this loss of masculinity in effect. What better way to feel more “manly” than to work out and become more muscular? A man with large vascular muscles can feel like an alpha male no matter what his job is. As these office workers increasingly joined gyms and began weight training, more and more men entered the realm of bodybuilding. This lead to the increasing popularity of the sport of bodybuilding and transformed it into what it is today. Below is a video of various popular bodybuilders training. The video shows exactly how the sport of bodybuilding and weight lifting in general can allow testosterone to flow full rampant  through the male body and leave a guy feeling as if he's reached the apex of masculinity. 

Works Cited

Epic Bodybuilding Motivation-Fallen Warrior. 23 May 2010. Online Video Clip. Youtube.
                           15 March 2011. 

            Hagenbaugh, Barbara. U.S. Manufacturing Jobs Fading Away Fast. USA Today: 12

                           December 2002. Web. 15 April 2011. <http://usatoday.com/>.