Culture and body: Bodybuilders using anabolic steroids

This article addresses the question of how hardcore bodybuilders’ relationship to their bodies and bodybuilding culture are co-constructed. By focusing on steroid-using bodybuilders, we describe a double trend. The first element argues that bodybuilding culture is embodied in a factory body. The second understands bodybuilders’ relationship to the body as their desire to be what they know their bodies to be. In conclusion, we argue that steroid use must be understood within this twin-faceted movement shaping the culture and the relationship to the body of bodybuilders.