Getting Huge Getting Ripped: An Analysis

Throughout history, certain problems or societal aspects are often associated with one gender or the other. Manual labor was, and still is, often performed by men, while more skillful tasks, such as cooking and sewing, were done by women. By using the ideas put forth by Judith Lorber in Believing is Seeing: Biology as Ideology, we can analyze the findings of Matthew Petrocelli, Trish Oberwies, and Joseph Petrocelli’s “Getting Huge, Getting Ripped.” Lorber’s ideas of people having unique experiences, gender being one of society’s inventions, and a power differential between men and women can help us understand why men feel the need to use steroids to become the ideal male.

People are unique, and each experience they have will influence the

She says, “Men drive cars whether they are good drivers or not because men and machines are a ‘natural’ combination.” (730). Driving doesn’t have anything to do with ability, but rather with the aura it gives. Cars equal mobility, and mobility equals power. The man who has the ability to travel has the power to do as he pleases when he pleases. But women were not freely given this privilege. They relied on their man to take them places. They did not receive a piece of the pie; no cars to give them their own power. By looking at this example of Lorber’s, we can better understand Petrocelli’s description of the gyms they did research at. The gyms is described as having “massive amounts of free weights, very few (if any) women, blaring music, and larger than normal men” (756). This description gives the reader the sense that this gym is not a place for women, and that men receive that same aura of power that they did from driving. It gives the impression that steroids are only something for men, that they are the only ones that require the boost it gives. This also falls in line with Lorber’s idea that social practices transform differences between genders into social facts. Over time, the “ideal” man has become one that is big and muscular, while the “ideal” woman is supposed to be small and petite. Men have found that following all the rules and doing everything right won’t get them that ideal