Summary Of Getting Huge Getting Ripping

The woman is the one who, according to society, stays home with the kids; but the woman is the one that went to college for a degree to get a job. The man is supposed to go work a “manly” testosterone filled job; but the man has a passion for helping the sick and becomes a nurse. In Lorber’s excerpt from “Believing is Seeing” tells us that physiological differences do not determine what a male or female does in his or her life, but it is society that decides for us what we should and shouldn’t do in our lifetimes. Pertrocellli’s article “Getting Huge, Getting Ripped” describes the lifestyle choices of body-builders and what drove them to this choice. Lorber’s argument is that human-created social structures are generalizing males and females

Petrocelli says that,”In males specifically, teenage steroid use has been attributed and linked to poor self esteem, elevated rates of depression, attempted suicide, poor knowledge about health, a desire to participate in sports that require great strength, parental concerns about weight, and higher rates of eating disorder.” This quote shows us directly how our society’s vision of what a “man should look like is affecting males even in the teenage years. Society tells us that women need to be skinny with large breasts and an exceptionally round butt. We are also shown that men need to have large pectoral muscles that suffocate you in a hug and have biceps that could curl an average sized person. How can Americans, people obsessed with equality, expect anybody but the richest of us to meet these demands? We’re starting to take equality too

Petrocelli reveals to us that,”It is hard to deny that they [steroids] have become a part of the American fabric.” Somehow we’ve learned to brush off the appearance of these abnormally huge, or skinny, human beings because they fit into the shape society tells us we must be. No one would expect that a man who increased his bench press max 150 pounds in under two months was using anabolic steroids because at least he’s “perfect” now right? It is rare to suspect a 6’2” female that weighs 135 pounds to be at an unhealthy weight, bulimic, or anorexic because you’re considered overweight or obese is you weigh more that 140 pounds. Even as we try to get out of a recession we expect everyone to be able to afford the methods it takes to achieve such a perfect body. Lorber states that,” gendered people do not emerge from physiology or biology but from the exigencies of social order.” If we evaluate the principle that if you do not have this “perfect” body you don’t “fit in” and then take into consideration Lorber’s statement, nothing makes sense. We’re told we need to fit this shape to finish the puzzle but only the rich or famous can attain such a shape because they’re the only ones that can actually afford it. Lower class people shouldn’t be perfect because that defeats