Week 10

I plan on structuring my mini-ethnography by topic.  I will probably start off with the information given to me by informants on the insider aspect of the subculture; the so-called unwritten rules, the rituals, and the attitudes that define the subculture, and the reasons why I chose my subculture and why I think it is important.  Next I will go on and take specific pieces of information received from my informants and elaborate on them.  For example I will have one section of my mini-ethnography dedicated to supplement use, which is common among gym attendees.  Another part of the culture that I found from my informants was the issue of body image, which I will most likely put right after the introduction and before my discussion on supplements because I believe that supplements are a response to the psychological aspect of the subculture.  After that I will move on to the two distinct ways that many weight loss or muscle gain products are portrayed:  the health professional view, and the magazine writer/advertiser view.  I will probably also include information on hormones and brain chemicals that are activated during exercise that may link it to sexual drive.  I will conclude my mini-ethnography by highlighting the benefits of being a part of this subculture, how becoming a part of the subculture has changed me, and also the ways to caution oneself from straying into the darker side of the subculture where psychological disorders come about.  I think that this setup will meld the pieces of my subculture together in a logical way rather than picking at specific pieces of it to highlight its interesting points.