Week 13

I entered the “Truly Huge” chat room as gym_babe0711.  Instantly, I had fifteen men wanting to chat with me with names like XLBodyBuilder, and BulgingBiceps224.  Soon enough my screen was filled with people wanting to talk about my height, weight, age, and eye color, and of course, how much I could bench press.  “Wanna hot chat?” “You an FBB?”  “How old are you?” I began to tell these people why I was in the chat room, for research.  This turned many people away; some were suspicious and wanted me to prove that I was a student doing research, while others tried to change the subject back to what I looked like and if I had a boyfriend or not.  One particularly hormone-driven twenty-four year old man boasted, “I pick up girls at the gym all the time, that’s one of the reasons I go there.”  My research indicates that certain chemicals released during exercise, like endorphins, are also a part of sexual arousal, so his comments came as no surprise; there was certainly some connection between the two, and as I continued to talk with other’s in the chat room, I found the same things as I had with the aforementioned man.  As I continued to chat for several hours, I could picture myself a part of this subculture that my informants described, and I wanted it.  I decided to make my project one of immersement.    

Working Titles?

"A New Kind of Addiction"
"Vanity Fair or Healthy Care"
"A Journey Through Body Image"
"No Pain No Gain: the philosophy of the gym addict"

Week 12

In my experience, rhetoric is the art of speech.  I would define it as the act of effective public speaking.  One who is proficient in rhetoric would use good grammar and eloquent language as they speak.  I hear the word used most often use in my English and speech classes.  Also, the word is thrown around when talking about political candidates.  It is important for political candidates to excel in rhetoric in order for them to appear educated and capable to lead.  

The rhetoric involved in my subculture could be the commercials and paid programming done on products like supplements and exercise machines.  This type of rhetoric would be meant to motivate or persuade customers to buy a product.  Another form of rhetoric could be fitness instructors as they teach their students not only about exercises, but also about living a healthy life. 

I will be utilizing rhetoric during my final portfolio presentation when I give a small speech about my subculture.  However, rhetoric can also be defined as a form of writing, so I could also be utilizing rhetoric as I write my mini-ethnography, especially if I construct it in a way that speaks to my audience.

Reflections

When I first began the research in my subculture I expected to find a lot of vanity issues among insider men and women. What I found was that, yes, this was true, however, there are much deeper issues involved in this aspect of the culture as well. Muscle dysmorphia was what surprised me. I had never before heard of it and it was a fascinating spin on my subculture.

At the beginning, I was an outsider so many things intrigued me. Now, as more of an insider, I am intrigued by the development of body image from the entrance of the subculture to when you are a complete insider. When I entered the subculture, I actually became more aware of my “faults” and wanted more and more to change my body. Talking to insiders that have been a part of the subculture for years and years, I have found that they are fairly satisfied with their body. I want to find how that happens.

The thing that disturbs me about the gym subculture is the media it is given and the media forced on those insiders. Posters line the walls of the gym and of tanning beds that many gyms are starting to install. I think this plays a huge part in body dissatisfaction of those entering the subculture.

What is going on here? There are many “unwritten rules” and several rituals involved in the gym. For instance, one informant told me that if you weigh less than 140 lbs. you should not grunt when you lift. Its almost a disrespect to those bigger than you working out at the same time. Other minor rules include putting back weights when you are finished, wiping your sweat off the benches, and time limits on certain machines.

Where’s the culture? The language is the hardest part of this subculture for me to learn. There are so many different machines used, different exercises, and acronyms, that I have a hard time keeping up with my informants sometimes. Other parts of the gym that I have observed are tanning rooms. Several of the gyms I have visited now include tanning in their membership packages. Other than the main weight room, sometimes there is also a separate treadmill room or aerobic room.

What’s the story? This story is essentially a journey through body image. Outsiders want to look like insiders. Some insiders want to look more like fellow insiders. Beginners start to notice faults. And these body image issues lead to supplement use and sometimes psychological complications.

Writing

As the Dixie Chicks once said, "she needs wide open spaces, room to make her big mistakes."

(When I sit down to write, it is usually on my bed or floor so I can see every piece of information that I will need to write the paper laid out before me, my laptop close-by. The area must be neat and free of clutter other than my papers strewn out.)

Week 11

My personal writing process has not changed since the start of this course.  I still simply sit down at my computer and start going on the topic and see how far I get before I hit a problem.  This process has worked for me in the past and I tend to get decent grades, so I have not seen any reason to change my process.  The literature review was a bit more difficult simply because I had not done one before, so I had to figure out what it should contain before I could write it.  The annotated bibliography was easier for me to do because I did one my freshman year in college, so I was more familiar with it. 

I would say that I write simply because it is required of me, not because I enjoy it.  But, in a deeper sense, writing forces us to express ourselves in different ways, which is a good skill.  The role of writing right now in my life is just to get A’s in my classes.  In the future, once I start my career as a nurse, writing will be a vital part of my job and can either help or hurt the patients under my care.  If I don’t write to inform other doctors and nurses about my patients, many things can go wrong.  So I expect the role of writing in my life to change dramatically within the next couple of years.  

Family History

I have absolutely no idea if there are any famous or significant family members of mine. I barely knew my great-grandparents and that is about as far back as I know. I do know that my mother's side of the family originally is from Ireland and Germany, and my grandfather on my dad's side fought in the Korean War. I know about my grandfather through pictures and stories that have been told. My parents used to like to give him gifts about the Korean War such as books or documentaries because he continued to be interested in that war throughout his entire life until his death this past May. My family does not often talk about our ancestors because we can't often see each other, so the time we spend together is spent catching up on our present lives and focusing on developing our relationships with one another.