This study explores how men engage with and negotiate their masculinity within contemporary fitness culture through the use of performance-enhancing substances. Moving beyond traditional understandings of doping as merely a tool for athletic performance, this research investigates the symbolic and social dimensions of doping in constructing masculine identities. Drawing on qualitative interviews with male fitness enthusiasts who use doping agents, the study reveals how doping practices are intertwined with ideals of strength, control, discipline, and self-improvement. It highlights the complex ways men reconcile societal pressures, personal aspirations, and subcultural norms in their embodied expressions of masculinity. The findings contribute to broader debates on gender, body politics, and the cultural meanings attached to substance use in fitness environments.

masculinity, doping, fitness culture, body politics, gender identity, performance-enhancement, male identity, substance use, self-discipline, social negotiation

1. Sassatelli, Roberta. Fitness Culture: Gyms and the Commercialisation of Discipline and Fun. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010.

2. Budd, Michael A. The Sculpture Machine: Physical Culture and Body Politics in the Age of Empire. London: MacMillan Press, 1997.

3. Mosse, George L. The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996.

4. Dutton, Kenneth R. The Perfectible Body: The Western Ideal of Physical Development. London: Cassell, 1995.

5. Johansson, Thomas. “Gendered spaces: The gym culture and the construction of gender.” Young 4 (1996): 32–47.

6. Johansson, Thomas. Den Skulpterade Kroppen: Gymkultur, Friskvård och Estetik (The Sculpted Body: Gym Culture, Wellness and Aesthetics). Stockholm: Carlsson Bokförlag, 1998.

7. Klein, Alan M. Little Big Men: Bodybuilding, Subculture and Gender Construction. New York: State University of New York Press, 1993.

8. Evans, John, Brian Davies, and Emma Rich. “The body made flesh: Embodied learning and the corporeal device.” British Journal of Sociology of Education 30 (2009): 391–406.

9. Hedblom, Christina. The Body Is Made to Move—Gym and Fitness Culture in Sweden. Stockholm: Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 2009.

10. Helman, Cecil G. Culture, Health and Illness, 5th ed. London: Hodder Education, 2007.

11. Locks, Adam, and Niall Richardson. Critical Readings in Bodybuilding. New York: Routledge, 2012.

12. McGrath, Shelly, and Ruth Chananie-Hill. “‘Big Freaky-Looking Women’: Normalizing Gender Transgression through Bodybuilding.” Sociology of Sport Journal 26 (2009): 235–54.

13. Monaghan, Lee F. Bodybuilders Drugs and Risk (Health, Risk and Society). New York: Routledge, 2001.

14. Kryger-Pedersen, Inge. “Doping and the perfect body expert: Social and cultural indicators of performance-enhancing drug use in Danish gyms.” Sport in Society 13 (2010): 503–16.

15. Yesalis, Charles, and Michael Bahrke. “Anabolic Steroid and Stimulant Use in North American Sport between 1850 and 1980.” In Drugs, Alcohol and Sport. Edited by Paul Dimeo. New York: Routledge, 2007.

16. Bilard, Jean, Gregory Ninot, and Denis Hauw. “Motives for illicit use of doping substances among athletes calling a national antidoping phone-help service: An exploratory study.” Substance Use & Misuse 46 (2011): 359–67.

17. Kanayama, Gen, and Harrison G. Pope. “Illicit use of androgens and other hormones: Recent advances.” Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity 19 (2012): 211–19.

18. Dodge, Tonya, and James Jaccards. “The Effect of High School Sports Participation on the Use of Performance-Enhancing Substances in Young Adulthood.” Journal of Adolescent Health 39 (2006): 367–73.

19. DuRant, Robert H., Luis G Escobedo, and Gregory W. Heath. “Anabolic-Steroid Use, Strength Training, and Multiple Drug Use among Adolescents in the United States.” Pediatrics 96 (1995): 23–29.

20. Simon, Perikles, Heiko Striegel, Fabian Aust, Klaus Dietz, and Rolf Ulrich. “Doping in fitness sports: Estimated number of unreported cases and individual probability of doping.” Addiction 101 (2006): 1640–44.

21. Dimeo, Paul. A History of Drug Use in Sport 1876–1976: Beyond Good and Evil. London and New York: Routledge, 2007.

22. Parkinson, Andrew B., and Nick A. Evans. “Anabolic androgenic steroids: A survey of 500 users.” Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise 38 (2006): 644–51.

23. Sas-Nowosielski, Krzysztof. “The abuse of anabolic-androgenic steroids by Polish school-aged adolescents.” Biology of Sport 23 (2006): 225–35.

24. McCreary, Donald R., Thomas B. Hildebrandt, Leslie J. Heinberg, Michael Boroughs, and J. Kevin Thompson. “A Review of Body Image Influences on Mens’s Fitness Goals and Supplement Use.” American Journal of Men’s Health 4 (2007): 307–16.

25. Thualagant, Nicole. “The Conceptualization of Fitness Doping and Its Limitations.” Sport in Society: Cultures Commerce Media Politics 15 (2012): 409–19.

26. Connell, Raewyn. Gender & Power. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987.

27. Connell, Raewyn. Masculinities. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995.

28. Connell, Raewyn, and James W. Messerschmidt. “Hegemonic masculinity: Rethinking the concept.” Gender & Society 19 (2005): 829–59.

29. Andreasson, Jesper, and Thomas Johansson. “Female Fitness in the Blogosphere: Gender, Health, and the Body.” Sage Open, 2013.

30. Anderson, Eric. Inclusive Masculinities: The Changing Nature of Masculinities. London: Routledge, 2009.

31. Christensen, Ann-Dorte, and Sune Qvotrup Jensen. “Combining hegemonic masculinity and intersectionality.” NORMA: International Journal for Masculinity Studies 9 (2014): 60–75.

32. Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge, 1990.

33. Hearn, Jeff. “From hegemonic masculinity to the hegemony of men.” Feminist Theory 5 (2004): 49–72.

34. Howson, Richard. Challenging Hegemonic Masculinity. London: Routledge, 2006.

35. Wedgwood, Nikki. “Connell’s theory of masculinity—Its origin and influences in the study of gender.” Journal of Gender Studies 18 (2009): 329–39.

36. Andreasson, Jesper. “Between Beauty and Performance: Towards a sociological understanding of trajectories to drug use in a gym and bodybuilding context.” Scandinavian Sport Studies Forum 4 (2013): 60–90.

37. Hammersley, Martyn, and Paul Atkinson. Ethnography: Principles in Practice. London: Routledge, 1995.

38. Gratton, Chris, and Ian Jones. Research Methods for Sport Studies. London: Routledge, 2004.

39. Fangen, Katrine. Deltagande Observation (Participant Observation). Malmö: Liber, 2005.

40. Mogensen, Kevin. Body Punk En Afhandling om Mandlige Kropsbyggere og Kroppens Betydninger i lyset av Antidoping Kampagner (Body Punk. A Thesis on Male Bodybuilders and the Meanings of the Body in the Light of Anti-Doping Campaigns). Roskilde: Roskilde Universitetscenter, 2011.

41. Bach, Alice Riis. Mænd och Muskler—En bog om Stryketæning og Anabole Steroider (Men and Muscles—A Book about Weight Lifting and Anabolic Steroids). København: Tiderna skifter, 2005.

42. Lalander, Philip. Hooked on Heroin: Drugs and Drifters in a Globalized World. Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers, 2003.

43. Agar, Michael. Professional Stranger: Informal Introduction to Ethnography. London: Emerald Group, 1996.

44. Bourdieu, Pierre, and Loïc J. D. Wacquant. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1992.

45. Skeggs, Beverly. Formations of Class and Gender: Becoming Respectable. London: SAGE Publications, 1997.

46. Robertson, Steve. Understanding Men and Health: Masculinities, Identity and Well-Being. Berkshire: Open University Press, 2007.

47. Kimmel, Michael S. Manhood in America: A Cultural History. New York: The Free Press, 1996.

48. Tasker, Yvonne. Spectacular Bodies. Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema. New York: Routledge, 1993.

49. Hammarén, Nils, and Thomas Johansson. “Homosociality: In Between Power and Intimacy.” SAGE Open 4 (2014): 1–11.

50. Pronger, Brian. The Arena of Masculinity: Sports, Homosexuality, and the Meaning of Sex. New York: St. Martin’s, 1990.

51. Messner, Michael. Power at Play: Sports and the Problem of Masculinity. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.

52. Sparkes, Andrew C., Joanne Batey, and Gareth J. Owen. “The Shame-Pride-Shame of the Muscled Self in Bodybuilding.” In Critical Readings in Bodybuilding. Edited by Adam Locks and Niall Richardson. New York: Routledge, 2012.

53. Denham, Bryan E. “Masculinities in hardcore bodybuilding.” Men and Masculinities 11 (2008): 234–42.

54. Christiansen, Ask Vest. “Doping in fitness and strength training environments—Politics, Motives and Masculinity.” In Elite Sport, Doping and Public Health. Edited by Verner Møller, Mike McNamme and Paul Dimeo. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 2009.

55. Glassner, Barry. “Fit for Postmodern Selfhood.” In Symbolic Interaction and Cultural Studies. Edited by Howard S. Becker and Michael McCall. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990, pp. 215–43.

56. [56] Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge, 1984.

57. [57] Nixon, Sean. Hard Looks: Masculinities, Spectatorship & Contemporary Consumption. London: UCL Press, 1996.

58. Rohlinger, Deana A. “Eroticizing Men: Cultural Influences on Advertising and Male Objectification.” Sex Roles 46 (2002): 61–74.

59. Markula, Pirkko. “Beyond the Perfect Body: Women’s Body Image Distortion in Fitness Magazine Discourse.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues 25 (2001): 158–79.

60. Bordo, Susan. “Reading the slender body.” In Body/Politics Women and the Discourse of Science. Edited by Mary Jacobus, Evelyn Fox Keller and Sally Shuttleworth. London: Routledge, 1990.

61. Malcolm, Nancy. “Constructing Female Athleticism: A Study of Girls Recreational Softball.” American Behavioral Scientist 46 (2003): 1387–404.

62. Coad, David. The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality, and Sport. New York: Sunny Press, 2008.

63. Hall, Matthew, Brendan Gough, and Sarah Seymour-Smith. “‘I’m METRO, NOT Gay!’: A Discursive Analysis of Men’s Accounts of Makeup Use on YouTube.” The Journal of Men’s Studies 3 (2012): 209–26.

64. Fracher, Jeffrey, and Michael Kimmel. “Hard issues and soft spots: Counselling men about sexuality.” In Men’s Lives. Edited by Michael Kimmel and Michael Messner. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1995.

65. Anderson, Eric. “Openly gay athletes: Contesting Hegemonic Masculinity in a Homophobic Environment.” Gender & Society 16 (2002): 860–77.

66. Wendel, Lisa Wolf, J. Douglas Toma, and Christopher Morphew. “How much difference is too much difference? Perceptions of gay men and lesbians in intercollegiate athletics.” Journal of College Student Development 42 (2001): 465–79.

67. Plummer, David C. One of the Boys: Masculinity, Homophobia and Modern Manhood. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1999.

68. Braidotti, Rosi. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.