Article2006

In the Gym: Motives, Meaning and Moral Careers

219 citations0/0 files storedBody & Society

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Physical Education and Sports Studies Sports, Gender, and Society Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports

Abstract

Drawing upon ethnographic data, this article analyses 'vocabularies of motive' amongst individuals who work out at a private health club in the Greater Manchester area (UK). The article draws a distinction between motives for starting at a gym and motives for continuing, and analyses each separately. It also seeks to draw out, in the latter case, the many motives which conflict with a stereotypical view of 'working out' found in some academic accounts. Working out is not only an instrumental means of cultivating valued bodily attributes, it is argued, nor are its attractions necessarily all 'bodily' (at least narrowly defined) in nature.

Citations in this library

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References

1956The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.1990Foundations of social theory 2015Mind, Self, and Society 1988The Constitution of Society.1979Central Problems in Social Theory 1989A Social Psychologist Discovers Chicago Sociology 1967Mind, Self, and Society 1960Notes on the Concept of Commitment

Cited by

2015The Sociology of Consumption: Its Recent Development 2007‘Working Out’ Identity: Distance Runners and the Management of Disrupted Identity 2009Looking the Part 2013Female Fitness in the Blogosphere 2013‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities 2021Post‐industrial masculinities and gym culture: Graft, craft, and fraternity 2020‘Where is the space for continuum?’ Gyms and the visceral “stickiness“ of binary gender 2019

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