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Cranswick, I, Richardson, D, Littlewood, M and Tod, D (2024) ‘It’s not just you come into the gym and do your weight training’: a narrative exploration of muscularity’s role as identity capital. European Journal for Sport and Society. ISSN 1613-8171
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‘It’s not just you come into the gym and do your weight training’ a narrative exploration of muscularity’s role as identity capital.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (2MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The current study explored muscularity and weight training’s role as capital in people’s identities across various contexts. Eleven weight trainers from two gyms were interviewed (three females, eight males) about their desires for muscularity and the role it played in their lives. Thematic narrative analysis identified narratives that framed the individuals’ muscular desires, behaviours, and importance. Muscularity formed a versatile resource—identity capital—that was a key part of the individuals’ body projects. These body projects and identity capital facilitated the individuals’ identity performances in a range of contexts (e.g. occupation, gender). Three narratives emerged (individualist, illusionist, and promoter) that highlighted the intertwined tangible (e.g. leanness and strength) and intangible (e.g. control and self-empowerment) attributes associated with muscularity and weight training that facilitated successful identity performances. These narratives achieved goals of self-empowerment (Individualist), self-protection (Illusionist), or self-advertisement (Promoter) which enabled successful identity performances. The current findings advance existing literature by suggesting muscularity is a versatile form of identity capital that can facilitate multiple identities (e.g. occupation, gender) and contexts. The potential benefit to an individuals’ sense of self also highlights the positive effect of muscularity weight training as a tool for self-promotion and personal growth.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | 1506 Tourism |
| Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine |
| Divisions: | Sport and Exercise Sciences |
| Publisher: | Taylor and Francis Group |
| SWORD Depositor: | A Symplectic |
| Date Deposited: | 12 Nov 2024 13:55 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Nov 2024 14:00 |
| DOI or ID number: | 10.1080/16138171.2024.2417149 |
| URI: | https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/24746 |
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