Description
Book SynopsisThe health and fitness industry has experienced a meteoric rise over the past two decades, yet its slick exterior conceals a darker side. Using ethnographic data from gyms, interviews, and social media platforms, this book investigates the growing consumption of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs), the motivations behind their use, and their role in masculine body image. Addressing a gap in the literature, Nick Gibbs also interrogates both the offline and digital drug supply chains with important insights for IPED harm reduction practitioners, law makers and policy advisors.
Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. Situating the Research 3. Reimagining the Health and Fitness Industry as a Site of Deviant Leisure Part 1 – Consumption 4. Desire and Dissatisfaction in the Gym 5. Instrumentality, Competitiveness, and Hyper-conformity 6. The Pleasures of Consumption: The Curious Case of Phillip 7. #Ripped: Social Media, Prosumption, and Bodily Desire Part 2 – Supply-side 8. Production 9. The Offline IPED Marketplace 10. The IPED Market in Transition: Commercialization, Normalization, and Digitization 11. The Online IPED Market 12. Conclusion
