Can the Bodybuilder Speak?

Research Seminar – School of Journalism, Media and Culture – Cardiff University – 12 Nov 2025

Paul Bowman

The stereotype of the dumb bodybuilder conforms to the most entrenched binary of the Western philosophical tradition: too much body must mean not enough brain. Faced with the enigma of the ‘mute speech’ of outsized lumps of meat who obsessively make themselves bigger for unclear reasons by moving metal up and down quasi-mechanically, cultural theorists and social critics have long been quick to provide interpretations. The interpretations constructed by such scholars have often been harsh – often increasingly harsh as the 20th century progressed. The ultimate figure under the spotlight and in the dock is the modern bodybuilder. Fully installed in the public sphere by the late 1970s, the bodybuilder has been theorised as a narcissist, as antisocial, as a hypertrophic exemplification of ‘mass’ culture, the spectacular subject of the society of the spectacle, as the ultimate neoliberal individualist, even as a fascist. However, to what extent have such interpretations been formed fairly, and to what extent have they been projected onto ‘mute’ bodies illegitimately? Why is it that even bodybuilders themselves don’t seem able to articulate ‘that certain je ne sais quoi’ that pulls them back to the church, temple, factory or foundry of the gym?

My title, ‘Can the Bodybuilder Speak?’ echoes Gayatri Spivak’s argument that the subaltern is principally ‘spoken by’ dominant institutions, rather than allowed to speak or be ‘heard’ correctly. But what does the built body or the building of the body ‘say’? Is it even right to interpret bodybuilding as ‘saying’ anything at all?

This presentation first engages with the range of meanings that have been attributed to liminal and ambivalent bodily practices like bodybuilding by Western scholars. Overwhelmingly, scholars have insisted on seeing gym culture as ‘having’ a meaning. But does it? If it doesn’t, then what does it have? The paper interrogates the proposition that bodybuilding ‘is’ or ‘has’ a ‘message’ – asking: if gym culture ‘has’ (or ‘is’) a message, then who (or where) is it from and to? Who (or where) is sending and who (or where) receiving? Does the body or its builder ‘speak’, or are they always spoken? And what else is going on?

The presentation focuses principally on contemporary ‘Western’ bodybuilding practices and scholars (although non-Western sources could also be discussed). It is very much a work in progress and represents the first outing of a new research project. Questions, contributions, criticisms, and above all, suggestions are very much invited and welcomed.

Paul Bowman is professor of cultural studies at Cardiff University. His most recent book is The Invention of Martial Arts (Oxford University Press, 2021). His next book, The Sublime Object of Orientalism is forthcoming from Hong Kong University Press in 2026.