{"product_id":"muscle-works-physical-culture-and-the-performance-of-masculinity-9780810147362","title":"Muscle Works: Physical Culture and the Performance of Masculinity","description":"\u003cb\u003eMen's fitness as a performance\u003c\/b\u003e--\u003cb\u003efrom nineteenth-century theatrical exhibitions to health and wellness practices today\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e This book recounts the story of fitness culture from its beginnings as spectacles of strongmen, weightlifters, acrobats, and wrestlers to its legitimization in the twentieth-century in the form of competitive sports and health and wellness practices. Broderick D. V. Chow shows how these modes of display contribute to the construction and deconstruction of definitions of masculinity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Attending to its theatrical origins, Chow argues for a more nuanced understanding of fitness culture, one informed by the legacies of self-described Strongest Man in the World Eugen Sandow and the history of fakery in strongman performance; the philosophy of weightlifter George Hackenschmidt and the performances of martial artist Bruce Lee; and the intersections of fatigue, resistance training, and whiteness. \u003ci\u003eMuscle Works: Physical Culture and the Performance of Masculinity\u003c\/i\u003e moves beyond the gym and across the archive, working out techniques, poses, and performances to consider how, as gendered subjects, we inhabit and make worlds through our bodies.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBRODERICK D. V. CHOW\u003c\/b\u003e is Reader and Director of Learning, Teaching and Inclusion at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. He is coeditor of the volumes \u003ci\u003eSports Plays \u003c\/i\u003e(2022) and \u003ci\u003ePerformance and Professional Wrestling \u003c\/i\u003e(2016), as well as a competitive Olympic weightlifter and British Weight Lifting qualified coach.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Northwestern University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50404360519954,"sku":"9780810147362","price":41.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8913d343-1cf8-4da3-ac08-716911819009.jpg?v=1740421176","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/muscle-works-physical-culture-and-the-performance-of-masculinity-9780810147362","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}