Book Symposium: Ask Vest Christiansen's Gym Culture, Identity and Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Abstract

This is a review and discussion of Ask Vest Christiansen’s book Gym Culture, Identity and Performance-Enhancing Drugs: Tracing a Typology of Steroid Use (2020). As indicated by the title, the book is on gym culture, the pursuit of fit, muscular bodies and the use of drugs as a means to get there. The book builds on the international research literature and in-depth interviews with men who have experience of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs), to explore the fascination with muscles, motivations for using drugs to enhance them, assessments of risk and experience of side effects. The book examines what the altered body does to the men’s identity, self-image and relationships with peers and partners. Taking an evolutionary psychological approach, it also investigates the biological and psychological foundations of the fascination with the muscular body. Moreover, the book considers the political and regulatory frameworks in place to prevent the use of IPEDs and assess those strategies potential to reach their aims.