Go for a walk in the gyms. At the beginning of the year, they are filled with good resolutions. Moreover, the desire to sculpt an appearance of Apollo (or Athena) has today become an increasingly growing mass phenomenon. The author of The muscle factorythe French sociologist Guillaume Vallet, sheds fascinating light on the enhancement of the biceps, subject to the dictates of limitless capitalism.
Our relationship to the body, “this physical interface” between a human being and his external environment, has always been important in all human civilizations, recalls, on the telephone, the specialist in the history of economic thought and the body. During Antiquity, the Greeks, and then the Romans, valued aesthetic aspects through physical performance. “Then, towards the second half of the nineteenthe century, we see the appearance of the hygienist movements, which encourage paying particular attention to the body,” he says.
Since the Second World War, the development of individualism, linked in the West to the loss of influence of great ideals and religion, pushes individuals to build themselves, says Vallet in his book, which points out in passing that health — or the appearance of health — is becoming an important concept in societies. “Norms of social success will begin to spread with the message that good muscles are a reflection of financial success and, for men, an advantage in seducing women. »
But, from the 1980s, what the essayist calls “vulnerability capitalism” appeared, a concept marked by recurrent financial crises and an unstable economic system which, according to him, have produced, for the past thirty years, uncertainties and of fear. “People have the impression that capitalism now threatens everyone, without exception, which is why everyone feels potentially vulnerable. We have recently seen this with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has somehow highlighted the excesses of our hyper-developed societies and the frailties of the human species. »
Faced with the loss of bearings and the progressive disintegration of collective structures, in parallel with a certain disengagement of the public authorities, the body then becomes a “lifeline”, since it remains the last thing that one can really control, explains the sociologist. “Individuals, whether men or women, use their body as a resource to be transformed into capital that gives them the feeling of being valued at different levels and of feeling that they exist,” he says.
Producing muscle mass is a way to become a “self-entrepreneur” in order to exercise your freedom and feel a sense of power. “The almost military training and the rigorous practices carried out in the pain inside a sports hall compose a kind of ritual which is more akin to an organization of the work sector than to a leisure activity. »
The essayist also underlines the effects of social networks on the media coverage of aesthetic norms that make the cult of the body visible on a very large scale. We see the fascination with influencers who show off their muscular abs on their TikTok or Instagram account, he underlines. “It is no longer the hypertrophied aspect of the bodybuilder à la Schwarzenegger which is put forward today, but rather a salient body, powerful and resistant, which presents to the eyes of others good hygiene, a healthy diet and, consequently, a control of its existence. »
This “culture of narcissism”, the sociologist sums it up in the words of historian Christopher Lasch (1932-1994), who was one of the first intellectuals to think about this concept: “Since society has no In the future, it is normal to live for the present, to fix our attention on our own “private representation”. »
Who says new desires around the body also says new activities, and companies see the very lucrative potential of investing in this sector. The proliferation of gyms hosting a slew of sophisticated devices and the increasingly widespread sale of protein drinks and other energy bars are paying off big, confirms the essayist.
The book thus draws up a panorama of bodybuilding practices by analyzing its origins and the psychological, social and economic consequences. The author himself has been practicing bodybuilding since his adolescence. It is therefore without judgment or a priori that he approaches the question, he says. “I started when I was 17 and now I’m 43. I try to understand the obsession with performance in an economic context, because I know from experience what motivations can lead to individuals to practice bodybuilding. »
The practice of sport is liberating and feels good, but the relationship with our body envelope can sometimes be destructive, notes the sociologist. “On the one hand, we have the impression that our body is all-powerful and that we will be able to build it endlessly and, on the other hand, we are aware that it is very vulnerable. The reality is that our body degrades over time and will eventually disappear after death. »
An ambivalent feeling that can be a source of frustration and anxiety, he says, adding that the practice of sport can also produce depression when it represents a headlong rush and a void of meaning. “Dependencies or social pathologies can intervene. There are risks of falling into doping or isolating oneself from those close to them. I also wrote this book to warn of potential dangers. »