Abstract
This paper seeks to explore the attraction and the beauty of the contemporary athletic body. It will be suggested that a body shaped through muscular bulk and definition has come to be seen as aesthetically normative. This body differs from the body of athletes from the early and mid-twentieth century. It will be argued that the contemporary body is not merely the result of advances in sports science, but rather that it is expressive of certain meanings and values. The visual similarity of the contemporary athletic body and that of the comic book superhero suggests that both bodies carry a similar potential for narrative story-telling, and that their attraction is bound up with this narrative potential. The superhero and athlete live meaningful lives, pursuing clear and morally unambiguous goals. The aesthetic attraction of the body lies in its capacity to facilitate the articulation of a story of a meaningful life, and to do so in the face of the growing anomie and thus meaninglessness of life as experienced in contemporary society. Athleticism offers an illusion of meaning, serving to reproduce dominant justificatory narratives and social stereotypes. Yet, as an illusion of meaning, it may be challenged and negotiated, not least with respect to its bias towards a certain form of the male body. The female athletic body disrupts the illusion, opening up new existential possibilities, new ways of living and being, and thus new, and potentially disruptive, narratives.
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Notes
See, for example, Kirk Douglas' performance in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960).
The 'Golden Age' of comic books is typically the period between 1930 and 1960. The narrative innovations of Stan Lee, at Marvel Comics, in the early 1960s led to more vulnerable superheroes, at times lacking heavily muscled bodies (e.g. Spider Man), and frequently morally uncertain or acting in the face of moral challenge (e.g. as to their vigilantism). (On the history of American comics, see Duncan and Smith, pp. 20–84 [3]).
See http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/latest-news/hoy-i-believe-the-french-have-pastries-for-breakfast-91433 [accessed 16th February 2016].
It is perhaps most clearly exemplified by the Western. Novels and movies such as Riders of the Purple Sage, Shane, and even Fist Full of Dollars come to mind.
The tension between the aesthetic ideal and empirical reality is illustrated by Discolobus. The sculpture has, in the past, been mistakenly taken as a model for the pose of a successful and efficient discus thrower. It was treated, as it were, as a training manual. In practice, the pose of the real athlete has been distorted for aesthetic effect. The pose of Discolobus is more harmonious and elegant than that of a real athlete.
The relationship between ancient Greek culture and the modern (German) athlete is articulated in Olympia's opening sequences through the transformation of Discobolus into the flesh and blood Olympic decathlete Erwin Huber.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sandow_ca1894.ogv [accessed 16th February 2016] for a brief film of Sandow posing.
Marinetti, in the 1909 Futurist Manifesto, asserts that a racing car (which is to say, the speed and power of the modern machine) 'is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace' ([6] p. 147).
On the application of Kant's distinction between pleasure and agreeableness, from his aesthetics, to sport, see Edgar [5], pp. 92ff.
David Storey's 1960 novel (and Lindsay Anderson's film [1963]) This Sporting Life [15] challenges the monomyth in its profound exploration of the entwining of the private and sporting lives of a professional rugby league player.
Martina Navratatliova expressed this famously: 'The difference between involvement and commitment is like ham and eggs. The chicken is involved; the pig is committed.' The hero of the athletic monomyth is committed.
The Team Sky is considered unpopular amongst cycling fans, in large part because of its very public use of technological support.
The intensity with which the boundary between legitimate and illegitimate technologies, and thus the boundary between heroes and villains, is guarded, not least with respect to the use of performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals, is perhaps symptomatic of the tensions and ambiguities here (See [12]).
The film Friday Night Lights (2004), itself inspired by Bissinger's journalism [1], reflects effectively on this, challenging the monomyth. It concerns a high school (American) football team. While only 18, this season will be the high point of their lives.
The gross under-reporting of female sports is symptomatic of this.
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Edgar, A. The Athletic Body. Health Care Anal 26, 269–283 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-016-0332-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10728-016-0332-4