The article discusses macho culture in Israeli gyms. It describes male trainees’ efforts to preserve their dominance, facing female trainees’ threat to undermine it. The article analyzes means, such as military icons, physical battles, and vocal expressions, used to convey male dominance at the gym. Two gyms in the metropolis of Tel Aviv were studied by the male researcher for three years, and one suburban gym was studied by the female researcher for a year. Being researchers and trainees from both genders introduced a unique perspective of gender power relations at the gym. The different sociogeographic backgrounds of the studied gyms offered a refreshing understanding of the impact of specific circumstances on gender dominance. The analysis suggests that males’ hegemony can be threatened by potential women’s dominance, as the ethnography on the suburban gym reveals. Moreover, although men are struggling forcefully to preserve their dominance over “males’ territory” at the Tel Aviv gyms, women’s gradual penetration into the perceived masculine space destabilizes it.
For many gym goers, grunting in times of bodily exertion is perceived as a voluntary performance, a self-evident expression for which they can waive any responsibility. Drawing on a symbolic interaction approach, this paper provides a novel examination of grunting as a social phenomenon. It demonstrates the role of grunting as a social symbol and its connection to social spaces and identities, gender norms, and power relations. The scope of sociological research on grunting in times of bodily exertion is relatively limited and often relegated to the context of biomedicine. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is to address the lacuna of research that focuses on the link between grunting as a socially constructed phenomenon and its sociocultural implications. Ethnographic research was conducted for 3 years in two gyms, using a combination of participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Key findings illustrate three themes toward the role of grunting: grunting and socialization; grunting and space; and finally, grunting and situational adjustment. It is argued that grunting at the gym is socially constructed, a rational and voluntary action that is negotiated, controlled, and adjusted according to the situation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.