Current popular interest in bodies, fitness, sport and active lifestyles, has made bodybuilding more visible and acceptable within mainstream society than ever before. However, the association between bodybuilding, drugs and risk has contributed to a negative image of an activity which many people find puzzling. Using data obtained from participant observation and interviews, this book explores bodybuilding subculture from the perspective of the bodybuilder. It looks at: * How bodybuilders try to maintain competent social identities * How they manage the risks of using steroids and other physique-enhancing drugs * How they understand the alleged steroid-violence link * How they 'see' the muscular body. Through systematic exploration it becomes apparent that previous attempts to explain bodybuilding in terms of 'masculinity-in-crisis' or gender insecurity are open to question. Different and valuable insights into what sustains and legitimizes potentially dangerous drug-taking activities are provided by this detailed picture of a huge underground subculture.

This collection provides authoritative coverage of neurobiology of addiction, models of addiction, sociocultural perspectives on drug use, family and community factors, prevention theories and techniques, professional issues, the criminal justice system and substance abuse, assessment and diagnosis, and more.

Women with muscles are a recent phenomenon. While generating a good deal of interest, both positive and negative, their importance to the cultural landscape has yet to be acknowledged. Leslie Heywood looks at female body building as a metaphor for how women fare in our current political and cultural climate. BODYMAKERS reveals how female bodybuilders find themselves both trapped and empowered by their sport. 14 illustrations.

Critical Readings in Bodybuilding is the first collection to address the contemporary practice of bodybuilding, especially the way in which the activity has become increasingly more extreme, and to consider much neglected debates of gender, eroticism, and sexuality related to the activity.

Based on personal interviews with military spouses, as well as current articles and statistics and studies from the Department of Defense and Rand National Defense Research Institute, this book provides an objective look at America's military family in the 21st century, and explains how the military is attempting to improve family life. Following the Flag discusses both the problems and perks of today's armed forces families. It particularly looks at the military family since America has become involved in peace-keeping missions in Africa and combat in Afghanistan and Iraq. Studies on family stress connected with deployment (depression, divorce, domestic violence) are presented. A special focus is the families of the National Guard and Reserves who are often unprepared, emotionally and financially, for family members to be called to duty. In addition, the book provides current information on nontraditional military families. These include female military personnel married to civilian males, who many times must place their careers second and follow their wives to new assignments, and families where both spouses are military personnel who can be deployed at any time. Many changes have occurred in the American armed forces over the past three decades. An all-volunteer military came into being after the end of conscription in 1973; women have joined the force in ever increasing numbers; service personnel today are again involved in combat situations around the world; reserve and guard units have been called to active duty. With these developments, the role of military families has changed as well. This book explains what the those changes have been, and what they have meant to the families involved.

Criminal Justice Handbook on Masculinity, Male Aggression, and Sexuality discusses masculinity as a social construct, an ideal, and an impediment for males and females. The book explores how the law equalizes, protects, bridles, and enforces masculinity while dealing with crime, which often exploits and exaggerates masculinity. Among the topics addressed are historical and contemporary law, scientific understandings, issues in corrections, military service, the court system, policing, criminal procedure, medicine, and treatment. Because masculinity is often exhibited as a gender role, the book examines aggressive behaviors, emotional responses, interpersonal rules, appearances, sexual desires, and other aspects of human dynamics that may restrict or enhance masculinity. Juveniles are discretely discussed in subsections concerning masturbation, bullying, risk, sexual assault, pornography, and their susceptibility to victimization by peers and adults. Physical differences between males and females are relevant to criminal justice processes and includes bone shape and size, voices, appearance, scent, and genitalia. The male genitalia is thoroughly discussed in the sections dealing with unlawful penetration, male working animals, forensics, sex offenders, frisks and searches, penile injuries, prostheses, obscenity and lewd behavior, transgenderism, and human trafficking. Unique features include: male and female perpetrators of domestic violence, illegal immigration, drug and alcohol trafficking, gangs and gang members, homosexual victims of hate crimes, and the use of steroids. In addition, illustrations are included to clarify specific points. This text will be an excellent resource for careers in correctional education, juvenile justice, criminal justice and male aggression, law enforcement, sociology, and psychiatry.