St Mary’s Lecturer Launches Book on Female Bodybuilders

With celebrities such as Jodie Marsh, Madonna and Holly Walcott highlighting female bodybuilding in the media, new research has been published that explores the ways in which muscular women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox feminine activities and appearances. Females with large muscles evoke strong reactions from men and women, often involving disgust, discomfort, anger and threat. The controversial nature of female bodybuilding is explored in this pioneering study. Dr Tanya Bunsell, lecturer in Sport Sociology at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham has recently published a book Strong and Hard Women: An ethnography of female bodybuilding (London Routledge, 2013). The research is based on Tanya Bunsell's own fascinating journey into the world of female bodybuilding, which included in-depth interviews with 26 female bodybuilders. It provides a unique perspective on an under researched area of sporting, gendered and embodied life. Based on a two year ethnographic study in the south of England, this book is a rich portrait of becoming, being, and having a muscular female body. For more information about the research please contact Dr Bunsell on tanya.bunsell@stmarys.ac.uk, alternatively please contact the St Mary’s press office on 0208 240 2350. Photo courtesy of Rebecca Andrews