Week 15

After taking this course, I feel that my sentence structure has improved.  Sometimes I would have a few sentences that dragged on or were confusing to read, and now I can typically catch my own mistakes.  I still seem to have trouble with comma placement in some of my sentences, but that has gotten better as the semester has gone on.  I also struggle in making good conclusions to my papers without repeating too much.  I learned quite a bit about research this semester also.  I had never used the academic resources here at Ball State, so the day at the library was very helpful.  One part about the class that could be improved is the reading discussion.  I felt like a lot of reading was required, but when we had class, we didn’t usually talk about all the readings.  I did, however, like the group discussion that we often had during class.  I felt like the conferences were helpful and well placed in the course of the semester.  The first conference was a good place to discuss the first couple of papers and the second conference was at a good time to ask questions about the final project.  Before today’s class, I would have said that one more conference may have been helpful, but you did have a mini-conference with everyone to ask final questions, which was good.  Overall, this class helped me improve my writing, and was therefore beneficial.

Week 14

I feel that my best piece of writing was the research proposal and literature review.  The first thing that allowed me to focus and write well on this paper was the type of paper that it was.  I am an organizer, so I liked that the assignment allowed me to organize my thoughts on the entire semester before having to write the final paper.  I also enjoy analyzing, and the literature review allowed me to do that for each of my sources.  That helped me figure out which sources I wanted to use for what sections of my paper, and also showed me what my sources lacked.  I feel like this paper did a lot for me so I didn’t mind writing it and took time on it, which is why it was my best piece of work this semester.  The exploring subcultures paper was probably my worst paper just because I felt like I was repeating myself a lot by re-stating my fixed positions and stereotypes.  The annotated bibliography was right there in the middle because I had already done one before, but it wasn’t really a paper like I am used to writing for classes.

Week 13

I entered the “Truly Huge” chat room as gym_babe0711.  Instantly, I had fifteen men wanting to chat with me with names like XLBodyBuilder, and BulgingBiceps224.  Soon enough my screen was filled with people wanting to talk about my height, weight, age, and eye color, and of course, how much I could bench press.  “Wanna hot chat?” “You an FBB?”  “How old are you?” I began to tell these people why I was in the chat room, for research.  This turned many people away; some were suspicious and wanted me to prove that I was a student doing research, while others tried to change the subject back to what I looked like and if I had a boyfriend or not.  One particularly hormone-driven twenty-four year old man boasted, “I pick up girls at the gym all the time, that’s one of the reasons I go there.”  My research indicates that certain chemicals released during exercise, like endorphins, are also a part of sexual arousal, so his comments came as no surprise; there was certainly some connection between the two, and as I continued to talk with other’s in the chat room, I found the same things as I had with the aforementioned man.  As I continued to chat for several hours, I could picture myself a part of this subculture that my informants described, and I wanted it.  I decided to make my project one of immersement.    

Working Titles?

"A New Kind of Addiction"
"Vanity Fair or Healthy Care"
"A Journey Through Body Image"
"No Pain No Gain: the philosophy of the gym addict"

Week 12

In my experience, rhetoric is the art of speech.  I would define it as the act of effective public speaking.  One who is proficient in rhetoric would use good grammar and eloquent language as they speak.  I hear the word used most often use in my English and speech classes.  Also, the word is thrown around when talking about political candidates.  It is important for political candidates to excel in rhetoric in order for them to appear educated and capable to lead.  

The rhetoric involved in my subculture could be the commercials and paid programming done on products like supplements and exercise machines.  This type of rhetoric would be meant to motivate or persuade customers to buy a product.  Another form of rhetoric could be fitness instructors as they teach their students not only about exercises, but also about living a healthy life. 

I will be utilizing rhetoric during my final portfolio presentation when I give a small speech about my subculture.  However, rhetoric can also be defined as a form of writing, so I could also be utilizing rhetoric as I write my mini-ethnography, especially if I construct it in a way that speaks to my audience.

Reflections

When I first began the research in my subculture I expected to find a lot of vanity issues among insider men and women. What I found was that, yes, this was true, however, there are much deeper issues involved in this aspect of the culture as well. Muscle dysmorphia was what surprised me. I had never before heard of it and it was a fascinating spin on my subculture.

At the beginning, I was an outsider so many things intrigued me. Now, as more of an insider, I am intrigued by the development of body image from the entrance of the subculture to when you are a complete insider. When I entered the subculture, I actually became more aware of my “faults” and wanted more and more to change my body. Talking to insiders that have been a part of the subculture for years and years, I have found that they are fairly satisfied with their body. I want to find how that happens.

The thing that disturbs me about the gym subculture is the media it is given and the media forced on those insiders. Posters line the walls of the gym and of tanning beds that many gyms are starting to install. I think this plays a huge part in body dissatisfaction of those entering the subculture.

What is going on here? There are many “unwritten rules” and several rituals involved in the gym. For instance, one informant told me that if you weigh less than 140 lbs. you should not grunt when you lift. Its almost a disrespect to those bigger than you working out at the same time. Other minor rules include putting back weights when you are finished, wiping your sweat off the benches, and time limits on certain machines.

Where’s the culture? The language is the hardest part of this subculture for me to learn. There are so many different machines used, different exercises, and acronyms, that I have a hard time keeping up with my informants sometimes. Other parts of the gym that I have observed are tanning rooms. Several of the gyms I have visited now include tanning in their membership packages. Other than the main weight room, sometimes there is also a separate treadmill room or aerobic room.

What’s the story? This story is essentially a journey through body image. Outsiders want to look like insiders. Some insiders want to look more like fellow insiders. Beginners start to notice faults. And these body image issues lead to supplement use and sometimes psychological complications.

Writing

As the Dixie Chicks once said, "she needs wide open spaces, room to make her big mistakes."

(When I sit down to write, it is usually on my bed or floor so I can see every piece of information that I will need to write the paper laid out before me, my laptop close-by. The area must be neat and free of clutter other than my papers strewn out.)