Visible Difference and Flex Appeal: the Body Sex Sexuality and Race in the "Pumping Iron" Films
University of Texas Press Society for Cinema & Media Studies
Visible Difference and Flex Appeal: The Body, Sex, Sexuality, and Race in the "Pumping Iron" Films Author(s): Christine Anne Holmlund Reviewed work(s): Source: Cinema Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Summer, 1989), pp. 38-51 Published by: University of Texas Press on behalf of the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1225394 . Accessed: 09/11/2011 22:43
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
University of Texas Press and Society for Cinema & Media Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cinema Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
Visible Differenceand Flex Appeal: The Body, Sex, Sexuality,and Race in the PumpingIron Films by Christine Anne Holmlund
Pumping Iron (George Butler and Robert Flore: 1977) and Pumping Iron II: The Women (George Butler: 1984), two documentariesabout bodybuilding contests, provide an ideal opportunityto look at the relationshipsoperating between body, desire, and power in the United States today. Taken as a pair, these films are a veritable melting pot of sex, sexuality, race, and sales. Intentionally and unintentionally, they reveal how the visible differences of sex (to have or have not) and race (to be or not to be) mesh with ideology and economy in contemporaryAmericansociety,and within film fictions.In both films sexualityis adroitly linked with sex and race at the expense of any reference to history or class. The body is marketed as a
Visible Difference and Flex Appeal: The Body, Sex, Sexuality, and Race in the "Pumping Iron" Films Author(s): Christine Anne Holmlund Reviewed work(s): Source: Cinema Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Summer, 1989), pp. 38-51 Published by: University of Texas Press on behalf of the Society for Cinema & Media Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1225394 . Accessed: 09/11/2011 22:43
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
University of Texas Press and Society for Cinema & Media Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Cinema Journal.
http://www.jstor.org
Visible Differenceand Flex Appeal: The Body, Sex, Sexuality,and Race in the PumpingIron Films by Christine Anne Holmlund
Pumping Iron (George Butler and Robert Flore: 1977) and Pumping Iron II: The Women (George Butler: 1984), two documentariesabout bodybuilding contests, provide an ideal opportunityto look at the relationshipsoperating between body, desire, and power in the United States today. Taken as a pair, these films are a veritable melting pot of sex, sexuality, race, and sales. Intentionally and unintentionally, they reveal how the visible differences of sex (to have or have not) and race (to be or not to be) mesh with ideology and economy in contemporaryAmericansociety,and within film fictions.In both films sexualityis adroitly linked with sex and race at the expense of any reference to history or class. The body is marketed as a