Linked by their focus on the sport and practice of body building, the authors in this volume challenge both the way their various disciplines (sociology, media studies, literary criticism, film) have gone about studying bodies, and existing assumptions about the complex relationship between power, subjectivity, society, and flesh.

The essays in Building Bodies strive toward models in which power, bodies, discourse, and subjectivity interact in a space we can call the "built body", a dynamic, politicized, and biological site. Body building serves as a launching point because the sport and practice provide ready challenges to the ruling binaries of body studies.
-- First academic collection on body building.
-- Incorporates gender studies, queer studies, and film criticism.