How R.W. Connell's theories apply in "Pumping Iron"

        The film, “Pumping Iron” perhaps best exemplifies how the notion of hegemonic masculinity applies to the real world. “Pumping Iron” delves into the world of bodybuilding and portrays how bodybuilders live, train and compete against each another. While one might believe body- building is the epitome of masculinity, Connell argues that it embodies sexual contradictions.  As depicted in the film, bodybuilders are admired and revered mostly by men. Moreover, Connell notes that bodybuilders often need to “sell sexual favors” to gay men to support themselves, which is known as a ‘hustle’. Because the practice of wearing very few clothes and posing in front of men is highly vulnerable to suspicions, bodybuilders simultaneously pursue masculinity and by all means, repudiate homosexuality.

         For example, in the scene where Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to poses in front of male prisoners, a woman takes of his shirt who is then rewarded with a kiss. This scene explicitly reveals the outright dislike of homophobia between straight men.  Though Arnold justifies the kiss by casually saying, “the women probably didn’t get it for years”, from Connell’s perspective, it is better understood as a man’s subconscious desire to prove his heterosexuality in the fear of being perceived as a homosexual. Arnold, in this particular situation, utilize woman as means of seeking approval from the crowd that he is a heterosexual. Hence, men’s tendency to articulate homophobia to earn membership to dominant masculinities and avoid being victims of subordination is well presented in “Pumping Iron”.