America Anonymous

America Anonymous PDF Author: Benoit Denizet-Lewis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 141659437X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
America Anonymous is the unforgettable story of eight men and women from around the country -- including a grandmother, a college student, a bodybuilder, and a housewife -- struggling with addictions. For nearly three years, acclaimed journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis immersed himself in their lives as they battled drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, and compulsive gambling and sexuality. Alternating with their stories is Denizet-Lewis's candid account of his own recovery from sexual addiction and his compelling examination of our culture of addiction, where we obsessively search for new and innovative ways to escape the reality of the present moment and make ourselves feel "better." Addiction is arguably this country's biggest public-health crisis, triggering and exacerbating many of our most pressing social problems (crime, poverty, skyrocketing health-care costs, and childhood abuse and neglect). But while cancer and AIDS survivors have taken to the streets -- and to the halls of Congress -- demanding to be counted, millions of addicts with successful long-term recovery talk only to each other in the confines of anonymous Twelve Step meetings. (A notable exception is the addicted celebrity, who often enters and exits rehab with great fanfare.) Through the riveting stories of Americans in various stages of recovery and relapse, Denizet-Lewis shines a spotlight on our most misunderstood health problem (is addiction a brain disease? A spiritual malady? A moral failing?) and breaks through the shame and denial that still shape our cultural understanding of it -- and hamper our ability to treat it. Are Americans more addicted than people in other countries, or does it just seem that way? Can food or sex be as addictive as alcohol and drugs? And will we ever be able to treat addiction with a pill? These are just a few of the questions Denizet-Lewis explores during his remarkable journey inside the lives of men and women struggling to become, or stay, sober. As the addicts in this book stumble, fall, and try again to make a different and better life, Denizet-Lewis records their struggles -- and his own -- with honesty and empathy.

Muscle Therapy

Muscle Therapy PDF Author: Richard Greye
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN: 9781793386168
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Following being outed at work and to his fiancee as a man with a muscle fetish, Kyle Thompson pursues a quest to understand what he wants and needs out of a relationship with a woman. After hiding his love of muscle all his adult life, he actively seeks it out, yet questions whether it will lead to happiness. In the fashion of any journey of self discovery, he meets people along the way who help him understand this part of himself. A female therapist who pushes him to look beyond what society says he should want to what he truly desires; a group of like-minded men who make him feel accepted and finally, the muscular women of his dreams who help him explore sexual highs and lows. Josie, who he meets in a worship session becomes a sexy confidante. Kristi, a national level competitor renders him powerless, yet can't open up for a true relationship and Dakota, a woman who seemingly has it all. Once out of his head and able to experience what have only been fantasies, Kyle finds that pursuing muscle is more complicated than he thought, but perhaps more rewarding.

America Anonymous

America Anonymous PDF Author: Benoit Denizet-Lewis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 141659437X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Get Book Here

Book Description
America Anonymous is the unforgettable story of eight men and women from around the country -- including a grandmother, a college student, a bodybuilder, and a housewife -- struggling with addictions. For nearly three years, acclaimed journalist Benoit Denizet-Lewis immersed himself in their lives as they battled drug and alcohol abuse, overeating, and compulsive gambling and sexuality. Alternating with their stories is Denizet-Lewis's candid account of his own recovery from sexual addiction and his compelling examination of our culture of addiction, where we obsessively search for new and innovative ways to escape the reality of the present moment and make ourselves feel "better." Addiction is arguably this country's biggest public-health crisis, triggering and exacerbating many of our most pressing social problems (crime, poverty, skyrocketing health-care costs, and childhood abuse and neglect). But while cancer and AIDS survivors have taken to the streets -- and to the halls of Congress -- demanding to be counted, millions of addicts with successful long-term recovery talk only to each other in the confines of anonymous Twelve Step meetings. (A notable exception is the addicted celebrity, who often enters and exits rehab with great fanfare.) Through the riveting stories of Americans in various stages of recovery and relapse, Denizet-Lewis shines a spotlight on our most misunderstood health problem (is addiction a brain disease? A spiritual malady? A moral failing?) and breaks through the shame and denial that still shape our cultural understanding of it -- and hamper our ability to treat it. Are Americans more addicted than people in other countries, or does it just seem that way? Can food or sex be as addictive as alcohol and drugs? And will we ever be able to treat addiction with a pill? These are just a few of the questions Denizet-Lewis explores during his remarkable journey inside the lives of men and women struggling to become, or stay, sober. As the addicts in this book stumble, fall, and try again to make a different and better life, Denizet-Lewis records their struggles -- and his own -- with honesty and empathy.

Muscle Works

Muscle Works PDF Author: Broderick D.V. Chow
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810147386
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 235

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Book Description
Men’s fitness as a performance—from nineteenth-century theatrical exhibitions to health and wellness practices today This book recounts the story of fitness culture from its beginnings as spectacles of strongmen, weightlifters, acrobats, and wrestlers to its legitimization in the twentieth-century in the form of competitive sports and health and wellness practices. Broderick D. V. Chow shows how these modes of display contribute to the construction and deconstruction of definitions of masculinity. Attending to its theatrical origins, Chow argues for a more nuanced understanding of fitness culture, one informed by the legacies of self-described Strongest Man in the World Eugen Sandow and the history of fakery in strongman performance; the philosophy of weightlifter George Hackenschmidt and the performances of martial artist Bruce Lee; and the intersections of fatigue, resistance training, and whiteness. Muscle Works: Physical Culture and the Performance of Masculinity moves beyond the gym and across the archive, working out techniques, poses, and performances to consider how, as gendered subjects, we inhabit and make worlds through our bodies.

Strong and Hard Women

Strong and Hard Women PDF Author: Tanya Bunsell
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136250867
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 201

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Book Description
Females with large muscles evoke strong reactions from men and women, often involving disgust, discomfort, anger and threat. The controversial nature of female bodybuilding has caused a significant rupture on feminist ground. Whilst proponents claim that female bodybuilding is a way of empowering and liberating women, others see it as a form of corporeal entrapment. This book investigates the controversy. Do women who pump iron resist physical restrictions of imposed femininity, or are they engaged in an ultimately oppressive quest for ‘perfect bodies’? In an original two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, Tanya Bunsell immersed herself into the world of female bodybuilders. By mapping these extraordinary women’s lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an ‘empowering’ radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the ‘Janus-faced’ nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances. This book will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of gender studies, the sociology of sport, the body and research methodology.

Death, Drugs, and Muscle

Death, Drugs, and Muscle PDF Author: Gregg Valentino
Publisher: ECW Press
ISBN: 1554906806
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 245

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Book Description
A behind-the-scenes look at the underground world of bodybuilding, this expose is a tragic tale of drugs, murder, and self-destruction. Detailing Gregg Valentinos fame as the man whose biceps exploded, this portrayal reveals how he quickly rose to the top of the weight-lifting scene, becoming both a spokesman for the sport and a celebrity among fans. This account also discusses how he crossed into the illegal world of steroids and drugs, becoming the biggest supplier of Steris products in the United States, and how his world of sex, drugs, and money came crashing down when his girlfriend died from a drug overdose and he was arrested. A gripping, uncensored story about a muscle-worshipping culture, this provocative, harrowing biography uncovers the dark and dangerous world of steroid use and drug dealing.

 PDF Author: Aaron Jason Silver
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1425947026
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
My reasons for writing this book are rather complex because I have seen no other books on the shelves that were comprehensive enough to interest the straight population as well. This book is as much for them as it is for gay people because it I believe it provides important information for them to help them understand us better and why many gay men may behave the way they do. Gay culture to the straight culture as always seemed mysterious as if we were hiding something. Perhaps we have been, so I hope this book helps them understand better the gay culture and hopefully it may help them better understand how certain behaviors may have developed and a bit of a history lesson on how gay culture originally came to be. My greatest hope is that this book will cause the much need discussion about why many of us behave the way we do. My thoughts are that the high school girly behaviors are the manifestations of unhealed wound, that I refer to as ghost wounds, that are a direct result of the damage that has been done during the very critical school age years when many of us were trying to find out who were and develop some self esteem. Unfortunately for most gay men that I have spoken to had very lonely childhoods, where they felt isolated, picked on at school, and they most often felt like outsiders. I believe these experiences have done more damage to gay people than we have ever given credit to. As a result these ghost wounds have never been healed and follow them around for a lifetime unless addressed and will influence much of your behaviors and most importantly your ability to understand and really feel the beauty and deliciousness of true intimacy whether it be with friends or lifepartners. Frequent sexual encounters are not intimacy. It's devoid of intimacy and often leads to a deeper feeling of isolation, loneliness and depression. The last of what I want to say is good luck in your que

Muscle Bound

Muscle Bound PDF Author: David Marlow
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780595689842
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Unlike so many of his gay buddies who fantasized about finding a dream lover, Chase Hyde had no plans to settle down. Being in top shape allowed him to cruise West Hollywood for exhilarating muscle sex with one hot bodybuilder after the next. A devout, self-acknowledged "roamosexual", his foremost objection to settling down was that having a partner would take him off the market. So even if love was never in the air, lust was always just around the corner. Chase expected to continue his carefree lifestyle until, through a correspondence in cyberspace, he met Hunter Rowe, an up-and-coming Madison Avenue advertising executive and fellow bodybuilder who pined for a long-term relationship. Driven by their passion for muscle, the two men form an instant, powerful connection and dive into an intense, long-distance love affair. Neither Chase nor Hunter can imagine the twists of fate that await in Muscle-Bound, a passionate tale about the turbulent pursuit of sexual conquest set against the world of muscle obsession, gym addiction and steroid abuse.

Hunks, Hotties, and Pretty Boys

Hunks, Hotties, and Pretty Boys PDF Author: Steven L. Davis
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443824534
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
White, heterosexual, middle-class men have long served as the standard for masculine “beauty,” even if such men have refused to embrace this term. This study seeks to denaturalize this standard by exploring the connections between beauty and the broad spectrum of masculinities. The chapters included in Hunks, Hotties, and Pretty Boys contribute primarily to the field of gender studies, specifically masculinity studies. They consider twentieth-century representations of male beauty through a variety of mediums: performance, literature, art, photography, film and television. Although the contributors hail from both the humanities and the social sciences, all share a concern for how beauty informs, shapes, defines, and re-defines our understanding of masculinity itself. These scholars investigate a range of historical periods and draw from a broad scope of critical approaches. Some interrogate male beauty through the female gaze and look to the influence of female performance on notions of masculine beauty. Others examine how queer and racial constructions of male beauty refuse and offer alternatives to hegemonic models of identity. Another revisits previous philosophical and theoretical conceptions of beauty, only to deconstruct gendered conceptions of the beautiful and the sublime. In all, these essays complicate masculine beauty by examining Chicano, Asian, working class, and female constructions of male beauty in Western culture.

Transgressive Bodies

Transgressive Bodies PDF Author: Niall Richardson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317007395
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
In recent years the body has become one of the most popular areas of study in the arts, social sciences and humanities. Transgressive Bodies offers an examination of a variety of non-normative bodies and how they are represented in film, media and popular culture. Examining the non-normative body in a cultural studies context, this book reconsiders the concept of the transgressive body , establishing its status as a culturally mutable term, arguing that popular cultural representations create the transgressive or freak body and then proceed to either contain its threat or (s)exploit it. Through studies of extreme bodybuilding, obesity, disability and transsexed bodies, it examines the implications of such transgressive bodies for gender politics and sexuality. Transgressive Bodies engages with contemporary cultural debates, always relating these to concrete studies of media and cultural representations. This book will therefore appeal to scholars across a range of disciplines, including media and film studies, cultural studies, gender studies, sociology, sports studies and cultural theory.

Dorian Yates

Dorian Yates PDF Author: Kaspa Hazlewood
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1546299416
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Book Description
From the Shadow is the story of a country boy who endured a series of tragic events, leaving him alone in a big city. The cruel hand of fate had one more blow: a young offenders’ institution. There, in his darkest hour, it would be the bars he lifted, not those that bound him, which would finally change the trajectory of his life forever. Dorian’s disarming honesty would lead to a reader of an early manuscript saying of From the Shadow: “I had to force myself to put it down—the thought of finishing it, of the most real thing I’d ever read coming to an end, was unbearable.” Dorian Yates is a six-time winner of the world’s premier bodybuilding competition, Mr. Olympia, and, more recently, has become an internet guru too, known to many new admirers as the Legend. Originally from England, he now lives in southern Spain with his Brazilian-born wife, Gal Ferreira Yates. Dorian has two children—a son, Lewis, and a daughter, Tahnee, both from his first marriage.