Core Post 5 Presley

I found it very interesting how the readings connected the aggressive fitness culture of the 80s and the more laidback body image of the 90s to political climates of the times. In Dyer’s reading, he mentions Bryan S. Turner’s concept of a “somatic society” in which “major political problems are both problematized in the body and expressed through it” (183). The 80s were very rigid with Reagan cracking down on things like drug use and promoting healthy, acclimated living. One of the major political problems of the 80s was the war on drugs. This seems almost ironic given the bodies shown on TV.  Though it’s unfair to assume stars like Patrick Schwarzenegger used steroids or other performance enhancers, promoting images of men like that on screen definitely led to interest and use of such drugs. The image of the virile, overly muscular man as “physical perfection” promoted drug use just as Reagan was trying to eliminate it. In this way, “the major political problem” (drugs) was “expressed through the body”. Ways in which “the major political problem” was “problematized in the body” is also (and oppositely) through the perfection of bodies on screen, however. Men and women could see these perfect figures on screen (less of a Schwarzenegger, more of a Jamie Lee Curtis) and be turned off of drugs in order to reach that perfection. Drugs became the problem. The assumption, in this case, is that you can only achieve such perfection through healthy living, and that healthy living means abstinence from drugs. Whether or not this myth was/is true, it seemed to work in getting everyone into a major health craze throughout the decade. When I see bodies from the 80s, in movies, ads, etc. I am literally awestruck at the physical perfection of every single person. At first, it seems admirable until you think more deeply what a rigid society would give way to such perfection.