The Anti-Steroid Perspective on Bookshelves

by Kat Ricker, M.A.

There is a quiet but forceful presence of books, a body of work poignantly depicting the dangers of drug and steroid use in bodybuilding in very real and personal terms. These books can educate, entertain and bolster the choice to be natural.

It can be difficult to find good information about the consequences of drug use. One of the contributing factors for choosing to use steroids and other illegal and/or dangerous substances is frequently having a lack of information enabling one to make more informed decisions. Mistakes don’t have to be made for one to learn though. Learning can come from others who are brave enough to offer their confessions. Learning vicariously through someone else’s story can be immensely valuable.

THE BOOKS

Samuel Wilson Fussell's Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely Bodybuilder is a well-written exposé billed as a true story. The publisher says it perfectly: This is the harrowing, often hilarious chronicle of Fussell’s divine obsession, his search for identity in a bizarre, eccentric world of “health fascists,” “gym bunnies” and “muscleheads”- and his devout, single-minded acceptance of illness, pain, nausea, and steroid-induced rage in his quest for the holy grail of physical perfection.

The Los Angeles Times bestseller Chemical Pink by Katie Arnoldi is a controversial story. The female version of Fussell’s exposé, this is the exposé of a drug-enhanced bodybuilder’s rise to the top, including the sordid sexual lifestyle she agrees to in return for her sponsor’s financial support. This fictitious tale gives graphic insight into the sordid underbelly of the sport gone wrong.


Kristin Kaye’s Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World is a solid and up-to-date overview of female bodybuilding history, controversies, and seedy underbelly, including the bizarre underworld of private female wrestling that supplements many professional builders’ incomes. There is a whole chapter entitled, “What it’s like to take steroids.”


Gorilla Suit is the autobiography of Bob Paris, the first openly gay Mr. Universe. It is particularly significant because it was the first major exposé on the politics, policies and procedures of the flawed capitalist megalomaniac structure of professional bodybuilding, and what is expected of its stars.

Achilles’ Choice is futuristic science fiction co-authored by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. The theme behind the plot is the ethical dilemma of natural strength vs. synthetic enhancement. A female athlete bucks the trend and goes head-to-head against her sauced-up competitors.

There are other well-known books considered essential reads in the field, but these do not hit the seediness of the sport gone wrong. Autobiographies like Arnold, the Education of a Bodybuilder read more like propaganda than truth, omitting any discussion of drugs, steroids and insulin use.

“Survivor stories”, like the books cited above, are stories of extreme transformation. The protagonists undergo physical transformation, as well as transformations on the deepest levels of their characters. The fascinating paradox is that while the physical transformations are those they intend, the changes to their character and perspective are out of their control and surprise even themselves. These books are overshadowed with doom yet delivered with black humor, so reading them is a sensation between a thriller and watching a wicked, ruthless comedy.

The engrossing part of these books is the horror in the descriptions of the sordid underbelly beneath physical transformation - the drug use, the hormones, extreme dieting and exercise. And they are all delivered with shock and style. The shocking and fascinating passages of these works are designed to do something - lift readers by their lapels and shake moral reactions out of them.

These passages are riveting because they are so unusual and extreme, and because they are key to all the transformations the characters are undergoing. An example of one such passage from Fussell’s book is his description of the effects of his extreme diet and drug regimen during the final week of his contest preparation.

“By Wednesday, the decrease of carbohydrates left me with so little energy that I stopped training altogether. No longer was the gym the focus of my life. Now it was the sofa. After I rose each morning, I lingered over my abbreviated breakfast, then weaved my way to the sofa, where I spent the remainder of the day, hallucinating and sleeping. Vinnie and Nimrod and Bamm Bamm tried to make me practice my posing, but I was far too weak. Even standing was excruciatingly painful. The soles of my feet, without their padding of fat, couldn’t take my body weight.” (216)

Survivor stories, at their simplest, are stories of people overcoming obstacles in their lives to rise to greatness in their chosen field. The survivors are blinded for a time, but they are succeeding, and seem to be getting close to greatness. The reason that these mostly horrible stories are ultimately inspirational is because the heroes overcome their tragic, fatal flaw. They have gone to hell and come back, stronger than ever, to fight the good fight, and we can all take heart in their righteous humbling, human triumph.