‘Manly tears exploded from my eyes,lets feel together brahs’: Emotion and masculinity within an online body building community

Abstract

Discussions of crying and love are not what one might expect to find when examining interactions between recreational bodybuilders online. Gendered emotion ideologies, especially related to muscular masculinities, usually forbid men from exhibiting emotional vulnerability in front of other men, as emotional detachment is one of the ways gender hierarchies are maintained. Building on Connell’s concept of ‘hegemonic masculinity’ and Hochschild’s concept of ‘emotion management’, this article analyses emotional exchanges within an international community of male recreational bodybuilders: fans of Aziz Shavershian, known as ‘Zyzz’. We examine the meaning of emotions within the Zyzz fandom’s local hierarchy of masculinities, the expressive freedoms afforded by the context of their emotional interactions, and the strategies employed by Zyzz and fans to traverse masculine emotion ideologies that usually prevent men from expressing love and affection.