Imaging of body through sport: A sociological field study for bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts in Eskişehir, Turkey

The signification (imaging) of the body is briefly the situation in which the body takes its value and meaning from its looking / showing / appearance and this act of showing / appearing significantly determines the existential justification of the individual. The process of signification the body has been tried to be understood through working-out individuals in this study. In accordance with this purpose, interviews have been held with people of different professions, age and income groups working out for a certain period of time and living in Eskişehir. A total of 27 people have been interviewed in depth, of 22 have been male and 5 have been female, through the ethnographic method, one of the qualitative research patterns. According to the results obtained from the research, the body is signified (displayed) through working-out and this practice has ontological consequences on the individual. The appearance of body constitutes an important part of an individual's self and his/her world of meaning. With the signification of the body, while the intrinsic assumptions of class, gender, consumption, and sexuality are reconstructed, they become more blended and engaged. Among the people who work out, such new types of asceticism stand out as heavy training, intense diet, hard work, and choosing clothes that will expose the body on cold days. The desire for the ever-more muscular bodies developed by working-out leads to an endless effort while the impossibility of the ideal results in the delay of competence, satisfaction and pleasure. On the other hand, there is a speculative relationship between vision and body. This form of relationship significantly determines the meaning an individual attributes to his own body and his/her ideal body. All this process takes place in compliance with and adherence to the principles of instrumental rationality.