WHO’S JOINING THE BARBELL CLUB?: SPACE, BODIES, AND GENDERED COMMUNITY IN A SINGAPOREAN POWERLIFTING GYM

Abstract

The powerlifting gym is a space of becoming. Members are trying to become strong, proficient in sport, and often, achieve particular aesthetic goals. In this, they are also becoming particular versions of themselves. Most academic understandings of this journey conceptualise it as attempts to conform to hegemonic masculinity performed primarily by men. Women, in this, are expected to take up less space both in their absence and in the physical forms they aspire towards - they should be thin rather than “bulky”. In this essay, I recognise, in some ways, the continuities of such a performance but importantly shift our attention to pluralities that arise within powerlifting communities. To this end, I investigate the dynamics, movements and behaviours, and aspirations of members of the Progressive Strength Class in The Strength Yard (TSY), a community-centric lifting gym in Singapore. The class opens up not only unconventional opportunities for contest and collaboration but also (gendered) self-reflection. Attitudes that centre individual practices and goals of powerlifting are central to these, offering members and coaches space to redefine powerlifting success and what their bodies should become. The class’s structure, being friendly to all skill and fitness levels, is what enables the formation of its non-competitive community. Its community of female lifters was also highly important, shaping how women experienced the gym, powerlifting, and how they conceptualised themselves as powerlifters. Though the gym opened space for the transcendence of gendered norms, they continued to hold weight, particularly for men in relation to their bodies and sexualities.