Male Dominance under Threat: Machoism Confronts Female Defiance in Israeli Gyms

Abstract

The article discusses macho culture in Israeli gyms. It describes male trainees’ efforts to preserve their dominance, facing female trainees’ threat to undermine it. The article analyzes means, such as military icons, physical battles, and vocal expressions, used to convey male dominance at the gym. Two gyms in the metropolis of Tel Aviv were studied by the male researcher for three years, and one suburban gym was studied by the female researcher for a year. Being researchers and trainees from both genders introduced a unique perspective of gender power relations at the gym. The different sociogeographic backgrounds of the studied gyms offered a refreshing understanding of the impact of specific circumstances on gender dominance. The analysis suggests that males’ hegemony can be threatened by potential women’s dominance, as the ethnography on the suburban gym reveals. Moreover, although men are struggling forcefully to preserve their dominance over “males’ territory” at the Tel Aviv gyms, women’s gradual penetration into the perceived masculine space destabilizes it.