‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities

WSIF-01625; No of Pages 8 Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif

‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities Dale C. Spencer Department of Sociology, Room 306, Isbister Building, University of Manitoba, 318-183 Dafoe Road, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Available online xxxx

s y n o p s i s In this article, I engage with food and food preparation as a site for the performance and regulation of masculinities. I probe contemporary rationalized body culture and the forms of food, social domination, scientific knowledge and normative discourses that are part of the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA). I examine manifold dietary discourses, food consumption and preparation practices related to MMA to illuminate how MMA fighters' involvement in the sport involves the subjection of their own bodies to rigorous dietary regimes, but also the domination of female bodies in relation to food preparation. This article demonstrates how ‘eating clean’ involves a perception of certain foods and supplements as clean. This is centered on producing a body-for-masculine performance that is fast, strong and capable of giving and taking pain. It involves an ascetic lifestyle that involves the rejection of fast food and other ‘dirty’ foods that would pollute or slow down the violent bodies of MMA fighters. A four-year ethnography of MMA, advertising of ‘MMA supplements’, and online articles regarding MMA dietary regimes forms the empirical basis of this article. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction As participants choose to practice and submerge their bodies in the routines and cultures associated with particular sports, they not only adopt specific skills and abilities, but also become different people (Shilling, 2008). Principally, athletes take on different embodied identities that are reflective of their sport. In this article, I engage with food consumption and food preparation as a site for the performance and regulation of masculinities. I examine how mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters engage in particular relationships to their bodies and others – relationships that are centered on their diets – in order to produce violent bodies. This article draws on a four-year ethnography of MMA, advertising of ‘MMA supplements’, and online articles regarding MMA dietary regimes. Drawing from Chris Shilling's (2008) discussion of rationalized body culture, I demonstrate how forms of food, social domination, scientific knowledge and normative discourses regarding the apposite lifestyles are imposed on fighters. By showing the complexity E-mail address: [email protected].

of MMA fighter's dietary practices, this article avoids reductionist approaches that associate ‘meat eating’ to violent masculinities (e.g. Ellis, 1983; Khandelwal, 1997). This article contributes to feminist scholarship, body studies, and the men and masculinities literature by analyzing food as a masculine practice and food preparation as a site of masculine domination. In addition, this article contributes to the aforementioned literatures through exploring discourses regarding ‘performance’ or ‘clean’ food and masculinities. Specifically, this article demonstrates how eating clean involves a perception of certain foods and supplements as clean. This is centered on producing a body-for-masculine performance that is fast, strong and capable of giving and taking pain. It involves an ascetic lifestyle that involves the rejection of fast food and other ‘dirty’ foods that would pollute or slow down the violent bodies of MMA fighters. In the first section of this article, I outline the contours of rationalized body culture and review the extant literature on masculinities, diet and performance. This is followed by the methods of this study. In the subsequent empirical sections, I examine the relationship between MMA fighters, diet and performance.

0277-5395/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

2

D.C. Spencer / Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

Theoretical framework and literature Rationalized body culture, masculinities, and diet According to Shilling (2008), elite performative sports have promoted an identifiable and dominant form of rationalized body culture. These sports are based on a personal and institutional culture that regard the body as a machine. This rationalized body culture has five related elements to it. First, treating the body as a machine involves giving up control of one's self to appointed experts or authorized regimes. Second, this culture involves subjecting the body to strict regimes that take over the athlete's life as they ascend the sporting hierarchy, and allow little room for physical contingency or frailty. Third, it is predicated on a peculiarly Cartesian approach to the self that involves a willingness to train and compete while eschewing the pain and injuries of the body. Fourth, the body-as-machine culture of elite performative sports involves commodification of the body as athletes' bodies are traded between teams, assessed on the basis of their market appeal, and required to perform on the basis of commercial considerations. Fifth, this culture is conjoined with a specific form of sporting ethics, whereby performance and winning override any other value. Rationalized body culture manifests itself not only with the sporting activities and physical exercise regimes, but also exceedingly pertains to consumption practices. Diet and food preparation become one of the primary foci of those seeking performative ascendance within rationalized body culture. The sociology of sport literature is replete with evidence that speaks to the implications of dietary practices associated with sport (see J. Maguire, 1993; Johns & Johns, 2000). The link between diet, sport and exercise is salient in regard to the athlete's relationship with her or his body and self-concept (Allen-Collinson, 2005; Heinemann, 1980). Maguire (2002) has shown how fitness product consumers have particular relationships to their bodies, first as an object of consumption, second as a source of calculable rewards, and last, as a motivational problem. In male elite-level sport, Loland (1999) reveals that ski jumpers, soccer players and bodybuilders all engage in variable body projects. Her study indicates that athletes' perceptions of their bodies depend upon the sporting contexts, and that there are tensions between athletes' perceptions of their bodies and the cultural ideals associated with men's bodies at large. Studies of men also connect negative health and dietary practices to both dominant and subordinate masculinities (Drummond, 2002; Royster, Richmond, Eng, & Margolis, 2006). In Stibbe's (2004) examination of Men's Health magazine, diet, nutrition and exercise advice was apparent, but also was accompanied by discourses associated with hegemonic masculinity and the attendant negative exercise and dietary behaviors. In the Western context, the corporeal characteristics that are valued in relation to masculinities are usually muscularity, athleticism and discipline that embody control, presence and the promise of power (Connell, 2005; Shilling, 2005). The valorization of these characteristics makes contemporary rationalized body culture synergistic to hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 2005; Pringle, 2005). Performing, pushing through pain and injuries and disciplining one's body – regardless of the physical or psychological costs – through sport are integrally tied to the performance of dominant masculinities (Smith &

Sparkes, 2008; Sparkes & Smith, 2008, 2003, 2002). Orthodox forms of masculinity, as they manifest themselves through participation in organized sport, reinforce notions of the stoic, strong male that does not succumb or respond emotionally to the rigors of sport and a rejection of the feminine and feminine practices (Adams, Anderson, & McCormack, 2010; Anderson, 2005; Kimmel, 2004). Across class divisions, there is also a perpetuation of a warrior cult myth that evinces that the only sphere men can have a ‘utopian’ experience is in combat with other men (see Burstyn, 1999). The valorization of men and violence is linked to health: the ability to be physically violent, especially in the context of sport, is often an indication of health (Hearn, 2003; Young, White, & McTeer, 1994). Despite the plethora of literature on men and masculinities, only sporadic attention has been given to the ways in which men attempt to create ‘healthy’ bodies that embody these ideals and are capable of engaging in sport-related violence. This is particularly important, as male bodies must continuously work to maintain and build muscular bodies capable of being dominant, virile and active (Denham, 2008; Monaghan, 1999; Reich, 2010). Sport remains the central way in which dominant masculinities are performed (Messner, 2007) and it is the contention here that diet serves as one of the primary means by which athletes work on their bodies. In relation to bodybuilding, Klein (1986, 1995) asserts that self-mastery is the goal and with the counting of each calorie serving as the means for physical transformation. As an occupational culture, bodybuilders are obsessed with routines pertaining to lifting weights and their diets, which are calculated down to the finest detail. When coming up to a competition, bodybuilders must cut down their caloric intake and ‘shred’ their bodies down to be very lean while maintaining maximum muscle (Bolin, 1992; Probert, Palmer, & Leberman, 2007). This is a cultivation of a body-for-masculine image, where the body is singularly valued for its esthetic appeal. In contradistinction to this body-for-masculine image is the cultivation of body-for-masculine performance – in which the body is only valued for what it can do – as found in amateur wrestling and other weight category based sports like boxing (Wacquant, 2006) and MMA (AUTHOR). In relation to wrestling, both Maffulli (1992) and Johns and Johns (2000) found that elite level wrestlers lost close to 10% of their body weight prior to a competition through intensive water shedding exercise while maintaining hypo-caloric diets in order to compete at a weight category considerably below their average weight (see also, Atkinson, 2008). Here, I will explore masculine practices of MMA fighters through the examination of their dietary discourses and food consumption practices. Drawing on the above discussion of the rationalized body culture of modern sport and masculinities, I probe the symbols, attitudes, practices and products related to MMA. To build on Shilling's (2008) conception of rationalized body culture, I examine manifold dietary discourses, food consumption and preparation practices related to MMA to illuminate how MMA fighters' involvement in the sport involves the subjection of their own bodies to rigorous dietary regimes, but also the domination of female bodies in relation to food preparation. I also reflect on fighters' emotional experiences of dieting that frames their experience of fighting. In addition, I examine the discourse of eating ‘clean’ and ‘clean’ supplements in the production of fighting bodies.

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

D.C. Spencer / Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

The study While boxing has been understood in the West as the most violent and physically demanding of sports (Trimbur, 2011; Wacquant, 1995, 2006), since the early 1990s a new and equally violent and taxing sport has emerged that challenges this conception. MMA competitions feature competitors in a ring or a caged-in area, inflicting pain on their opponents by, inter alia, punching, kicking, elbowing and kneeing and using submission techniques on their opponents. While men primarily participate in MMA competitions, a small number of women enter into these contests. There are also nascent youth MMA programs in some US states (Sherwood, 2012). MMA fight organizations within Europe, North and South America, and Asia regularly host competitions. Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) in the US, Canada and Great Britain draws crowds of 20,000, in addition to millions of televised viewers worldwide. The UFC brings trained MMA fighters from all over the globe, offering a spectacle sport like no other. Despite public backlash against MMA in the United States, the UFC has progressed to the point of televising their competitions on multiple cable networks and Fox Sports. MMA has now eclipsed boxing in popularity.1 In May 2006, I joined a MMA club in a major Canadian city and in June of the same year I decided to make it the prime site for my ethnography of MMA.2 Thereafter I began to casually take field notes after structured classes and informal training sessions at the club. This usually took the form of what Emerson, Fretz, and Shaw (1995) call ‘jottings’ in my field book, which were later converted into longer narratives. The jottings correspond to particular events that illuminate the themes of the study. Field notes also involved reflections on my embodied experiences of aspects of MMA (Richardson, 1997; Rinehart, 2010; Willis, 2000). In September 2006, I began interviewing fighters from my home MMA club. Two months later, I started to interview fighters from other clubs in the provinces of Ontario and Quebec and the state of Florida to enrich and support the accounts offered by club members.3 Forty-five interviews were conducted with MMA fighters (43 men, 2 women) across the aforementioned areas. Interviews were primarily with fighters who have participated in one or more professional MMA events and those training for their first MMA fight. A small number of amateur MMA practitioners were included (n = 3). Pseudonyms have been assigned to all interviewees and certain descriptive information has been taken out of the responses to ensure confidentiality and the anonymity of fighters.4 The semi-structured interviews focused on various issues related to MMA. The interview guide was continually modified based on observations and experiences in the field and previous interviews (Corbin & Strauss, 2007).5 All interviews were face-to-face and lasted between 35 min and 95 min in length, with the average interview lasting around 60 min long. Interviews were in fighters' homes (n = 15), offices in MMA clubs (n = 25) or in a small number of cases, in coffee shops or bars (n = 5). Interviewees were gathered through a variety of techniques. Following the mandates of theoretical sampling (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), I traveled to various MMA clubs in Ontario, Quebec and Florida and sought out professional fighters that train at a particular club to be interviewed. Using snowball sampling, I also asked fighters to recommend other fighters to be interviewed. In other cases, I used Facebook and their personal websites (see Walby, 2010) to contact fighters and ask

3

them if I could interview them at a time and place most conducive to their schedules. 23 fighters self-identified as Canadian; four identified as French Canadian, three identified as Caribbean Canadian, three identified as Brazilian Canadian, two identified as Arabic Canadian and two as European Canadian. Three fighters identified as American, two self-identified as African-American, and three identified as Brazilian American. Age range of fighters was 18 to 39 years of age. The average age is 28. Of the 45 fighters, 20 stated MMA was their full-time profession.6 Ten interviewees were MMA club owners (former professional MMA fighters). As such, of the forty-five interviews, two-thirds of the sample relied, at various levels, on MMA for their livelihood. At the time of the interview, two fighters had not completed secondary school, ten fighters just completed secondary school, five had completed credits towards post-secondary education, and 28 of the participants had completed some form of postsecondary education. One interview participant has a Master's degree. In terms of the experience level of fighters in this study, they varied from six months to over 25 years of martial arts experience. With respect to the caliber of fighters interviewed, beyond the distinction of amateur versus professional, there were considerable disparities in the skill level and accolades of the professional class of fighters. In a segment of my interviews, fighters were solid journeymen that had losing records but were reliable fighters that were always ready to fight for a fight promotion. In another segment of my sample, fighters had a few professional fights and were content to continue to train without any significant urge at the moment to jump back into the ring or cage. A portion of the interviewees had MMA careers marked by distinctions (belts, etc.), but due to injury had retired from professional fighting and were dedicated to training up-and-coming fighters. There are the rising stars: these fighters aim to make a name for themselves, fighting every three months, but not taking high level fights in order to build their records before stepping up to the next caliber in the sport. Finally, there are the elite level professional fighters that gained a level of notoriety so that they were regularly in the discussions of the MMA community. Five of my interview subjects were currently or in the past considered in the list of top ten fighters in the world in their respective weight classes. One of the fighters was on the list of pound-for-pound top MMA fighters in the world at the time of the interview. Research participants were asked specific questions regarding their experiences in the sport of MMA, the training they engage outside of the MMA club, their perceptions of the current state of MMA in terms of its development, and their everyday lives outside the sport. These questions were formed out of my experience of MMA and what I assimilated through informal discussions and formal interviews that, in turn, acted as a feedback loop to my interview guide. Interviews and field notes were transcribed and coded according to a set of themes related to, inter alia, violence, masculinities and diet. However, statements made by respondents did not necessarily fit into only one discrete category; therefore, open coding was also used to better capture the complex and blended meanings often inherent in the statements made by the respondents (Ainsworth & Hardy, 2004; Glaser & Strauss, 1967).

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

4

D.C. Spencer / Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

Findings and discussion Creating the violent body In the contemporary context, food is not merely a vehicle of sociability, but is consumed for its symbolic and instrumental value as a resource that enables individuals to create and maintain projects of the self (Shilling, 2005). The training regimes that MMA fighters undergo take over their lives. Their diets, times of rest and practice, are strictly mapped out to maximize the fighter's performance. In MMA, unlike many sports, there is not a single body type that typifies competitors. Likewise, there is not an agreed upon set of masculine traits that can be said to fully represent the dominant masculinity within the sport (see AUTHOR). On the other hand, maintaining a lean, strong body that is not slowed down by fat is idealized. The following two examples illustrate this point: Interviewee: Ok, how has training changed your body? Steven: My body is really retarded, but I am not a genetic freak or anything like that, I have fat, you know what I mean, it is harder for me to lose fat, I have been on multiple diets, strength training, umm, under different trainers, ahh, I have not taken any supplements or anything like that, I would never take any steroids or anything. Umm, but fat burners yeah, vitamins, you know what I mean, but, there is, I think everybody's body is different; I know that I won't get an eight pack and be just completely shredded. No matter how much I train, you know what I mean. I'll just, like if I am training hard core, I will be down to 170. Look fine. Just to make the weight class, but in the off-season I will be like 185 pounds comfortably.Sven: It just cuts fat; it makes your muscles stronger, makes you more ripped. I mean and that has the caveat of, your body type too. Some people are never going to have a six pack, does not matter how much they work out, it makes you fitter, it makes you lose fat, it's not going to make you look like a bodybuilder, because you are not training for that, you are just training for functional strength. It depends a lot on your diet, depends on if you are doing cardio outside club. Steven and Sven reflect on how the makeup of one's body affects the ability of fighters to produce particular idealized bodies. For Steven, his particular body does not allow him to take on the lean chiseled stomach so idealized in Western culture. By comparison to other fighters, he feels that his body does not allow him to lose weight the way that others are able to. Here, Steven engages with the Cartesian view of the body as a ‘retarded’ dumb matter that must be tamed, a view that is central to the rationalized body culture inherent to the sport of MMA. Sven stresses the importance of the fighter's diet for participating in the MMA. He notes that to be successful in the sport, the ideal is not to train and diet for muscularity, but to train for ‘functional’ strength, that is, the strength necessary to impose your physical will on your adversary. They are producing a bodyfor-masculine performance and not a body-for-masculine image. MMA experts support this sentiment. Fighting Insider, Markham Mencken states, “good nutrition improves performance level. A proper nutrition enables you to train more intensely and fight harder” (Mencken, 2011). Within this rationalized body culture, fighters possess self-concepts regarding their own bodies, but

also scientific discourses regarding nutrition for fighters. Both the knowledge of the self and discourses pervading rationalized body culture impacts how fighters strategically engage in creating bodies capable of participating in MMA. Fighters must ‘make weight’, that is, fighters must fit into the weight classes that structure MMA (see below). Because of the variability in body types, fighters develop strategies for ‘making weight’. Jerome reflects on his diet coming up to a fight: Jerome: Sometimes it consists of all kinds of stuff, but umm, in a time like now it would consist of very low carbs and as low as possible on the fats, so a lot of vegetables, a lot of chicken, fish, and ahh, no fried food. Basically just eating clean, I have thirty pounds to lose for my upcoming fight. I am going to have to definitely, cut back on my meals eating half portions and just eat very clean. The discourse of ‘eating clean’ pervades the sport of MMA. At the beginning of this ethnography, it was not entirely clear what fighters meant when they referred to eating clean. After some time, I came to see it as an ascetic (see below) rejection of fast or other fattening foods (burgers, pizza, etc.) and alcoholic beverages. These foods are seen as dirty foods that pollute the body (Douglas, 2002). These are, like all ‘dirt’, forms of food that are out of place in the ‘clean’, machine-like body of the MMA athlete. Along with the rejection of ‘dirty’ foods, there is also, as Jerome indicates, a reduction in the volume of food, including the amount of carbohydrates. Shilling (2005, 2008) avers that contemporary rationalized body culture has become centered on speed, reflecting a society whose multiple demands appear to have collapsed space into time. If speed is necessary for sport, in MMA the need for speed is paramount. ‘Eating clean’ is not only about making weight, it is about producing a fast, streamlined body capable of hitting before being hit. Dietary products in MMA are subject to the same commodification processes that predominate Western culture. Furthermore, the archetypal MMA body has become a commodified body. Economic values are associated with its performance and profile, and the promise of economic profit is a key determinant of the opportunities and rewards it receives (see Shilling, 2005). The training and success of elite level athletes, as seen with fighters in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), are frequently built on the subsidies provided by sponsors, while much of the wealth of MMA superstars is obtained via this method. Xyience has been a sponsor of numerous MMA fighters and is one of the most prominent MMA brands in the UFC. Xyience describes itself as “a global brand offering products that provide clean, sustainable energy to men and women who value nutrition and lead a healthy, active lifestyle. Xyience products include beverages, supplements and apparel” (Xyience, 2012, emphasis added). While their corporate mantra is to provide ‘clean’ sustainable energy to men and women, in their advertising and sponsorship, they conjoin the ability to engage in combat with the consumption of their energy drinks. For example, Xyience has sponsored such athletes as Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva and current UFC light heavyweight champion Jon “Bones” Jones. In one Xyience commercial, Wanderlei Silva is shown throwing punches and grappling with opponents all the while taking breaks to drink Xyience energy drinks. The commercial ends with a deep voiced announcer stating “Xyience, the official energy

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

D.C. Spencer / Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

drink of the UFC” (Wanderlei Silva Xyience Commercial, 2010). In Jon Jones' commercial, again, it shows him training and imbibing Xyience. Cutting into the training session, it shows Jones being adorned with the UFC belt while pointing to Xyience. The commercial ends with a panting Jones walking towards the camera stating “Xyience, power to win baby!” (Xyience 30 second Commercial Featuring Jon “Bones” Jones, 2012). Not only does Xyience offer their products as fitting in with the ‘clean’ diets of MMA fighters, it is mythically imbued with the ingredients to win. Xyience, and related MMA supplements, fits into the ascetic life of a MMA fighter insofar as they hold the promise of a clean, violent body capable of dominating one's opponent. The commodification that goes along with these products is part and parcel of the rationalized body culture. That is, the sign values – the promise of being strong and violent like Jon Jones or Wanderlei Silva – and the ‘clean’ ingredients of Xyience are seen as necessary to becoming an elite level of MMA athlete. ‘Cutting weight’ and embodied experience With the sportization of MMA (Sanchez García & Malcolm, 2010; Van Bottenburg & Heilbron, 2011), weight categories including flyweight, bantamweight, lightweight, welterweight, middleweight, light heavyweight, and heavyweight have been established. With a few exceptions, the professional MMA fighters that I interviewed in this study engage in chronic dieting and rapid ‘weight-cutting’ in order to compete in a category well below their natural, ‘walk-around’ weight (c.f. Clark, Oppliger, & Sullivan, 2002; Shriver, Betts, & Payton, 2009). In the course of this ethnography, while in the locker rooms changing before and after training sessions, fighters constantly referred to their current weight and also frequently asked other fighters about their current weight. When a fighter is significantly overweight it can be the topic of gossip amongst stablemates. Weight reduction or ‘cutting’ becomes a primary concern especially coming up to a MMA match. This involves a significant reduction in food and water consumption. Attendant of this reduction in food, one to two days before the fight event, fighters will purge additional weight (via water loss) through sitting in saunas and/or wearing sauna suits while exercising. The quotidian view of men is that they are unemotional, inexpressive, and impersonal (Kiesling, 2005). This view is sometimes replicated in academic work focused on men and masculinities (e.g. Bird, 1996). Bird (1996) avers that within hegemonic masculinity expressing certain emotions signifies weakness and is devalued, whereas emotional detachment signifies strength and is valued. Consequently, emotions come to be associated with women, who are represented as closer to nature, ruled by appetite, and less able to transcend the body through thought, will and judgment (see Ahmed, 2004). This view reflects the normative mandates of hegemonic masculinities and does not consider how men are constituted to experience emotions differently than women (see AUTHOR). With respect to MMA fighters, negative emotions accompany reductions in food consumption: Thomas: I'm always maybe like 20 or 20–25 lb overweight, right? So like two weeks before I start doing my diet, and I don't think nobody in the world is going to be in a good

5

mood then, doing diets. So basically you know patience, there's less patience but not about the fight. For me the biggest challenge is making the weight because I love to eat and I love to drink and that's my biggest challenge. But anyway so you get to the weigh-in and after the weigh-in it's, everything is fine. You know just eat and drink and your mood comes back, you know your good mood comes back. Murray: Well, coming up to the weigh-ins, it's a bit of stressful time for two reasons, cause you are anxious, cause you know you are going to fight on a certain day, regardless of how you feel. And ahh, cause you are losing weight too. You are on a strict diet now; you can't really eat everything you want. Especially for me, because you know I am normally at 185 lb and I have to be 155. So, definitely, I start dieting down about 3 weeks before a fight. Thomas explains how he has to lose an unhealthy amount of weight two weeks before his fight. This is fundamental to rationalized body culture insofar as it relies on an ethic that dictates that, in order to be competitive and win, a fighter must drop a significant amount of their body weight. Particularly important is that he is given over to being in a ‘bad’ mood because of the extreme measures he goes to in order to lose poundage for the weigh-ins. For Murray the emotional experience of losing weight is doubled with the performance anxieties and fear of fighting a future opponent. It serves to frame the experience of their upcoming MMA match. As shown here, in order to conform to the mandates of orthodox masculinity (Anderson, 2005), fighters must push through and withstand the pain and anguish associated with extreme weight cutting. Asceticism and masculinity When I asked MMA fighters what it means to be a man and its relationship to MMA, I was often met with a response that is akin to forms of asceticism across various cultures (see Atkinson, 2006; Foucault, 1988; Khandelwal, 1997; Weber, 1991) which in some cases have ties to understandings regarding masculinity (e.g. Roy, 2002). According to Foucault (1990), as with the Greeks and present day forms of caring for oneself, there is a marked effort to align one's diet with the activities an individual engages in. This alignment involves a careful consideration for the equilibrium of the body, a sort of vigilance towards the body's condition in relation to food intake with the goal of governing one's health (Shilling, 1993; Turner, 1982). Shilling (1993) notes the efforts of individuals in late modern society to form their bodies in accordance with manifold social values: fitness, health, efficiency and self-mastery (see also, Crossley, 2006). The asceticism prominent in MMA focuses on particular masculinized notions of bodily management and consumption. Brian and Cody offer examples of the asceticism within MMA: Brian: Coming up to a fight, six weeks out, I am pretty religious; I eat the same thing every day. I'll have oatmeal and protein powder in the morning. Around 12 o'clock I will have like a subway [sandwich] or something like that or a little sandwich. Usually I'll train in the evening so before training I'll have some more oatmeal and then after training I'll have protein. It's about 2200–2400 cal and then I burn out 1500 in training so everything comes off really quick when you're

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

6

D.C. Spencer / Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

running 5 miles and training and eating that little food. The weight comes off quickly. Interviewer: What does it mean to be a man and what do you see as the relationship between being a man and MMA? Cody: Hard work baby. Hard work. Me and Tom were actually talking about this earlier. To be a man, you have to wake up everyday, you know you can't be laying on the couch everyday, hard work, putting yourself to the test everyday, providing for yourself and your family, not being a bum. There is nothing more hard than training your body and mind every single day for two months for a fight. Basically getting out everything you put in. If you half ass your training for all two months, you are probably going to lose, you might get lucky with a punch or a quick submission, but if you do not work hard it's going to show in the cage. If you disrespect the sport, the sport has a funny way of disrespecting you. So to be a man is an analogy really, training for the fight, and leading up to the fight, and having success, is basically an analogy for life, working hard every day and then being able to enjoy the successes of your hard work. Like Brian, many fighters characterized their commitment to their diets and training regimes, especially when coming up to their fights, as ‘religious’, insofar as they have to follow strict guidelines. Cody connects the asceticism that is customary among MMA athletes in relation to being a man, as being able to withstand the rigors of the lifestyle of a MMA fighter. This form of asceticism relates to their adherence to the strict training and dietary regimes of MMA (c.f. Atkinson, 2006) that is inherent to contemporary rationalized body culture. While training at the local club and in Thailand, I was subject to the scrutiny of trainers and other fighters concerning my body and eating habits. At the local club, while training and in the change room, fighters would comment on the fat levels of other fighters (Crossley, 2004). In this regard, I received both negative and positive reception, but this form of ‘body fascism’ (Pronger, 2002) had the disciplinary effect of making me view food in terms of its function in relation to MMA. Masculinity, femininity and food preparation Consumption of food and other ingesta has been central to the historical development of conceptions and embodied experiences of manhood across cultures (Forth, 2009). Food and foodwork are vital to the creation and maintenance of distinct gendered ethnic identities (Caputo, 2011). Foodwork remains concomitantly a site of gendered oppression and a means of conferring a form of culinary capital (D'Sylva & Beagan, 2011), but also a site of contestation over definitions regarding gendered work. For example, Gvion (2011) has demonstrated that Palestinian men concomitantly define domestic cooking as a feminine task and cooking in the public sphere (in restaurants) as masculine labor and a means of breadwinning. In a Canadian context, McPhail, Beagan, and Chapman (2012) found in interviews with adults and teenagers that gendered divisions of food consumption continue to exist within an ostensibly non-sexist ideological context. Modern sport developed on masculine terms, creating a male preserve where women were sidelined and gender differences

were amplified and celebrated (Burstyn, 1999; Shilling, 2008). Food has historically been key to the generation of social relationships. Food illustrates how the body is a source of sociality, but it also demonstrates how the sociable body can be a location for wider structural forces (Shilling, 2005). In this way, the masculine domination within sport and food preparation is complementary and mutually reinforcing. The life of the MMA fighter involves the subjugation of the sphere of everyday life. This involves a particular arrangement of female bodies to technical objects that support the continuation of the fighter's life. This arrangement requires feminized bodies to carry out the practical activities of everyday life. Bodies must comply with their positionality in order to maintain such arrangements. George and Clark reveal this aspect of the fighter's life. George: If you don't have good support from your wife and your family it is hard. You got to have the support. For fighters, if their wives don't understand that he has to spend four hours sometimes a night training, it is going to be hard. Clark: My girlfriend cooks my meals, ahh, she cooks my meals when I cut weight, even though there is not that much to cook during that time, umm, keeps me honest, supports it 100%. You know, lets me know if she thinks I am slacking… Totally supports it, I never thought I would meet someone that would support a fighter lifestyle. The belief that George and others in this study put forward is that for a fighter to be successful and carry on the life of a MMA fighter, he must have someone to support their training and must comply with the level of training a fighter must invest in the activities related to the sport, to the neglect of tasks associated with everyday life. The necessity of supportive relationships and the emphasis on an ethos of hard work can be seen as indicative of the normative masculinity of the sport of MMA. Clark reveals that his female partner performs the food preparation related to domestic forms of gender domination that aid him in producing the body of a MMA fighter. Clark's partner supporting his ascetic lifestyle and performance of foodwork involves her domination, but also reinforces his masculine subjectivity. The fighter's body is the product of working on their bodies through training but also the foodwork of their partners. This reinforces dominant gender hierarchies that, in turn, reaffirm the heterosexual identities of the fighters. Conclusion The ascetic lifestyle, with its historical heritage and masculine notions regarding bodily control, is inherent to rationalized body culture. While every sport is different and fighters' bodies reflect of a style of being-in-the-world that is particular to MMA practitioners, what makes MMA part of the broader rationalized body culture is the emphasis on competition, performance and as has been shown in this article, the commitment to an ascetic lifestyle that involves a commitment to a rigorous dietary regime. Eating ‘clean’ produces violent bodies; it frames how fighters experience MMA competitions. This is the production of a body-for-masculine performance that is capable of giving and taking pain. The masculinities of MMA fighters are formed over time through their engagement with training, discourses

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

D.C. Spencer / Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

regarding dieting and nutrition supplementation, and in the domination of female bodies for the purpose of food preparation. Through an account of elements of rationalized body culture and the role of female bodies in the production of male violent bodies, we come to see the larger context of power that exists between men and women and how masculinized bodies continuously subject themselves to rigorous exercise regimes (cf. Henderson, Hodges, & Kivel, 2002; McKay, Messner, & Sabo, 2000). In terms of future qualitative research, studies could probe the sensory and emotional experiences of fighting as it takes place in the MMA club environments. Furthermore, research could explore how the constant exposure of MMA on the internet and TV impacts on fighters' masculine subjectivities, but also how they're perceived by fans of the sport. Future research could also probe how fighters feel about supplement endorsements and by extension the commodification of their bodies. Additionally, subsequent research could probe how the building of bonds between fighters through participation in the sport impacts on their sense of a MMA community and their conceptualizations of ideal masculinities. Acknowledgments I am thankful to Moss Norman and Lyndsay Hayhurst for their insightful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. Endnotes 1 For an elaboration on the development of mixed martial arts, see Van Bottenburg and Heilbron (2006), and Downey (2007). 2 For the full details regarding this ethnography, see AUTHOR. 3 Clubs in these areas were chosen because of convenience and because there are world-renowned MMA clubs – with elite-level MMA fighters – in Ontario, Quebec and Florida. In addition, for the purposes of participant observation, I also made a sojourn to Thailand to train in Muay Thai for two months (AUTHOR). 4 In terms of ensuring the anonymity of participants in the MMA club, pseudonyms have been used and as much as possible, descriptive information has been changed to protect the participants. In terms of participant observation, the club participants recognized and referred to me as the sociologist and are cognizant that I am conducting a sociological study of mixed martial arts that involved taking notes of the activities in the club. That said, certain elements of the training regimes that are seen as particular to the broader fighting organization that the club is affiliated with, have not been part of field note taking at the request of the club owners. While visiting other MMA clubs I have not taken field notes, as the club members of these clubs are not always aware of my research. For the most part, the reflections and similarities in practices to other clubs (with my home club) are derived from interviews with research subjects at other clubs. This research received ethics approval from X Research Ethics Board. 5 An expanded semi-structured interview was conducted with MMA instructors (who had, in most cases, professional MMA records) focusing on their teaching strategies, club management, and sentiments towards their club fighters. 6 In this case, their sole income is derived from earnings gained through participating in MMA competitions. In many of the other interviewees, the fighters had part-time or full time jobs while trying to establish their careers as professional fighters.

References Adams, A., Anderson, E., & McCormack, M. (2010). Establishing and challenging masculinity: The influence of gendered discourses in organized sport. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 29(3), 278–300. Ahmed, S. (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. New York and London Routledge. Ainsworth, S., & Hardy, C. (2004). Critical discourse analysis and identity: Why bother? Critical Discourse Studies, 1(2), 225–259.

7

Allen-Collinson, J. (2005). Emotions, interaction and the injured sporting body. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 40(2), 221–240. Anderson, E. (2005). Orthodox and inclusive masculinity: Competing masculinities among heterosexual men in a feminized terrain. Sociological Perspectives, 48(3), 337–355. Atkinson, M. (2006). Straightedge bodies and civilizing processes. Body & Society, 12(1), 69–95. Atkinson, M. (2008). Enduring bodies in triathlon. In K. Young, & M. Atkinson (Eds.), Tribal play: Subcultural journeys through sport (pp. 295–317). UK Emerald Group Publishing. Bird, S. R. (1996). Welcome to the men's club: Homosociality and the maintenance of hegemonic masculinity. Gender and Society, 10(2), 120–132. Bolin, A. (1992). Flex appeal, food, and fat: Competitive bodybuilding, gender and diet. Play & Culture, 5(4), 378–400. Burstyn, V. (1999). The rites of men: Manhood, politics, and the culture of sport. Toronto, Buffalo, and London University of Toronto Press. Caputo, L. (2011). Gender, food, and loss. Studies in Gender and Sexuality, 12(3), 179–195. Clark, R., Oppliger, R., & Sullivan, J. (2002). Cross-validation of the NCAA method to predict body fat for minimum weight for collegiate wrestlers. Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, 12(5), 285–290. Connell, R. W. (2005). Masculinities: Second edition (2nd ed.)Berkeley University of California Press. Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2007). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (3rd ed.) Sage Publications, Inc. Crossley, N. (2004). Fat is a sociological issue: Obesity rates in late modern, ‘body-conscious’ societies. Social Theory & Health, 2(3), 222–253. Crossley, N. (2006). In the gym: Motives, meaning and moral careers. Body & Society, 12(3), 23–50. D'Sylva, A., & Beagan, B. L. (2011). “Food is culture, but it's also power”: The role of food in ethnic and gender identity construction among Goan Canadian women. Journal of Gender Studies, 20(3), 279–289. Denham, B. E. (2008). Masculinities in hardcore bodybuilding. Men and Masculinities, 11(2), 234–242. Douglas, P. (2002). Purity and danger: Mary Douglas: Collected works. New York and Londong Routledge. Downey, G. (2007). Producing pain techniques and technologies in noholds-barred fighting. Social Studies of Science, 37(2), 201–226. Drummond, M. (2002). Men, body image, and eating disorders. International Journal of Men's Health, 1(1), 89–103. Ellis, R. (1983). The way to a man's heart: Food in the violent home. In A. Murcott (Ed.), The sociology of food and eating: Essays on the sociological significance of food (pp. 164–171). Aldershot UK Gower. Emerson, R. M., Fretz, R. I., & Shaw, L. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic field notes (1st ed.)Chicago University of Chicago Press. Forth, C. E. (2009). Manhood incorporated diet and the embodiment of “civilized” masculinity. Men and Masculinities, 11(5), 578–601. Foucault, M. (1988). In R. Hurley (Ed.), The care of the self, trans. The history of sexuality, Vol. 3, . New York Vintage. Foucault, M. (1990). In R. Hurley (Ed.), The use of pleasure, trans. The history of sexuality, Vol. 2, . New York Vintage. Glaser, B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New Jersey Transaction Publishers. Gvion, L. (2011). Cooking, food, and masculinity: Palestinian men in Israeli society. Men and Masculinities, 14(4), 408–429. Hearn, J. (2003). Searching for the body: Making connections between health, bodies and men's violence. In S. Ervo, & T. Johannson (Eds.), Bending bodies: Moulding masculinities (pp. 170–191). Aldershot Ashgate. Heinemann, K. (1980). Sport and the sociology of the body. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 15(3–4), 41–56. Henderson, K., Hodges, S., & Kivel, B. (2002). Context and dialogue in research on women and leisure. Journal of Leisure Research, 34(3), 253–271. Johns, D. P., & Johns, J. S. (2000). Surveillance, subjectivism and technologies of power: An analysis of the discursive practice of high-performance sport. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 35(2), 219–234. Khandelwal, M. (1997). Ungendered atma, masculine virility and feminine compassion: Ambiguities in renunciant discourses on gender. Contributions to Indian Sociology, 31(1), 79–107. Kiesling, S. F. (2005). Homosocial desire in men's talk: Balancing and re-creating cultural discourses of masculinity. Language in Society, 34(05), 695–726. Kimmel, M. (2004). The gendered society: Sociological perspective on sex and gender. London Oxford University Press. Klein, A. (1986). Pumping irony: Crisis and contradiction in bodybuilding. Sociology of Sport Journal, 3(2), 112–133. Klein, A. (1995). Little big men: Bodybuilding subculture and gender construction. Albany State University of New York Press. Loland, N. W. (1999). Some contradictions and tensions in elite sportsmen's attitudes towards their bodies. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 34(3), 291–302.

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018

8

D.C. Spencer / Women's Studies International Forum xxx (2013) xxx–xxx

Maffulli, N. (1992). Making weight: A case study of two elite wrestlers. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 26(2), 107–110. Maguire, J. (1993). Bodies, sports cultures and societies: A critical review of some theories in the sociology of the body. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 28(1), 33–52. Maguire, J. S. (2002). Body lessons: Fitness publishing and the cultural production of the fitness consumer. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 37(3–4), 449–464. McKay, J., Messner, M., & Sabo, D. (2000). Studying sport, men, and masculinities from feminist standpoints. In J. McKay (Ed.), Masculinities, gender relations and sport (pp. 1–11). Thousand Oaks, CA Sage. McPhail, D., Beagan, B., & Chapman, G. E. (2012). I don't want to be sexist but…: Denying and re-inscribing gender through food. Food, Culture and Society: An International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 15(3), 473–489. Mencken, M. (2011). MMA diet: The importance of diet. Fighting insider. Retrieved August 9, 2012. http://www.fightinginsider.com/2011/08/11/ mma-diet-the-importance-of-diet/ Messner, M. A. (2007). Out of play: Critical essays on gender and sport. Albany State University of New York Press. Monaghan, L. (1999). Creating ‘the perfect body’: A variable project. Body & Society, 5(2–3), 267–290. Pringle, R. (2005). Masculinities, sport and power: A critical comparison of Gramscian and Foucauldian inspired theoretical tools. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 29(3), 256–278. Probert, A., Palmer, F., & Leberman, S. (2007). The fine line: An insight into “risky” practices of male and female competitive bodybuilders. Annals of Leisure Research, 10(3–4), 272–290. Pronger, B. (2002). Body fascism: Salvation in the technology of physical fitness. Toronto University of Toronto Press. Reich, J. (2010). “The world's most perfectly developed man” Charles Atlas, physical culture, and the inscription of American masculinity. Men and Masculinities, 12(4), 444–461. Richardson, L. (1997). Fields of play: Constructing an academic life. New Jersey Rutgers University Press. Rinehart, R. E. (2010). Poetic sensibilities, humanities, and wonder: Toward an e/affective sociology of sport. Quest, 62(2), 184–201. Roy, P. (2002). Meat-eating, masculinity, and renunciation in India: A Gandhian grammar of diet. Gender & History, 14(1), 62–91. Royster, M. O., Richmond, A., Eng, E., & Margolis, L. (2006). Hey brother, how's your health? A focus group analysis of the health and health-related concerns of African American men in a southern city in the United States. Men and Masculinities, 8(4), 389–404. Sanchez García, R. S., & Malcolm, D. (2010). Decivilizing, civilizing or informalizing? The international development of mixed martial arts. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 45(1), 39–58. Sherwood, J. (August 28). Starting 'em young. Retrieved August 28, 2012, from Sherdog. http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles/Starting-Em-Young-45235 Shilling, C. (1993). The body and social theory (1st ed.)London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi Sage.

Shilling, C. (2005). The body in culture, technology and society. London, Thousand Oaks and New Delhi Sage. Shilling, C. (2008). Changing bodies: Habit, crisis and creativity. Thousand Oaks Sage Publications. Shriver, L. H., Betts, N. M., & Payton, M. E. (2009). Changes in body weight, body composition, and eating attitudes in high school wrestlers. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 19(4), 424–432. Wanderlei Silva Xyience commercial. Retrieved from. http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=zGTrjH9IhPg&feature=youtube_gdata_player. (2010). Smith, B., & Sparkes, A. (2008). Changing bodies, changing narratives and the consequences of tellability: A case study of becoming disabled through sport. Sociology of Health & Illness, 30(2), 217–236. Sparkes, A., & Smith, B. (2002). Sport, spinal cord injury, embodied masculinities and the dilemmas of narrative identity. Men and Masculinities, 4(3), 258–285. Sparkes, A., & Smith, B. (2003). Men, sport, spinal cord injury and narrative time. Qualitative Research, 3(3), 295–320. Sparkes, A., & Smith, B. (2008). Men, spinal cord injury, memories and the narrative performance of pain. Disability & Society, 23(7), 679–690. Stibbe, A. (2004). Health and the social construction of masculinity in Men's Health magazine. Men and Masculinities, 7(1), 31–51. Trimbur, L. (2011). “Tough love”: Mediation and articulation in the urban boxing gym. Ethnography, 12(3), 334–355. Turner, B. S. (1982). The government of the body: Medical regimens and the rationalization of diet. The British Journal of Sociology, 33(2), 254. Van Bottenburg, M., & Heilbron, J. (2006). De-sportization of fighting contests: The origins and dynamics of no holds barred events and the theory of sportization. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 41(3–4), 259–282. Van Bottenburg, M., & Heilbron, J. (2011). Informalization or de-sportization of fighting contests? A rejoinder to Raúl Sánchez García and Dominic Malcolm. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 46(1), 125–127. Wacquant, L. (1995). The pugilistic point of view: How boxers think and feel about their trade. Theory and Society, 24(4), 489–535, http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/BF00993521. Wacquant, L. (2006). Body and soul: Notebooks of an apprentice boxer (1st ed.) Oxford Oxford University Press. Walby, K. (2010). Interviews as encounters: Issues of sexuality and reflexivity when men interview men about commercial same sex relations. Qualitative Research, 10(6), 639–657. Weber, M. (1991). From Max Weber: Essays in sociology. Routledge. Willis, P. (2000). The ethnographic imagination. Wiley. Xyience (2012). Xyience — Corporate — About us. About us. Retrieved July 9, 2012, from. http://www.xyience.com/index.cfm?fa=main.aboutUs Xyience 30 second commercial featuring Jon “Bones” Jones. Retrieved from. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TG1H9vn6W38&feature=youtube_ gdata_player. (2012). Young, K., White, P., & McTeer, W. (1994). Body talk: Male athletes reflect on sport, injury, and pain. Sociology of Sport Journal, 11(2), 175–194.

Please cite this article as: Spencer, D.C., ‘Eating clean’ for a violent body: Mixed martial arts, diet and masculinities, Women's Studies International Forum (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.05.018