Le monde culturiste face aux gymnastiques aérobiques dans la première moitié des années 1980 : les conceptions divergentes des acteurs du système d'offre

Abstract

In the first half of the 80ies, the world of Body-Building faced the invasion of new trends in gymnastics that tended to impose their own logic. Confronted with crucial choices in identity, the various organisations reacted differently. Each of them found itself torn between the necessity to adapt their facilities and their contents to the new demand, on the one hand, and the intention to safeguard their own identity and logic, on the other hand. Followed their opposing strategies which led to long debates around the issue of ethics and the definition of the forbidden practices. To illustrate the importance they attached to this phenomenon, the various editors of specialized magazines, bulletins and media expressed their opinions and confirmed publicly their positions in the matter. From an analysis of the men- tioned media, the purpose of the present article is to point out that the choices they made depended largely on the position they occupied in the area of physical training, a position that also rested upon habits that were the product of social trajectory, and therefore of a certain type of owned capital. Such a situation of strain may appear as a case study typical of the issues brought about by the renewal and changes of supply and demands in the field of physical practices from the mid '70ies.