The perfectible body

by Kenneth R. Dutton

In most world religions, the concept of 'physical perfection' would be a contradiction in terms: the physical - the realm of the body - is thought of as by definition imperfect. Yet in Western cultures, from the age of classical Greek sculpture to that of Arnold Schwarzenegger, the pervasive tradition in depicting human or superhuman perfection has been that of a male physique defined primarily by its conspicuous muscularity. The aim of this book is to explore the origins of this Western ideal of physical development and to trace its evolution through the centuries. In so doing, it asks some fundamental questions which have, until now, been generally left unexplored. Why did the West develop a symbolic language of muscularity which in most Eastern civilisations would have been meaningless? How was it that Renaissance Christianity could so readily adopt the pagan bodily ideals of ancient Greece, and by what process did they evolve into the visual language of bodybuilding, hulk calendars