Bodybuilding competitions were once a grand spectacle, showcasing the most muscular, disciplined, and seemingly powerful men on the planet. The Mr. Olympia stage glimmered with bronzed physiques, and fans celebrated these athletes as the epitome of masculine perfection. But as we sit here today, it’s hard to deny that these once-revered competitions are now fading into irrelevance, much like the outdated beauty pageants of the past.
What Happened to Bodybuilding Competitions? The Decline of a Hypermasculine Sport – by Maxwell Alexander, Fitness Model, MA, BFA, Author, Artist, Photographer, Designer, Activist, Certified Fitness Trainer, Bodybuilding and Sports Nutrition Coach
In fact, bodybuilding competitions seem to be following the same trajectory as beauty pageants. Both have been built upon problematic foundations, and both have struggled to adapt to a world increasingly aware of the toxic frameworks that once held them aloft.
The Patriarchal Roots of Beauty Pageants—and Bodybuilding Competitions
Beauty pageants, once a staple of popular culture, were powered by the patriarchy’s objectification of women. The purpose, under the guise of celebration, was to parade beautiful women on stage for the entertainment of largely male audiences. Women were judged based on a rigid, narrow definition of beauty—thin, feminine, and submissive—constructed by a male-dominated society. Over time, society began to see through the glossy veneer. Beauty pageants were less about empowering women and more about reinforcing the patriarchy’s obsession with controlling and sexualizing them.
Bodybuilding, in its competitive form, grew out of a similar system. It celebrated not just the male body, but a very specific, hypermasculine ideal: enormous, aggressive, and powerful. Men weren’t just competing for the best physique—they were competing for dominance. The sport was less about the aesthetic appreciation of the male form and more about who could pack on the most muscle, who could appear the most intimidating, the most masculine. And just like beauty pageants, this hyper-focus on a narrow, rigid standard of what men should be eventually became its downfall.
Toxic Masculinity: The Hidden Rot Behind Bodybuilding’s Decline
At its core, bodybuilding competitions were propped up by toxic masculinity. The sport celebrated strength and size to the exclusion of vulnerability, artistry, and sensuality. Men were pushed to embody an exaggerated version of masculinity—one that glorified power, aggression, and physical dominance while rejecting any expression of softness, emotion, or, God forbid, sexuality. Any hint of sensuality in bodybuilding was brushed aside as feminine or even shamefully homoerotic, something to be suppressed.
But here’s the truth that bodybuilding competitions never quite confronted: the entire sport is homoerotic. There’s a reason the male form has been revered and admired in art, from ancient Greek sculptures to modern homoerotic photography. Sculpting your body, flexing in front of a mirror, admiring your own physique—it’s an intimate and inherently sensual act. For many, it’s a form of self-expression and, yes, self-love that borders on eroticism.
The Uncomfortable Relationship Between Bodybuilding and Homophobia
For decades, bodybuilding tried to deny its sensual undercurrents, largely because of the industry’s deep-rooted homophobia. Gay men have long been drawn to bodybuilding—not just for the physical discipline, but because they understand the erotic connection between mind and body. For gay men, working out can be a sensual experience, a way of engaging with the body and its potential for beauty and desire. There’s no shame in admiring your reflection, in finding motivation in your own physicality and sexuality.
But the straight bodybuilding community—especially in its competitive form—has long resisted this. Many straight men in the sport are so uncomfortable with their own homoerotic tendencies that they cover them with layers of aggression and domination. For them, bodybuilding becomes a violent pursuit of power, not a celebration of physical and sensual beauty. In that sense, bodybuilding competitions have become the last stronghold of a dying breed of hypermasculinity—men trapped in the idea that strength and violence are the only ways to prove their worth.
Why Gay Men Do It Better: Embracing the Erotic and the Spiritual
And this is precisely why gay men have always thrived in bodybuilding and the fitness world. While straight men have been trapped in the myth that bodybuilding is about overpowering others, gay men have embraced bodybuilding as a form of self-expression, a spiritual journey, and yes, even as a sexual act. For many gay men, the gym is not just a place to build muscle but a place to reconnect with the body, to appreciate its form, its potential for strength, beauty, and eroticism.
Working out naked in front of a mirror, feeling the flex of muscles, admiring the sensuality of one’s own reflection—this isn’t just a workout routine. It’s a way of embracing the body in all its forms, free of the shackles of toxic masculinity. Gay men understand that the body can be a source of both power and pleasure, of discipline and desire.
Straight men, on the other hand, often struggle to reconcile the homoerotic energy inherent in bodybuilding. They repress it, deny it, and as a result, they’ve turned bodybuilding into something rigid and soulless—about size, dominance, and aggression, rather than artistry, beauty, and connection.
The Collapse of an Outdated Sport
As society moves toward more fluid understandings of gender, masculinity, and sexuality, bodybuilding competitions have remained stuck in the past. People are no longer interested in the hypermasculine theatrics of a sport that refuses to evolve. Just as beauty pageants faded because they couldn’t break free of their patriarchal chains, bodybuilding competitions are fading because they’re still deeply intertwined with toxic masculinity and homophobia.
In the end, the collapse of bodybuilding competitions isn’t just about the decline of interest in hypermasculinity. It’s about the fact that the sport was built on a toxic foundation—and when that foundation started to crack, the entire system fell apart.
A New Vision for Bodybuilding
But bodybuilding itself doesn’t need to die. In fact, bodybuilding, when stripped of its toxic, patriarchal baggage, can be something beautiful, natural, spiritual, and yes, sexual. The sport can be reimagined—not as a contest of brute strength and aggression, but as a celebration of the male form in all its beauty and complexity.
Bodybuilding could evolve into a space where men—straight, gay, and everything in between—can embrace their bodies as something more than just tools of power. They can explore their bodies as sources of beauty, of sensuality, of spiritual connection. And this is where gay men have already led the way. By embracing the eroticism inherent in bodybuilding, by turning the gym into a space of self-love and self-expression, they’ve shown that bodybuilding can be about more than dominance. It can be a journey toward wholeness.
If bodybuilding competitions are to be revived, they’ll have to let go of the old ideals of hypermasculinity. Only then can they truly reflect the beauty of the sport itself.
