Just got around to watching Bigger Stronger Faster, a movie about steroids, drug use, body image, pop culture and more. I have to admit that the movie had some surprisingly deep points and was unquestionably worth watching. Some of the more memorable points discussed:
* It was interesting to realize that most of what I knew about steroids was just hearsay or what some reporter said on TV. In reality, most of it has very little scientific backing. Or, to be more specific, it's not that we know steroids are good or bad, it's just that few studies have been done (as it would probably be unethical) that really let us know one way or the other.
* It was a bit depressing to really see just how many athletes and cultural icons - how many "childhood heroes" - have used them. We really do live in a culture where you have to cheat just to keep up.
* The movie constantly touched on the point that our culture is obsessed with image, drugs, and competitiveness. Everyone wants a six pack, be famous, be rich and so on and while aspirations like these can be good, we tend to take them to the extremes to our own detriment.
* Finally, there were definitely some interesting points made on the morality of using performance enhancing drugs. I really liked the discussion of whether genetic engineering would be considered cheating if it happened in the future. It was also interesting to consider the fairly arbitrary line between performance enhancing drugs that were legal and those that weren't.
While the movie definitely gave me a different perspective on steroids, I'm still against them for a reason I think was largely overlooked. I just don't think society could handle legal, taboo-free performance enhancing drugs, as it would profoundly, and in my opinion, quite negatively, change everything about athletics. Success would be determined not by hard work and dedication, but by being willing to submit yourself to the latest lab experiment. Athletes would be more lab rat than champion and victories would be engineered rather than earned. Moreover, biology has placed some natural limits on our abilities, whereas many of these limits would be easily surpassed with drugs. I just don't think humanity could handle that and the situation would quickly spiral out of control. Female athletes would turn into males (remember the East German olympians?) and males would turn into monsters (some bodybuilders already are).
* It was interesting to realize that most of what I knew about steroids was just hearsay or what some reporter said on TV. In reality, most of it has very little scientific backing. Or, to be more specific, it's not that we know steroids are good or bad, it's just that few studies have been done (as it would probably be unethical) that really let us know one way or the other.
* It was a bit depressing to really see just how many athletes and cultural icons - how many "childhood heroes" - have used them. We really do live in a culture where you have to cheat just to keep up.
* The movie constantly touched on the point that our culture is obsessed with image, drugs, and competitiveness. Everyone wants a six pack, be famous, be rich and so on and while aspirations like these can be good, we tend to take them to the extremes to our own detriment.
* Finally, there were definitely some interesting points made on the morality of using performance enhancing drugs. I really liked the discussion of whether genetic engineering would be considered cheating if it happened in the future. It was also interesting to consider the fairly arbitrary line between performance enhancing drugs that were legal and those that weren't.
While the movie definitely gave me a different perspective on steroids, I'm still against them for a reason I think was largely overlooked. I just don't think society could handle legal, taboo-free performance enhancing drugs, as it would profoundly, and in my opinion, quite negatively, change everything about athletics. Success would be determined not by hard work and dedication, but by being willing to submit yourself to the latest lab experiment. Athletes would be more lab rat than champion and victories would be engineered rather than earned. Moreover, biology has placed some natural limits on our abilities, whereas many of these limits would be easily surpassed with drugs. I just don't think humanity could handle that and the situation would quickly spiral out of control. Female athletes would turn into males (remember the East German olympians?) and males would turn into monsters (some bodybuilders already are).