92

This article examines the contemporary practice of bodybuilding in Lebanon, set against a backdrop of sociopolitical instability and the collapse of collective reference points. The pursuit of a muscular and standardized body is explored as an attempt at subjective stabilization and the neutralization of differences, in response to identity anxiety and social fragmentation. Bodybuilding is thus analyzed as a cultural symptom, revealing a broader civilizational malaise and a new, defensive worldview embodied in the body.