Media misrepresenting, stigmatizing steroid users

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TweetIn sports television, the media circus show surrounding performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids, and their utilization by athletes to improve abilities has been one of the main controversies in sports in the last 20 years and.
Major League Baseball saw the steroid era in the sport in the 1990s. The reliance upon them amongst Olympians, weight lifters and football players has created literally larger-than-life super hero versions of who were once considered elite athletes.



Baseball players who were once small, started to look like Hulk Hogan. A bench press of 300 pounds was once untouchable, but is now child’s play to the ordinary gym rat. The popularity of sports has raged out of control. Merchandise of favorite players is snatched off of the shelf quicker than you can yell “Cheater!” and that is precisely what the media is crying about.
“Bad influence” and “drug abuser” are also being whirled around these elite athletes aspiring to demi-god status.
The interesting thing is why we all have this negative connotation of performance-enhancing drugs?
If posed with that question, most people would then look the person in the eyes with disgust and preach the holy trinity of steroid arguments: 1. It is cheating; 2. It sets a bad example for the youth of America; and 3. It has extremely damaging and irreversible short- and long-term health implications on the users of these drugs.
These are talking points that have, in all essence, been spoon fed to the masses by the media in the past 30 or so years.
Most people would be pretty shocked to discover that the aforementioned argument is almost completely invalid. In the documentary, “Bigger, Stronger, Faster,” Christopher Bell – an amateur body builder – takes an in-depth look at steroid use after quitting his short stinted bout on them, because he felt immoral.
His findings are shocking. He speaks to Olympic athletes such Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson, experts on steroid use and current steroid users and finds that they have no long-term health effects and, perhaps more frighteningly, there are thousands of people (and not just professional athletes) taking part.
But what have we been hearing on the news since this idea of steroids came about? Nothing but roid rage, depression, cancer and dishonesty to the point that Roger Clemens and Mark McGwire had to sit before Congress exercising their fifth amendments while being drilled about their steroid usage in the 1990s.
The most interesting part, as ESPN journalist Michael Wilbon wrote, is that nobody really cares in the end. You see, the media creates this cognitive dissonance between values that they feed to the American people.
First, you have to be bigger, stronger, faster and better than everyone else but also that you are not allowed to achieve this any other way than the old fashioned one.
Your whole life you are told what you should be, but when you get into the spotlight like Barry Bonds or Lance Armstrong, you aren’t supposed to keep pushing the ceiling. Even though students can take Adderall to study harder, musicians and public speakers can take beta-blockers for performance anxiety, and middle-aged men around the world can take Viagra when their sex drive is on the decline.
Why do we vilify performance enhancers then? Because the media has promulgated conflicting values in regards to what it means to be American, and the competitive drive it takes to succeed in America.
Obviously, it is not the rampant use of steroids that is the important message, especially if a bulk of the population is taking performance enhancements. Then the real ecological importance comes from the media’s portrayal of its usage.

Media misrepresenting, stigmatizing steroid users - The Poly Post : Opinion

TweetI wonder if those same people were asked about the rampant abuse of rec drugs thats killing our kids everyday what their replies would be??? Oh yeah,that would make too much sense asking that and the media nor the gov't really care about fixing the problems of our nation,just making headlines!!