Young working-class men in the UK's former industrial heart- land are consuming unprecedented quantities of anabolic steroids. The youths, some as young as 14, are abusing drugs usually used by bodybuilders and elite athletes. Their aim, according to Professor Bruce Davies of the school of applied sciences at the University of Glamorgan, is to recapture the macho look of their forefathers: "Contemporary working-class men are searching for a new 'male image' . . . The physicality of the work and the fact they risked their lives on a daily basis commanded the respect of the community. The same macho image is not associated with bank employees."
In Merseyside and Cheshire in 2003, the largest single group of new clients for needle exchanges were steroid users, outnumbering heroin users for the first time. A study at the University of Glamorgan found that 58 per cent of males questioned at gyms in the Mid Glamorgan area admitted to using anabolic steroids. Most of them were in full-time employment, working predominantly in office-based professions.
The new trend is finding its way into the playground. Steve Bowden, headteacher at Porth secondary school in Rhondda Cynon Taf, said that many of his 1,500 pupils were using steroids. "We see physical changes where boys suddenly bulk up around the chest and shoulders. This is over a short spell of time, and we know it is not possible to get results like these simply from working out in the gym."
Taken in combination with a programme of muscle-building exercise and dieting, steroids may contribute to increases in body weight and muscular strength. However, steroid users subject themselves to more than 70 side effects, ranging from liver cancer to acne - and including wild mood swings and very aggressive behaviour, known as "roid rage".
Dr Harrison Pope, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, claims that "millions of men are suffering shame, self-doubt and embarrassment because of emphasis on body image". Pope blames unrealistic role models in Hollywood, television and fashion magazines for causing a "crisis of masculinity".
Britain's working-class youths seem determined to survive the crisis by recapturing the physicality and macho image of men in the industrial age.
