Milk, Modernity and Muscles: Raw Dairy and Bodybuilding in 1960s America

In the mid-1960s, bodybuilding coach Vince Gironda began promoting raw milk. Done alongside nutritional supplement entrepreneur Rheo H. Blair, the pair claimed raw (unpasteurised) milk was the most anabolic and ‘pure’ substance available to men. Accordingly, raw milk and cream were presented as effective as anabolic steroids used by bodybuilders. Studies of milk have often focused on the manufacturing, trading and politics surrounding the foodstuff. Few studies have associated milk with masculinity in the same way that scholars have done for meat. This article examines Gironda and Blair's nutritional plans with reference to modernity and masculinity and highlights the hyper-realised masculine bodies and personalities linked to raw milk.