Whoops, sorry about not using the "more inside" tag.

You might like this book. He basically starts bodybuilding out of fear, which works with the vibe you perceive.

In my personal experience (small female) having one of these really huge dudes as my personal trainer for almost a year when I was getting really into lifting before I got sick, he was the sweetest, nicest, least aggressive guy you'd ever want to meet. He might brag occasionally about like, how he could lift a car, but it wasn't an aggressive thing at all.

I don't think this can be generalized.

I think it's driven by a need to look big and strong. That can stem from insecurity, which seems to me to be the most common thing, but there are probably some other things. What's fairly sure, though, is that nobody looks that way by accident, so there's some sort of intentional process going on to achieve a specific effect.

I don;t know why but when I was seriously into watching like, bodybuilding progress videos there was always this point where they got way too fake tanned and had frosted tips and stuff and it made me really confused it happened every time and it kinda turned me off the whole idea cause I didn't want to get really fake tanned and have frosted tips.

This documentary, Bigger, Stronger, Faster*, might help you understand some of the motivations. If it doesn't, it's still amazing.

I went to a Quaker college, where one of my friends was on the football team and later spent some time on the bodybuilding circuit. He was part of the "natural" crowd, and did a great job of keeping his various muscles in proportion, so he didn't look like a steep-shouldered, bat-winged, carapaced freak. Actually he always looked great, with a relatively huge but still ideal physique.

When he was a kid, his parents had a deal. He and his brothers, with their dad's encouragement, would go off to the weight room, to football practice, all that jock stuff, as long as they spent an equal amount of time in cultural and literary pursuits with their mom. So he could declaim poetry, drop a pithy quote, and play piano as the occasion required.

Some of what drove him to bodybuilding competition was the realization that a football career inevitably causes lifelong injuries, but he told me most of the impetus was his love of being onstage, which began during backyard Shakespeare productions with his family.

Pro bodybuilding, like fashion modeling, can provide certain special individuals an opportunity to keep themselves looking and feeling good, and also in coin, while they pursue other goals. My friend found it to be a good sideline while he studied literature. Now he just works out a few times a week, he still looks great, he's working on his doctorate, and he's one of the happiest, gentlest, most well-balanced dudes I know.

I guess there is a real variety of motivations and personalities involved, and it behooves us to avoid projecting our own intimidation at bodybuilders' sheer size and strength onto their intentions.

*the side effects of being American

I once posted something on The Other Site from a bodybuilder perspective (a really good, science driven, wise article) and got some random derision in response and I realized there really is a culture split problem. Like Hugh I'd recommend that people who are kinda intellectual minded really try hard not to be intellectually lazy in understanding these dudes.