Stephanie Park Shows Abs In And Muscle - Video

This interesting video shows Steph Park showing off her abs to someone in an office -- somewhere.

Yaxeni Oriquen By Lori Braun

yaxeni-oriquen_class act always, originally uploaded by loribraun.

Aspiring actress Yaxeni Oriquen is captured in this arresting photo by Lori Braun. Venezuelan-born, Oriquen reportedly lives in Florida. She's one of the most popular FBBs in the world. Visit her site at Yaxeni.com

Oakland's Kelly Dobbins By GeneX

Kelly Dobbins, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

I've known Kelly for some time, going all the way back to when she worked out at Gold's Gym in Oakland, and then to when she and her husband set up their own gym not far away. She's a great lady. Here's her bio from her website:

Kelly Dobbins is a competitor you may recognize from her many appearances in Women's Physique World as one of Al Murch's favorite women to profile from the Bay Area of Northern California. Although it is in California, the Bay Area is much different from Southern California, but there are many impressive physique athletes suchs as Ms. Dobbins from the region better known for it wine production.
"I started weight training about 15 years ago, just for basic toning and conditioning. When I started to see how my body reacted, I started to take it a step further and people started to tell me that I should compete, so I did and started doing very well in the AAU," says Dobbins.

Her beginnings were much like many bodybuilders and she quickly fell in love with the results she was seeing. "More mature muscle started happening and I switched over to NPC and started doing even better with the right trainers and nutritionists - plus I loved the strict discipline it required and taking my body to the limit!!

"My goal is to do the Nationals next year (2000), but not to go pro. It's a must that each time I compete that it is evident that my body has greatly improved!!! I will not step on stage if I look the same as the last contest! It is very important to me that I get positive feedback from the judges each time I compete, but I can also take constructive criticism. I love to go up against strong competition, it makes me feel like I really earned my victory!" Dobbins adds.

With her grounded outlook, Dobbins sees no reason to push too hard to turn pro. Knowing what it takes to compete at the highest levels and the urrent evolution of the sport do not concide with her agenda.


"I really appreciate and respect the Pros because I know all the hard and grueling training and dieting that goes into it, however I want to keep my femininity and you have to be enhanced, which I have no desire to take that path," she adds. So what path does Dobbins want to take? It's not quite clear where she'll net out, but with the continued support of her friends and relatives, there's no telling.
Even through the crazy holiday season, Dobbins was staying focused. "I stay in pretty good shape in the off season, I keep my body fat around 11 or 12%, I still do my cardio and my training, I just dont diet strictly, but I still watch what I eat. I enjoy life a little more. Nice dinners, great wine and dancing! I love salsa dancing. I've taken quite a few group and private Salsa lessons," she adds. When not dancing or going out, Dobbins focuses intensely on her training which includes lifts such as 750 lb. leg presses, 35 lb. dumbell bicep curls, 50 lb. dumbell shoulder presses, and squats with 225 lbs. among others.





"I've been blessed with very wonderful and close friends whom I love to spend time with! I'm also currently taking private wrestling several times a week which I'm getting a huge kick out of. I'm really enjoying myself with this!!!! I have a wonderful husband who is my trainer and my nutritionist and also supports me in my wrestling." The wrestling Dobbins refers to is with Virago, also out of Oakland, California.

Recently profiled on the front cover of one of San Francisco's weekly papers, the Guardian, her wrestling career has been growing rapidly, but not at the expense of her bodybuiding career. "Contest time becomes a little tough because we become more business and we both know what it takes to get the job done - he's really tough on me! I get nothing but positive reponses from him, my friends and family, they are so proud of me!" And there is much to be proud of and if her career continues along the same path it has been, keep an eye out for Kelly Dobbins as she'll surely be causing a stir on the national stage soon.

Kelly Dobbins Wins Contra Costa Figure Competition

Kelly Dobbins, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

Kelly Dobbins -- a long-time player in the Oakland, CA bodybuilding scene -- won the Contra Costa Figure Competition in Hayward a week ago. We're looking forward to seeing more of Kelly's biceps and smile.

Monica Brennan From The Contra Costa Figure Competition

Monica Brennan, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

Monica Brennan should play the "Bionic Woman" on NBC. She's a totally hot hardbody from Oakland, CA (yeah, ok, actually, Alameda, but whatever!) Here's her post on GeneX Forum..

Hi all, my name is Monica Brennan and I am currently training for the May contra costa figure competition in Hayward, California. I have been weight training for about 10 years (sometimes more seriously then others) and I have recently started preparation for becomming a figure competitor. I went to my first show Saturday the 10th of March and I plan to be part of many more. I placed second in my class but there were only a few of us competing.

To give you a little background on myself, I started boxing at the age of 12. I worked a lot at a coffee shop and wasent sure of what to do with my money. So I went through the phone book and found a the Bellmore Kickboxing academy, in Bellmore,NY which became my main focus for the next 8 years. When I was about 14 I had started really taking up the art of weight training. I was very involved in both sports until recently when I moved from Long Island, New York to Alameda, California.

I had started boxing at Kings gym in Oakland but I started really getting into weight training and that aspect of my life really took off. I had always used weight training as a means of relieving stress. When I started doing personal training I realized how nice it is to see people achieve there personal fitness goals. I still find that more rewarding then making the money.

I ended up meeting a good friend, Peggy, at my gym who is a bodybuilder. I would see her and say to myself, who is that?? She had a great physique and motivation that left me in awe. She had suggested that I do figure competitions, which I had known nothing about. I started looking into them and realized that I would love the opportunity to partake in one of the competitions, so I did. With Peggy's help I placed second in my class at my first show. And plan on doing my best at the Contra Costa. I would love some feedback on my pics or just comments.

Thanks.
Monica Brennan

Monica Mollica - Super Legs Makes Videos and Pushes A Dodge Daytona

Monica Mollica's latest video features her pushing a 4,000-pound 2007 Dodge Daytona -- her own -- across a Florida landscape. It's an amazing demonstration of the combination of strength, sexiness, and beauty that car companies should use in their marketing. A mix that's best represented by Monica Mollica.

After completing her website -- 100 percent on her own -- she's now working on a member's section and makes video clips for the site. One of them features this arresting pose. It's clear that Monica's got her finger on the pulse of what her fans want and she's talented enough to make the perfect online vehicle to give it to them.

Michelle Lin's Super Legs and Calves

James over at FTVideo conducted a photo shoot with this amazingly well-built natural female bodybuilder, Michelle Lin.

He reports: Had a good shoot with her. She has an amazing story. She was born in china and worked on her parents farm since she was 8 years old. Hence the amazing leg development. She came to the US at 18. She says that she is embarrassed by the muscularity of her legs and never shows them in public! Imagine that!

I can't imagine!

Women's Bodybuilding and The Pornification Of America

Someone over at GeneX forum wondered why some FBBs were "doing porn." The question caused me to think about the matter; here's my response.

America Pornified

...and a book on the subject, mainstream America itself is "pornified" so the real question is what do you define as porn?

From a pure stanpoint, the Internet has mainstreamed the soft-porn that is most FBB images. But is this out of joint with American society? One look at any video distribution site will say "no." Thus, since what FBB's normally show is in itself soft porn -- bikinis and at at times provacative posing -- then it's not a far stretch of effort to take it all the way.

America and the industrialized World seemed to have moved the bar more and more. But the last two years -- dominated by blogs and YouTube -- have moved the showing of images more toward the full porn level.

But, and again, how is this different from Britney Spears showing her crouch not once, or twice, but three times to the probing photog's cameras? On the whole, I think it's high time we Americans got over our collective issues with porn, especially since we show such a commericialized desire for it.



For example, have you noticed how small the crotch of women's jeans has become over the last ten years? It's amazing -- all the way down to the hip bone -- plus some women don't wear anything under the jeans at all anymore or use a belt for that matter. This style is rampant in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Monica Mollica - Super Legs Wrestles "Cleo" In Video

Monica Mollica -- the fast rising star of female bodybuilding -- has discovered wrestling. In this video she takes on "Cleo" -- whoever that is. But you can see how well-muscled Monica's body is in the clip and just how strong she is by the way she easily handles Cleo -- whoever that is.

Here's the video:

NFL Draft Webcam Show

Hey everyone! Just a time-out to tell you about our NFL Draft Web Show. It's going to be the first online webcast live at the NFL Draft in history.

To see the site, click on SBS NFL Draft. Also make sure you're using the FireFox Browser and have Adobe Flash plugins and Real Player download -- all are free.

Kim Bergman - GeneX and Andy's Muscle Goddesses

04-14(1), originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

Where and when were you born?
Alabama, 1965

What is your profession?
Biology teacher

What kind of activities/sports did you do before you started lifting weights?

Competitive swimmer; cheerleader

How and when did you get involved into lifting weights?
My husband owns a gym. When we first started dating, we would always end up at they gym at some point. I figured I might as well make the best of my time there. That was over 20 years ago!

Was it a goal for you to compete in bodybuilding competitions right from the beginning or was it something that grew in your mind as time went on and you saw the progress in your body?

At first it was just for fun… something to have in common with my husband. I went with him and watched as he competed in power lifting and bodybuilding competitions. I started getting ideas!!! I went back to the gym with power lifting in mind since I recognised that I was already as strong as most of the girls I saw in the power meets even though I wasn’t yet training seriously. The rest is history… I was hooked.

What was your first competition and how did you place?
My first competitions were in power lifting. I entered three, and placed first in all three…. 1996 USPL Alabama State (best lifter); 1997 APA Nationals (best lifter); 1998 WPA World Championship (181 lb class winner) After all that heavy lifting, I felt I had enough muscle mass to begin bodybuilding.

And which contest has been the biggest success for you yet?
My biggest title in bodybuilding is the 1999 Ms. Alabama
My best national placing was just this year—2nd in the heavy weight class at the 2005 Jr. USA!!
In powerlifting, it would be the 181 lb class win at the WPA Worlds in 1998

Could you please add a history of all bodybuilding contests that you have entered so far?
1998 NPC Heart of Dixie — heavy weight and over-all
1998 NPC Coastal USA — heavy weight and over-all
1998 NPC Nationals — top 15 heavy weight
1999 NPC Ms. Alabama — heavy weight and over-all
2004 NPC Gold’s Gym Classic — 2nd heavy weight class
2004 NPC Master’s Nationals — 3rd heavy weight class
2005 NPC Jr. USA — 2nd heavy weight class
2005 NPC American Classic — 1st heavy weight & overall

2006 NPC Jr. USA — 1st heavy weight


Please describe a typical day in the life of Kim Bergman.
Morning Cardio
Teaching Science
Weight lifting
Cooking and preparing food for next day
Evening Cardio
Relaxing a few moments with my husband
Bed—so I can get up early and start all over again!!!


Please tell me something about your daily training routine.
I enjoy training heavy. I think that comes from my years as a power lifter.


How often do you train in a week?
I do something EVERY day. There is really never an off day for me.
I usually train each body part once a week… sometimes more.
I use a power-lifting based routine and always incorporate heavy bench, deadlifts, and squats, although I never max-out anymore.


What are the main differences when you train for a competition and in off-season?

I back off the heavy weights a bit and add a few more reps.
The main difference is definitely in the diet!!

If you don’t mind would you give me some stats (best lifts)?
Squat—475 lbs
Bench—250 lbs (although I recently have hit 5 reps with 240lbs, so I’m sure that would go up If I dared a max attempt.)
Deadlift—505 lbs

Which body part is your best in your opinion?
My back and delts

What is your favorite exercise in the gym and which one you don’t like so much?

Deadlifts are my favorite!
Cardio exercises are my least favorite.

Judging in Women’s Bodybuilding has always been criticised in one or the other way. Please tell me your honest thoughts about today’s judging in Women’s Bodybuilding.

Bodybuilding is, always has been, and always will be subjective to the individual judge. What one person prefers to see in a female bodybuilder can vary greatly with what the next person prefers. I just try to be the best that I can be with the body that God gave me… and hope I’m what they are looking for!!

Please tell me about what else you are doing when you don’t work out.

I am a science teacher, so that keeps me pretty busy. My husband owns a gym, so I work there a couple of days a week to help him out. I have recently started back swimming, so I go to the pool and swim laps a few days a week, too. I don’t have children, so I spoil my dogs every chance I get. I love to spend as much time as possible with my husband… even if it is just watching TV.

What are your future plans for 2005?

Last year was a “come-back” year for me after taking 5 years off. I’m back in full swing this season, and hope to hit one or more of the National shows, and maybe a large regional somewhere.

Erin Heath Wins Figure Class OF 2007 Emerald Cup

Figure

Overall: Erin Heath

5'2" and under
1) Shelly Rego-Vega
2) Sherry Smith
3) Hong Arcedas
4) Claire Taubman
5) Julie Ann Lee

5'2" - 5'3"
1) Gale Elie
2) Tara Chandler
3) Lisa Lattery
4) Nicole Weston
5) Sheila Bratten

5'3" - 5'4"
1) Erin Heath
2) Elsie Huxtable
3) Reagen Brenner
4) Vikko Newman
5) Susanna Backman

5'4" - 5'5"
1) Karin Kimura
2) Allison Powell
3) Danyell Leavitt
4) Kimberly Agnew
5) Kris Isakson

5'5" - 5'6"
1) Erica Hamilton
2) Ilona Maj
3) Kari Lege
4) Felicia O'Neal
5) Suzanna Barlas

5'6" - 5'8"
1) Michelle Mayberry
2) Jeanne Nimmer
3) Angela Myers
4) Julie Alves
5) Tonia Francis

5'8" and over
1) Christine Aguilar
2) Mary Hallman
3) Mindy Shaneman
4) Emma Callaghan
5) Beth Lay

2007 NPC Vancouver USA Natural Classic 2007 NPC Vancouver USA Natural Classic - Elsie Huxtable - 1st Place

2007 NPC Vancouver USA Natural Classic - Elsie Huxtable - 1st Place.

After starting in bodybuilding and building muscle, Elsie Huxtable made a massive change of her body and turned toward figure. The result: a first-place win at the 2007 NPC Vancouver USA Natural Classic.

Isabelle Turell - SuperWoman

Isabelle Turell, originally uploaded by hansk01.

Name: Isabelle Selena Turell
Birth place - Tampa, FL
Current living- Orlando, FL
Nickname: Belle
Age: 27
Birthday: October 22, 1979

Started bodybuilding: April 2000

Offseason favorite cheat food(s):
Calamari, rice and beans, cheese pizza with extra cheese
Desert:
tiramisu, oatmeal cookies, cheesecake

Contest favorite foods:
Sweet potatoes with splenda and cinnamon
Least favorite contest food
green beans

Favorite things to do
play videos games, go to the beach ,and shop in the mall
I also like lifting weights, which is a big favorite

Current profession- Fulltime bodybuilder and a fulltime student working torwards my degree, I also have a personal training studio called Signature Fitness, In my spare time I do some freelance writting for nutrition colums

For more see Andy's profile and Isabelle Turell's site.

Monica Mollica - Super Legs Video Clips

Monica Mollica's back with new clips from her newest obsession: her camcorder.

Monica's making videos as part of the construction of her very own website -- yes, she's making it herself, as Melissa Dettwiller and a growing number of FBBs are doing. It will have a members section and other content. But it's designed to show off Monica as she's never been seen before.

Enjoy the view:

Renne Toney Flexes Bicep 2005

Renne Toney 2005, originally uploaded by Natureboi.

Wow. This is an arresting photo of female bodybuilder Renee Toney as she sports a cool and yet animalisticly sexy dress and a well-peaked bicep.

Debbie Bramwell Flexes Her Biceps

untitled20, originally uploaded by fbbultra.

This really cool photo is of female bodybuilder Debbie Bramwell, who's sporting a black tight blouse, a sexy hairdo, and peaked biceps.

Janeen Lankowski - Abs and Thighs In The Gym

jl abs, originally uploaded by amproshoot.

The woman in the previous gym photo that I could not identify at the time, is canadian fit model Janeen Lankowski. She's shown again in this arresting black and white photo.

Video - Female Bodybuilders Flex - Jody May, Collete Nelson, Mellisa Dettwiller, and More!

This is an incredible video of some of the top female bodybuilders and fit models in the World. As a warning, it's risque. So be careful. But that written, it's -- I'd give it a rating of PG-13.

Female Hardbody - Could Be Anyone!

JL ball, originally uploaded by amproshoot.

To show you just how mainstream women with muscle are, I present this photo. I have no idea who this woman is; it's part of Amprosphoto stream on Flickr, but I've not asked him yet. But the point is, this could be anyone living anywhere, and yet look at thay hard body!

For those who think Women's Bodybuilding is some fad, it's not. It's here to stay!

Women's Professional Armwrestling - Video

There's something interestingly primal about seeing a nice-looking woman flex her biceps in armwrestling competition. That may explain why of all the videos on armwrestiling on YouTube, this one has more viewers by a factor of three-to-one. Or take a look at Russian Champion Julia Merkulova -- the Anna Kournikova of Women's Armwrestling!

It makes you wonder why Hooters doesn't have a Hooter Girls Arm Wrestling contest, instead of that tired beauty contest.

Oh, maybe they will!

Philip de Vellis Explains How And Why He Created The "1984-Hillary" Video

In this video, Philip de Vellis -- aka ParkRidge47 of YouTube -- talks to YouTube's news and politics editor Steve Grove about the "Vote Different" ad and the future of online video.

In the clip, he explains that he used a MacBook, Final Cut Pro, and Motion 2 to create the video, and that the effort was rather easy. What he was not prepared for was the viral response.

Joanna Thomas - About Joanna Thomas

Want to know as much about the legendary star of 'Supersize She"? Read on, thanks to Andy's Muscle Goddesses!

1.Where and when have you been born? I was born 12 December 1976, Truro, Cornwall, England,UK.

2. Where do you live now? L.A. California, USA.

3.What is your profession? I dont have an exact profession or degree, I did complete 2 years of nurse training and may return to it.

4.What kind of activities/sports did you do before you started lifting
weights? I didnt do any sports as I was very badly asthmatic for most of my
childhood.

5.How and when did you get involved into lifting weights? I was 14 when I looked at a bodybuilding magazine a student my parents had at our house had, it was one of the late 80s. I looked at the women and thought it was something I wanted to look like, I have always been a promoter of 80s bodybuilding as in shape not size. The other reason I began lifting was I needed something to do to keep fit and running was not an option being so badly asthmatic, the good thing about working out is almost anyone can do it!

6.Was it a goal for you to compete in bodybuilding competitions right from the beginning or was it something that grew in your mind as time went on and you saw the progress in your body? I always knew I would compete from a very young age and by the time I was 17 was training hard to do so, by the time I was 18 years old I was telling my first coach I wanted to win every show in the country, people laughed at me then but at 21 was the youngest to win my procard in the UK and still am today, if you have a dream......go for it, you just never know you may catch it!

7.Which competition was your first one and how did you place? It was in 1997 at 20 years old, the North East EFBB qualifier held in Nottingham, I won the middleweights and qualified for the EFBB British that year.

8.And which contest has been the biggest success for you yet? I won the Jantana Classic in 2001 and qualified for the Ms Olympia.

9.Contest history:
1997 - EFBB Northeast Qualifier - 1st middle weight
1997 EFBB British Championships - 3rd Lightweight
1998 EFBB Northwest Qualifier - 1st Middle weight
1998 EFBB British Championships - 1st and overall lightweight (procard)
2001 IFBB Jantana Classic -1st Lightweight
2001 IFBB Ms Olympia - 10th place
2003 IFBB Jantana Classic - 2nd Lightweight

10.Please describe a typical day in your life? Thats hard to answer! at the moment I am getting ready for a show and am waiting on my workvisa so its basically taken up a little like this .....get up around 9am and go to the gym to do 1 hours cardio, go home eat, shower, emails etc, eat, household chores,shopping etc or posing practise, see friends, tanning, various stuff, eat, train with weights maybe more cardio, eat, go home eat, relax or we could go out and eat, emails etc, tv, go to bed around 12mid, Its really hard to answer this though as stuff comes up and I may travel or have to go somewhere, help friends etc. I am nothing special I am fairly a boring human!

11.Please tell me something about your daily training routine. Im getting ready for a show and so its a little different to offseason in the respect that Im doing more cardio, Im doing cardio around 1 - 1 & half hours a day split as in I go before breakfast and do 1 hours, train in the pm 4/5 with weights and maybe do another half an hour, have in the past done 2 hours a day.

12.How often do you train a week? Ive done it all over the years,but recently am doing a 5 day split as follows
Chest/biceps
Quads/calves
off
Back/abbs
Shoulders/triceps
Hamstrings/calves
off
off

13.What are the main differences when you train for a competition and in the offseason? I am a believer in not changing your style of workouts throughout your contest prep as you do in the offseason, the only difference is I cant be as intense as I dont have the energy, but Im not into going into a higher rep mode or circuits than I would normally do, you need to keep it the same to give the muscle a reason to stay, cuts come through with diet, not 100 rep thigh ext and all the crap I hear over here, youve either got the maturity and muscle under there or you dont! But thats my opinion. Another thing is Im a big believer in changing your training all the time, ie using different principles of training and also I do more isolation than compound, gains are slower but better quality, its the difference between a powerlifter and a bb. The other big difference is cardio, I do around 1 to 1& half right now each day, offseason maybe 20mins 4 times a week, although next year I want to stay leaner for myself so may up that to around 45 4 times a week, have to see how I go.



14.If you dont mind would you give us some stats/best lifts? Um no sorry I wont, I havent measured in years apart from my arms at 15 and a quater. I really have no interest in what I can lift, its all about my look and Im small boned and am not as strong as many of the girls so whats the point? LOL. Just look at my shape and V taper and ask how many have that, thats all that matters in bodybuilding.

15.Which is your best bodypart in your opinion? My V taper ie shoulder/lats to waist ratio in shape, my over all symmetry I feel is one of the best around, dont touch many women in maturity or size, maturity I want, size I feel Im big enough apart from a little on the lower body.....and my blue eyes, many people tell me I have great eyes.

16.What is your favorite and least favorite exercise in the gym? I love chest exercises as I feel them, there are many exercises that Im not so into LOL, sometimes I have days I love training and other days like I am today dieting down, I feel tired and am bored with training, I do what has to be done and am glad to go home, we are all human at the end of the day.

17.Judging in Womens Bodybuilding has always been critised in one way or another, But please tell me your honest thoughts about womens judging today? Judging a 'sport' that is subjective and very new can always have wrong decisions. Being a fan of later 80s bodybuiding I am a preacher of shape, bodybuilding to me should be judged a a complete package ie muscle on a womans shape, we are not judging how fast we can run, its about being a man or a woman and I feel it should be judged a little different than the men, this is my opinion and not everyone will agree and thats my tough, however at pro level they are starting to improve and the sport is moving away from the more extremes to a pleasing package which is my goal, another thing to consider is as much as we would like people do do as they plesse with their bodies on one hand the other hand is how are we as pro athletes to make money from this, getting away from extremes I feel will help, I know many wont agree with me but sitting here without any sponsors as a pro athlete is very frustrating, there are many reasons for it one marketabiltiy Ive just mentioned but Im not going into it all, make your own view on this.

18, What are your hobbies etc outside of the sport? When Im not dieting Im much more laid back than I used to be and enjoy life here in Fort Lauderdale. I enjoy spending time with my friends from the beach, dinners, clubs, entertainment, riding on a harley, boat rides, lying in my back garden or using our hot tub, watching the TV, listening to Music. Candles and red wine! Assisting my friends with their training, emails! He he, I go to Fort Myers and see Amanda Dunbar sometimes or fly to NYC to see Mara Brecsia and Andrulla.

19.What are your future plans for 2003/2004? My competitive goal is to requailfy for the 2003 Ms Olympia, depending on how I do and what happens to me this year Ill decide on next year, Ive had thoughts from retiring to pro figure to competing again, but as Ive gotten older Im looking to try and secure more in my life and one of which means making money in what I do and so its becoming harder for me to justify my bodybuilding as I should be looking at school etcand my longer future, however I may be able to combine both, have these decisions to make, its too complicated to answer.

On a personal note find more security, settle my greencard over here, look at what I want to do with myself professionally, enjoy my friends, travel in the US and see things as well as being finally able to travel home to the UK to see my family (not able due to my visa at present) to find total peace and happiness,the last is the most important!

Finally a big thanks to my friends and family in the UK, the USA and fans worldwide for their support and for knowing me!

Athena Siganakis' Return To Female Bodybuilding On Schedule

After a bit of a layoff, Athena Siganakis has returned to bodybuilding. She's now training for her first show (in a long time), which will be held June 2nd in Ft.St. John, B.C. She says "It's only a Level 1, but ya gotta start somewhere."

Athena very graciously took time to answer a few questions.

How did you get into bodybuilding?

"A few years after I retired from rythmic gymnastics I decided I was getting a little too heavy and needed to do something about it. So I joined a small gym. The trainer there thought I was competing already! Always had big legs and big arms. 2yrs later I did my first show. I was 21. I think I placed 2nd...I think..lol"

What fbbs are friends of yours?

"I don't have a lot of fbbs as friends. Not that I don't want them it's just the way it has turned out. I do count Shawn Tan as a friend and I recently befriended Michelle Russell. She's a newbie here in BC. Will be doing her first show in Nov. You've never heard of her but you will :)"

Is there a great sisterhood?

"I think there is a great sisterhood. Most of the fbbs I have met and talked to are more than willing to help each other. We have to be. It's not always easy being us."

Why does women's bodybuilding endure considering all the crits and controversy?

"Why do more and more women do it? It lives because we do it for the love of it. 'They' have said fbbing was dead so many times over the years and yet here we are. We're not going away. I think more and more women are realizing that muscle on the female body is damn sexy. And being fit and strong is very empowering."

Is the webcam a necessary good ($) or a necessary evil? Why?

"For me it's a necessary good. Without it I could not afford to compete. So far I haven't had a bad experience. Made some great friends. But it can be an evil. I think it depends on how the fbber uses it."



Athena's developed a good fan base from her webcam, and is now ready to go out and build an even larger base from competiting. So look out for this reborn face on the female bodybuilding scene.

Monica Mollica - Super Legs Woman On Webcam

As if photo's aren't enough, the incredibly beautiful and accomplished (book on fitness for sale -- Swedish) Swedish female bodybuilder Monica ("Super Legs") Mollica is taking the webcam world by storm.

While webcams were once considered a controversial development, now they're mainstream as many of the top webcam sites have over 100 female bodybuilder with webcam pages, and considered essential for the generation of revenue that's applied to training for contests.

The webcams are also growing in number, with a new site called Euromusclecam making its entrance.

Monica's natural sexiness and a very cut and ripped and shapely body has made her a star at sites like FTWebcam and HerBicepscam. Her legs rival those of IFBB pro Heather Policky, who Monica considers her "model" female bodybuilder

Check out Monica's page there with a click here.

Monica Mollica - New Page At Andy's Muscle Goddesses

Rising star Monica Mollica has a new page at Andy's Muscle Goddesses, where it's reported...

Where and when were you born?
I was born in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, on April 14th 1980.

What is your profession?
I currently work as a writer, dietary consultant and (part time) web designer.

Were you involved in sports or fitness prior to bodybuilding and how did you get started with weight training?
I have been active all my life; as a child and teenager I was a dancer. Then I discovered the gym and weights on my way to the aerobic classes, and after that it didn’t take long before I turned into a gym rat. By the age of 14 I already had the desire to compete. Since I was tiny back then I aimed at fitness, even though it was bodybuilding that I had a passion for.

Was it a goal for you to compete in bodybuilding competitions right from the beginning or was it something that grew in your mind as time went on and you saw the progress in your body?
Pretty much, yes. But because I didn’t have the necessary muscle mass, I started out with fitness to get experience.

Can you give me your competition history?
I did three fitness shows in Sweden 1999. However I was too vascular and lean, and therefore didn’t place very good (the judging is Sweden is a bit different than in the USA!).

Please tell me something about your training routine (ie: how many days per week / training split /cardio, etc.)
I train most everyday. I know it’s easy to get over trained by training every day, but thanks to good nutrition and a lot of sleep, I can make progress on this training volume. I’ve cut down on my cardio over the years in order to maximize muscle growth, but I think I’m still doing more cardio (30-45 min after every weight lifting workout) than most other bodybuilders. I like to keep my cardiovascular system in as good condition as my muscles.

What is your favorite exercise in the gym and which one you don’t like so much?
Squats! Then chins, dips, dumbbell shoulder presses and then incline dumbbell chest presses…and then…

There isn’t really any exercise I don’t like. They all hit the muscles from different angels and are necessary to fully develop all muscles.

Which body part is your best in your opinion?
Legs and glutes have always been my trademark!

If you don’t mind would you give me some stats (best lifts and some body measurements)?
I’m 5’4” and my current off-season weight (keeping my abs visible all year round) is 159-160 lb. My best squat is 330 lb and I do incline chest presses with 75 lb dumbbells. My max in chins is 14 reps.

There's more. Just click on the title of this post!

Melissa Dettwiller and Gene Hwang At Arnold Classic Afterparty

Arnold Afterparty, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

The woman on the left -- well, the only woman in the photo -- is not Babarella, but famous female bodybuilder Melissa Dettwiller at the after-party for the Arnold Classic. All I can say is wow.

Oh, the guy's GeneX Hwang, the equally famous photographer of women bodybuilders, but we're not focused on him!

Monica Mollica - Super Legs Woman

Yep. Sweden's Monica Mollica's a Super Woman and getting stronger every day.

She says her idol / objective is IFBB Pro Heather Policky "Why do you think I'm busting my ass?" she asks.

Well, she's certainly doing that and with the desire to have the sheer thigh mass that Ms. Policky is known for.

I'd say she's on her way.

Jennifer Benda At The Arnold Classic

Jennifer Benda @ the Arnold, originally uploaded by hansk01.

Hans Klien takes this photo of Jennifer Benda, the 2006 Orange County (CA) Classic - NPC, Heavyweight, second place winner, at the Arnold Classic.

Jody May At The 2007 Arnold Classic

Jody May, originally uploaded by hansk01.

Hans Klein captures Jody May at the pre-judging at the Arnold Classic. Jody's showing a new hair-style compared to her appearance at the NPC Nationals in Atlanta in 2005. But the smile's still the same.

Jaime Buffalari - Classic Pict From Photo Shoot With GeneX

Jaime Buffalari, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

This is simply one of GeneX's best photos in my opinion. He captures Jaime Buffalari in a classic black and white conception and an angle that in one view manages to take her beauty and muscularity to a new level.

More on Jaime Buffalari here.

Annie Rivieccio At The 2007 Arnold Classic

GS2Q1442, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

Annie Rivieccio shows an hourglass body, ripped thighs, and great symetry in this photo. She placed seventh in the contest.

Arnold Classic Posedown - Lisa Aukland, Heather Policky, and Heather Foster

_MG_5345, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

This photo features Lisa Aukland, the fourth place winner of the Arnold Classic on the left with Heather Policky in the middle and Heather Foster on the right. Check out Lisa hamstring development.

Yaxeni Oriquen, Iris Kyle, and Heather Policky At The Arnold Classic

_MG_5227, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

This is a great photo of the eventual Arnold Classic winner, Iris Kyle in the middle of a posedown featuring Yaxeni Oriquen on the left and Heather Policky on the right.

Iris Kyle Wins 2007 Arnold Classic

PRO
Ms. International Bodybuilding
Overall: Iris Kyle

1) Iris Kyle
2) Yaxeni Oriquen
3) Heather Policky
4) Lisa Aukland
5) Betty Pariso
6) Dayana Cadeau
7) Annie Rivieccio
8) Bonny Priest
9)Toni Norman
10) Cathy Lefrancois
11) Lora Ottenad
12) Denise Masino
13) Kim Perez
14) Colette Nelson
15) Rose Jennings
16) Susanne Niederhauser

Figure International

1) Mary Elizabeth Lado
2) Amanda Savell
3) Sonia Adcock
4) Latisha Wilder
5) Valerie Waugaman
6) Gina Aliotti
7) Chastity Slone
8) Julie Wallis
9) Christine Wan
10) Inga Neverauskaite
11) Jane Awad
12) Debbie Leung
13) Briana Tindall
14) Corry Matthews
15) Zena Collins

Fitness International

1) Kim Klein
2) Jen Hendershott
3) Adela Garcia
4) Tanji Johnson
5) Julie Palmer
6) Tracey Greenwood
7) Julie Shipley-Childs
8) Debra Czempinski
9) Hollie Stewart
10) Angela Monteleone-Semsch
11) Amy Villa-Nelson
12) Mindi O'Brien
13) Bethany Gainey
14) Amy Haddad
15) Heidi Fletcher
* qualifies for 2007 Olympia

GeneX Sneaks Up On Melissa Dettwiller At Arnold Classic

They refer to this as a mugging of Melissa Dettwiller, but I'll be kinder. Check out the video:

Amy Schmid Looks Ripped At 2007 Arnold Classic

Amy Schmid, originally uploaded by hansk01.

Amy Schmid at the weigh-in at the 2007 Arnold Classic amateur show, Columbus, Ohio, March 2007.

Jody May Weighs In At 2007 Arnold Classic

Jody weighs in, originally uploaded by hansk01.

Hans Klein captures Jody May at the weigh-in at the 2007 Arnold Classic amateur show, Columbus, Ohio, March 2007. He reports:

" Jody May arrived in Columbus after a three-day drive from Texas and weighed in at 159 pounds (she came in at 166 at Nationals last November so she’s in much better shape this time). She looked awesome and is definitely going to be hard to beat in the heavies…"

Michelle Jones - British Female Bodybuilder - 2006 UK Champion

DSC00684, originally uploaded by hansk01.

Michelle Jones is an up and coming female bodybuilder who -- at 21 -- has a lot of potential on top of what' she's already done. She works out at Forest Gym in the UK, where these photos were taken by Hans Klein, a writer for GeneX Magazine. It can be said that Hans discovered her for the Internet world.

He posted this account:

Michelle Jones, a 21 year-old British girl I met today, is one of the most promising young female bodybuilders to come out of England in years - in fact, since Joanna Thomas. When she won the British equivalent of Nationals last October – only her second ever show – she was, in fact, even younger than Joanna was when she won the same show back in 1998. But unfortunately, the rules have now been changed. Whereas Joanna got a pro card automatically, Michelle will have to compete at the Europeans or Worlds to get hers.

To that end, she’s in the middle of what she calls a “two-year process of bulking up”. At 5-foot-3, she competed last October at 125 pounds and she’s already put on a lot of size since then - as I saw when I went to visit her today at Forest Gym, a hardcore gym (paint peeling off the equipment, signed photos of pros on the wall, Rammstein playing) in Sussex, just south of London, where she trains.

More on Michelle Jones here.

2007 Arnold Classic Women's Bodybuilding Competitor List - Contest Is March 2nd - 3rd

Women's Bodybuilding

Lightweight

Dianne Brown Maryland
Ann Caliri North Carolina
Ayanna Carroll Maryland
Brigette Charles Ohio
Annette Costa Florida
Cindy Goodrich Washington
Nisette Gray Michigan
Dee Lazard Texas
Leslie Nelson Ohio
Jennifer Wilson Kentucky

Middleweight


Debra Brock South Carolina
Shannon Chandler North Carolina
Shar Courtney Texas
Tedda Focht Ohio
Sueallen Lottimore Arizona
Jill Lundy Ohio
Rachael McMillan Georgia
Holly Nicholson Nevada
Christy Resendes Massachusetts
Amy Schmid Ohio
Heavyweight Lynn Aubrey Kentucky
Leigh Ann Bowen Kentucky
Marcia Ferguson Ohio
Merry Christine Harris Washington
Karin Klein Ohio
DeChanta Knox Delaware
Yamile Marrero Florida
Jody May Texas
Evy Rustad Norway
Emanuela Silvagni New York

Women's Figure

A Class Heather Bear Indiana
Anne Broadbent Kentucky
Lisa Brown Alabama
Sanovia Nikki Browner Nevada
Robin Channell Tennessee
Julie Costa Massachusetts
Charmaine Davis Delaware
Michelle DeVere-Jones Kentucky
Theresa Evans Connecticut
Kara Flowers Ohio
Jill Frew New York
Rachel Gallegos Colorado
Trina Goosby Florida
Bethann Hyndshaw New Jersey
Liza Kampstra Colorado
Carla L. Kearns Pennsylvania
Jill Knight Oregon
Crystal Lowery California
Cindy Martinez Florida
Kathryn Payton Texas
Tiffany Procopio Maryland
Katrina Roundtree Virginia
Rosalind Vail Florida
Angela Wagner Missouri
Nikki Warner Indiana
Alisa Williams Tennessee

B Class

Jane Archer Indiana
Nadine Baker Indiana
Lori Burnett Ohio
Gina Cardone New York
Nina T. Cash Ohio
Sarah Chilia Ohio
Carmen Demske Florida
Michelle Duckworth Kentucky
Nicole Fatigati Missouri
Bea Fox California
Kristen Grider Arizona
Terri Jett South Carolina
Kelly Long Indiana
Carla Machado-Jones Maryland
Yvette Lozano California
Chelsey Morgenstern Ohio
Essie Numminen Nevada
Ann Pratt Arizona
Marchell Purcey Ohio
Grace Rivera New York
Janet Routzong Hilliard
Jacqui Skibba Colorado
Tiffany Underwood Ohio
Nicole Wilkenfeld Minnesota
Tonya Wood Arizona

Women's Figure (Continued)

C Class

Teresa Anthony Maryland
Kim Barnes-Jefferson Massachusetts
Natalie Calland Ohio
Michele Cogger California
Katie Dulac New Hampshire
Rose Mary Fries Texas
Marie Gibbon Ohio
Molly Gillespie Texas
Laurie Eldredge Connecticut
Caralyn Hammonds Tennessee
Katie Heath Utah
Kristi Knights Maine
Jenny Lewis Colorado
Amber Mixell Pennsylvania
Felica O'Neal Ohio
Melissa Pearo Oklahoma
Holly Powell Ohio
Jennifer Schumm Colorado
Michelle Selwyn Florida
Sandra Simons Washington, DC
Robin Sinclear California
Kathryn Stewart Indiana
Charity Tinsley Ohio
Jill Travaglia Minnesota
Michele Welcome-Pellegato Connecticut
Lucinda Marie Witte California
Shelly Yakimchuk Canada

D Class

Alicia Marie New York
Amy Bates Florida
Dawnice Beckley Ohio
Ardrenia Blackshear-Lyons Florida
Natalie Blommel Ohio
Amanda Bollinger Utah
Renee Bradford Texas
Felicia Bruno Texas
Gretchen Crass Maryland
Claire Davies Indiana
Brooke Doran Maryland
Sarah Dowd Ohio
Nancy Georges California
Christine Holland-Morrow New Jersey
Wendy Kust Illinois
Stephanie Larkin Florida
Lisa Miles Ohio
Roberta Orth Canada
Elise Prucha New York
Danielle Rouleau Florida
Lisa Sonterre-Hausfeld Ohio
Shannan Yorton California
Leyla Yurchick Ohio
Shaushi Zike Washington

Women's Fitness

Short Class

Colleen Baldwin Texas
Maggie Blanchard New Hampshire
Dawn Butterfield Rhode Island
Rachelle Cannon Maryland
Bethany Chorba Michigan
Jessica Clay Ohio
Andrea Cloninger North Carolina
Sara Flom California
Kelly Foster Ohio
Venus Nguyen Arizona
Toneka Pires Massachusetts
Venus Ramos California
Cristina Ray Indiana
Emily Smith Ohio
Cindy Steedle Georgia

Tall Class

Kristin Marie Ackerson Vermont
Jill Brooks Texas
Tara Carrillo Colorado
Jodie Cohen Massachusetts
Monique Colbert Florida
Barbie Guerra Arizona
Tanis Hill Canada
Lilla Krifaton Nevada
Amanda Marinelli Florida
Betsy McNally-Harris Illinois
ShaNay Montez Norvell Georgia
Rochelle Rene Florida
Amanda Smith Massachusetts

Mary Lynne McKenzie Bending Steel - Video

There's something really sexy about a beautful woman bending steel, and that's certainly true for Mary Lynne Mackenzie , who's shown here doing just that. Plus, she not only bends the bar, but continues to turn it into a knot! Whew. It's really a great example of what Dr. Heywood was writing about when she asserted that female bodybuilders could be shown doing "what they do" rather than in an obviously erotic pose.



More on Mary:

I was born in Canada, & have lived in Woodstock, Toronto, Niagara Falls, & am currently living in London, Ontario, Canada. I have been studying Chinese Medicine for several years, and am about to enter my final year of school, after which I will write my licencing exams, hopefully become a Dr. of TCM, & begin practicing.

I've had a very athletic background, which began pretty much as soon as it was able. I have done swimming, figure skating, ballet & jazz, a little gymnastics, baseball, basketball, volleyball, track & field, rowing, & finally bodybuilding.

It was rowing that introduced me to weight training, & my desire to be as competitive as possible, that made me persue it. I was 17 when I began lifting weights, & I've been hooked ever since.

It wasn't untill I was about 19 or 20 that I began to entertain the notion of competing in bodybuilding, .... I remember seeing Lisa Lyons & Kiki Aloma in the magazines and thinking they looked magnificent. I entered my first contest when I was 21, in London Ontario. Although I have always worked out consistently, my competitive phases have been very on & off. I have probably done about 15 bodybuilding competitions over my 25 yrs. of weight training, of which I have won 5 firsts in heavyweight women (with 4 overalls), & a first in the Masters @ the Canada's. (There have numerous 2nd & 3rd place finishings.)

School, working part-time, & training, keeps me quite busy. I usually train 6 days a week, for an average of about 2hrs.(more during contest prep.). I normally start my exercises with lighter weights doing high reps, & work up to heavier weights doing lower reps. I never try for a maximum weight, but rather try to work with a respectable amount of weight for a descent amount of solid reps.

Most people say my arms are my best body part; but, some say it's my back. I have never taken my measurements, but maybe someday I'll be brave enough to. I rarely weigh myself, but my weight doesn't fluctuate a lot through the year, I'm generally somewhere between 145 & 160 lbs.. I have no favourite exercises, .... they're all fun :)

What do Judges want? .... I DO care what they want but, "You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself." I just try to "worry about" getting in the best condition that "I" can.

Other than bodybuilding, my hobbies are studying Chinese Medicine, doing artwork, mountain biking, eating, music, knitting, and shopping. .This year (2003) I am preparing to compete in the Canada's (in September).

Monica Mollica By GeneX

Monica Mollica, originally uploaded by genexmagazine.

This is another beautiful photo of Monica Mollica , who can't seem to take a bad one. There's little information on her, but that she's married and lives in Sweden, and is a writer, all at 26 years old.

Athletic vs. Pornographic Eroticism In Women's Bodybuilding - Leslie Heywood, Ph.D.

I found this article and found it provacative, as it tries -- and does -- make a distinction between the kind of photos of Women Bodybuilders that are obviously erotic, and those that show their athleticism, but have an erotic component just by their being shown in society.

Leslie does this, but also complains about the "porn" aspect of some photos. I personally think that there is a fine line between erotic and athletic photos of women bodybuilders given the nature of the sport, where it calls for women to show their bodies with little in the way of fabric to hide anything.

There's an aspect of the "shame on you" perspective that Leslie brings, and it must be countered by the assertion that as communications technology has advanced, our ability to see images quickly is without compare in history and has enabled society's baser desire to see women and men in the flesh, thus causing what some call the "pornification" of American society.

Given the need to advance the idea of the strong woman, I personally feel that some basic erotic images are "ok" as long as they're not placed for view by youth. In other words, how's society going to appreciate a strong female image if its denied the chance to see one -- even if it's in the buff?

I also think Leslie's too forgiving of the very Women Bodybuilders who do take the kind of porn-oriented photos she compains about. If they refused to consent to the photo shoot, the images would not exist. Yet, I'll bet each one would explain that there's little sponsorship money coming to them, so the dollars offered to produce such pictures is hard to pass up.

That's something Leslie should look at.

There's yet another school of thought that America's a bit too hung up on the matter of revealing images that go without conflict or concern in Europe.

This is the first of many posts to come on this; i'm glad Leslie's writing about it! Here's Leslie and her article.

About Leslie Heywood, Ph.D.

A former University of Arizona track and cross-country runner and currently a power lifter and bodybuilder, Leslie Heywood is the author of Dedication to Hunger: The Anorexic Aesthetic in Modern Culture (California), Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Bodybuilding (Rutgers), and the forthcoming sports memoir Pretty Good for a Girl (September 1998, The Free Press / Simon & Schuster). She writes widely on issues of gender, women, popular culture, and sport, and is an assistant professor of English at the State University of New York, Binghamton where she teaches cultural and sports studies, twentieth century literature and theory, and creative writing.

"I was fast asleep," Ben Weider writes, "on the morning of the 30th of January, when sometime around 3 AM, I received a telephone call from Nagano, Japan, informing me that the IFBB had been granted official IOC recognition and that bodybuilding was now a sport to be respected the same as other sports."i Weider waxes lyrical about the years it has taken to reach this goal: his struggle to legitimize a sport that--though those of us within the bodybuilding community may hold it dear, giving it much of our free time as well as the literal sweat off our brows--still isn't seen by the mainstream as a sport. Nope. For the most part, out in the "real world," bodybuilding is still seen as a pathetic parade of narcissistic steroid freaks.

Weider's quest for legitimacy is one that conceivably the entire bodybuilding community would support, including the legitimization of the sport's female participants. Yet, as is Flex's custom, a little over a hundred pages after Weider's story, the magazine runs a pictorial of fitness competitor Minna Lessig so trivializing and prurient in its focus (Minna sprawled with her head upside down, corkscrew curls cascading down, open-mouthed, eyes closed, on her back across a stool with a base like a corkscrew to mirror her hair, wearing the requisite satin briefs and heels) that it indisputably contributes to the fact that female bodybuilders and fitness competitors are not respected the same as athletes in other sports. In the long struggle for legitimacy that has finally seen some progress, I would argue that as long as there is pornographic representation of female bodybuilders and fitness competitors within the bodybuilding magazines, the sport's main outlet for media exposure, Weider's dream of mainstream acceptance will remain compromised and bodybuilding will not be taken seriously as a sport. Until bodybuilding treats its female athletes with a modicum of the respect they surely deserve, it will remain the marginalized freak show that it stages in the mainstream cultural imagination today.

In the midst of a mad cultural dash in a forward direction, something went definitively retro in the mid-nineties, and it wasn't the return of platform shoes or the resurgence of the BeeGees, and certainly not the comeback of the Volkswagen Bug. Retro isn't always a bad thing--it's harmless, and is so openly nostalgic it can even be kind of fun, reminding us of our rough and ready carefree days when our lives seemed simpler. But when retro means turning back the clock on progressive ideas about women's strength, it isn't harmless, and when the bodybuilding magazines started to overtly sexualize the top female competitors in 1993 or '94, this kind of representation did much more harm than good. More is at stake here than regressive and progressive ideas about gender, which is a seemingly endless and unanswerable debate. As I have discussed at some length in my recent book Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Bodybuilding, there are several approaches to the representation of female athletes, and the nude or erotic portrayals of Olympic athletes seen in the mixed-gender layouts in Life magazine in the summer of 1996 make the soft-porn photographic styles characteristic of the bodybuilding magazines seem laughably regressive. Given rapid and primarily progressive changes in cultural attitudes toward female athletes in the `90's, when Flex torqued up the let's-make-female-bodybuilders-sexy bandwagon in 1994 with its Power and Sizzle pictorials (making the incorrect assumption that they were not sexy without the props of porn), despite greater exposure and much positive response, it did so at the cost of the sport's public legitimacy.ii

In his recent book The Erotic in Sports, sports historian Allen Guttmann takes issue with criticisms of media representations of female athletes which make a rigid distinction between athleticism and eroticism. Many critics, he explains, question representations where an athlete is represented as a "`sexy female' rather than as a `serious, committed athlete with a discipline and desire for athletic excellence.'"iii In the period the critics analyze, previous to the mid-nineties, representations did tend to fall in an either /or categorization that either presented female athletes as serious, desexualized competitors, or as sexualized bodies whose athleticism existed only for the sake of enhancing sex appeal.

But representations that combine both athleticism and eroticism have appeared more and more frequently since the 1996 Olympics. Guttmann writes that "the media can be faulted whenever they focus mainly or exclusively on a female athlete's erotic appeal, which is what they often did in the past, but it is time to recognize that most of today's journalists are more than willing to acknowledge the strength, endurance, toughness, and skills of women . . . Neanderthals still roam the airwaves, but they are a dying species."iv If you compare any of the other sports magazines and their progressive, athletic and erotic representations of female athletes to those pruriently reductive, cliche-ridden, cheaply sexualized images found in bodybuilding industry publications like Flex, Ironman, Musclemag International, or All Natural Muscular Development, one might be led to believe that, true to stereotype, the bodybuilding industry is staffed by just such a dying species. Come on, guys, isn't it time to start rewriting the cliches about male bodybuilders as well, to refute the dominant cultural perception that bodybuilders are regressively sexist, brainless hunks of flesh--in a word, Neanderthals?

The disclaimer that used to run in front of the Power and Sizzle pictorials argued that female bodybuilders, who are rejected by the mainstream, would be more accepted by said mainstream if it realized how sexually attractive female bodybuilders really are, and promoting this realization was the ostensible reason for the monthly pictorial. That particular Flex strategy was not without precedent. Historically, the sexualization of female athletes has often been used to sell women's sports, as when the women's baseball leagues of the forties sported deliberately sexy uniforms, or when, in the late eighties, before the more recent explosion of interest, the women's basketball team at Louisiana's Northwestern State University were asked to pose in Playboy bunny costumes for their school's media guide. In a cultural climate that was hostile or indifferent to female athletic participation, overt sexualization may have been a necessary strategy, a way of building an audience that would lead to broader forms of acceptance and respect. But in a cultural climate that has recently shown itself to be enthusiastically embracing the female athlete, this strategy becomes regressive and dated, and may, in fact, contribute to the continued marginalization of the sport of bodybuilding at the very time when other women's sports--women's hockey, for instance, are enjoying widespread acceptance.

I. Female Athletes: Recent Cultural Developments
There is a powerful, affirmative movement growing in our culture, and the bodybuilding industry doesn't seem to be part of it. The bodybuilding world avoids joining this movement at its peril, for at least since the summer Olympics of 1996, female athletes have been hailed as the latest site for girls' and women's empowerment, and the widespread public acceptance of the female athlete--long, long overdue--has been resounding, and for good reasons.

Women in athletics has emerged as a national public health issue of great importance. The landmark study written under the auspices of The President's Council of Physical Fitness and Sports, the report "Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Young Girls" was the first to "look at `the complete girl' through an interdisciplinary approach to investigate the impact of physical activity and sport participation." The study concluded that

regular physical activity can reduce girls' risk of many of the chronic diseases of adulthood; female athletes do better academically and have lower school drop-out rates than their nonathletic counterparts; and regular physical activity can enhance girls' mental health, reducing symptoms of stress and depression and improving self esteem. But further vigilance and research are needed to ensure that all girls and boys can experience the same benefits (5).v

Given the importance of these findings, the study of women and girls in athletics is a major and exponentially growing area of research. According to the President's Council study, in the two-plus decades since Title IX, federal legislation passed in 1972 that prohibited sex discrimination in education, women's athletic participation nationally has grown from 300,000 to roughly 2.25 million participants today. In light of this rapid development, scholars and educators have begun to research the impact of athletic participation on the lives of girls and women and have found that there is significant correlation between sports participation, high grade point average, greater well-being and sense of self-esteem and significant achievement later in life.

Perhaps because of increased participation as well as these findings, female athletes now have a distinctive place in the mass media. In the spring of 1996, Nike ran its famous "If You Let Me Play" campaign, which focused the social debate and research on female athletes: "If you let me play/ I will like myself more / I will have more self-confidence / I will suffer less depression / I will be 60% less likely to get breast cancer / I will be more likely to leave a man who beats me / I will be less likely to get pregnant before I want to / I will learn what it means to be strong / If you let me play sports." In the October 1995 issue of Outside magazine, the cover story "The Ubergirl Cometh" proclaimed a new archetype for women: "The age of Gabrielle Reece is upon us. She's big, she's strong, and with thousands more like her out there, she's replicating fast . . . Reece leads a pack of women who are currently redefining our image of the female athlete, inspiring a generation of young girls to take control of their bodies and pride in their strength . . . Can you deal with that?"vi

This image of female athlete is new. Mass market appeal to the female athlete is new. Offering up athletics as a solution to social problems most often suffered by women is new. A large demographic of women who participate in organized sports is new. The assumption that enough women live in the athlete's world--defined by bravery, competence, and strength--to make up a viable market is new. Female athletes were once oddities, goddesses or monsters, exceptions to every social rule. Now the female athlete is an institution.

She's the product of late twentieth-century times: the growth of a consumer economy which meant more women in jobs for the first time, the expansion of the entertainment industry and thereby of sports, a culture marked by progressive movements for change--race rights, gay rights, women's rights, a culture taking notice of girls and the different women they become. Chief among these was the passage of Title IX, the Education Act of 1972, which mandated equal funding and facilities for women's sports in any institution receiving federal dollars. This one piece of legislation would make millions of women into athletes, changing the shape of the female body forever. The female athlete, set against old ideas of female incompetence and physical weakness, the woman's place is decorative and is in the home.

Reports that herald the coming of the Ubergirl and that play to the issue of girls' self-esteem are to some extent responses to the famous 1991 AAUW study, "Shortchanging Girls, Shortchanging America," the first extensive national survey on gender and self-esteem, which reconfirmed earlier work like that of Carol Gilligan. The AAUW study showed that adolescence, for girls, brought a loss of confidence in their abilities to succeed, bitterly critical feelings about their bodies, and a mushrooming sense that they aren't valued by the world around them with a resulting sense of personal inadequacy.

Since the AAUW study, there has been a growing understanding of issues relevant to girls and self-esteem, which has led to social initiatives like the "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day." Along with these initiatives, one of the most frequently advanced solutions for the esteem problem is sports, and recently the National Girls and Women in Sports Day (Feb. 5) has been coupled with a "Take a Girl to the Game" program, which is modeled on "Bring Your Daughter to Work." Such events show a growing consensus that a lifestyle for girls and women which includes sports or regular physical activity of some kind will "inspire a generation of young girls to take control of their bodies and pride in their strength."

There is a new ideal image that matches these social initiatives to value girls. As a recent article in New York Times Magazine pointed out, the athletic, muscular woman is an image that has no historical precedent, and that, while slow in catching on, has spread like wildfire in the late '90's. Around the time of the '96 Olympics, Holly Brubach celebrated the new "Athletic Esthetic," a "new ideal emerging whose sex appeal is based on strength." Looking at female athletes, at the rapid flowering of ads that show athletic women, Brubach writes, "These women exude competence; they can carry their own suitcases. Their muscles, like the fashion models' slenderness, are hard-earned, but here the means is not abstinence but exertion. Though their bodies have been meticulously cultivated, their bodies aren't the point: the point is their ability to perform. What is most striking, given that it's the other two ideals [anorexic and voluptuous; Kate Moss and Victoria's Secret] that are calculated to please--to win the admiration of women or the affection of men--is the fact that these athletes seem content in a way that the other women don't."

The kind of personal integrity Bruback eludes to in the athletic image is not a new idea. Advocates of women's sports, from educators to participants, have been articulating the benefits of athletic participation for most of the century, but it isn't until very recently that these ideas have gained widespread cultural currency. What happened to make arguments which once fell on deaf ears suddenly register so powerfully on the national radar? What made mainstream public perceptions of the female athlete shift so radically from the pejorative female athlete as "mannish lesbian" stereotype to the glorified "women we love who kick ass" of the present moment? What happened to facilitate--finally--the formation of women's professional leagues, most visibly in basketball?

Part of the cultural shift has a simple demographic explanation. At the time of Title IX, 1 in 9 women participated in organized sports, while now the statistics are 1 in 3. More bodies, more interest. Nike was the first to make the female athlete as athlete, not just a pretty girl, central to its advertising campaigns, and many other imitators were soon to follow in the `female-athlete-as-the-ideal-image-of-female-power' trend. At first it was just athletic apparel companies like Reebok and Lady Footlocker, Champs, but after the 1996 Olympics the athletic female body was paired with everything from Evian ("Within me lives a superhero") to Diet Mountain Dew to Movado watches. As a result, the athletic female body has finally made it on the cultural scene. For those of us who have been athletes for a long time, it's a bit like what feminist rocker/actress Courtney Love says of her recent spate of cover appearances: that after years of invisibility or vilification, "it's like being popular all of a sudden. You know?" We know. After years of being told we are too muscular or too big, too aggressive and domineering, our bodies and the attitudes that go with them have been accepted and even glorified, offered in the mass media as a models of strength, possibility, and personal integrity for young women, an example of our growing power in the world. How could the situation be any better? In short, the cultural stage is set in a way it has never been set before for the widespread cultural acceptance of female bodybuilders as real athletes.

II. Bodybuilding and Representation: Athletic Eroticism vs. Pornographic Eroticism
Given the decided shift in cultural attitudes toward female athleticism in general, within the bodybuilding world the question now becomes whether the industry wants women's bodybuilding and fitness to be understood as sports, or as kinky versions of the twinned traditions of beauty pageants and soft-core pornography. Because it is such an overt exhibition of the body, bodybuilding has courted the respectability problem since the beginning of its history, as is reflected in the fifty-two years it took Ben Weider to win Olympic recognition.

Because of cultural ambivalence about female sexuality, the problem for women's bodybuilding is that much greater. 'Good girls don't,' but of course, at least since the '60's, good girls do. As Elizabeth Wurtzel writes in Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women, "bad is where it's at. . . in the pageantry of public life, in the places where women invent personae, the one statement a girl can make to declare her strength, her surefootedness, her autonomy-- her self as a self--is to somehow be bad."vii Good girls do, but they don't advertise it. Will she or won't she is the mystery, and the seemingly unobtainable kick-ass chick like Xena Warrior Princess, or the it's-just-one-part-of-me sexuality of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a much more powerful draw than the babe who, like Aphrodite on Xena, says 'fuck me.'

The establishment bodybuilding photographers, however, have all their subjects say 'fuck me,' and act as if this is a new and novel thing. "Sex sells," is often the excuse that is offered, "that's just the way things are." But it's not just the way things are (women's basketball sells, too). If we simply accept things 'the way they are,' we disavow human will, creativity, initiative, the same will bodybuilders use to get us through the rigors of our sport every day. The same will of those brave, brave women and men who spent their life's blood to get us Title IX and ensured girls would be able to compete in sports in the first place. Let me stress it again: sports are not only about sex, at least not directly. If you want to be taken seriously as an athlete at this particular cultural moment, much better to sell your sport to the public through subtlety, through indirection, through putting emphasis on the multi-faceted nature of athleticism, of which sexuality is just one component. As all there and out there in terms of exposed flesh as bodybuilding is already, anything it does in terms of sexualizing the representational field cannot be overt or, like so much contemporary bodybuilding photography, it will be reducible to a bad cliche.

The swimsuit layout in this year's Flex (February 1998) to name just one of innumerable issues that are mind-numbing in their unremitting sameness, was, if possible, more prurient and blatant that the Maxim Men's Magazine 1998 calendar shots, which have nothing whatsoever to do with athleticism: "On the following pages," the Maxim calendar says, "you will find no Nobel prize winners, no groundbreaking inventors, no inspiring teachers, no worth politicians . . . in choosing our Women of the Year, we . . . bypassed intelligence, sidesteped achievement, and did a quick two-step around character and integrity. We combed the earth for the finest specimens of female flesh the planet has to offer, seeking out beauty not in its many wondrous forms but in a single, myopically narrow form . . . breathtaking brunettes, ravishing redheads, blow-you away blondes." The pages that follow include Kate Moss, hair upswept in a messy '50's do, clad only in a pair of black panties, thigh highs and black platform stilettos, clutching a teddy bear, Tyra Banks, head down, rear in the air, Salma Hayek in black vinyl rising out of a pool. Yet these images, which are images of models whose sole purpose is sexual attractiveness, are pretty asexual, actually, compared to the February Flex, which features not fashion models but female bodybuilding and fitness competitors: Carol Semple-Marzetta, 1997 Fitness International Champion, in black-and-white bikini that is a parody of tux and tails, raising a top hat, balancing precariously on 6-inch heels on the sidewalk in front of a hotel. Milamar Flores, fitness competitor, in a bikini of tiny hot pink pieces of cloth and strings, posed with mouth open invitingly. Cory Everson, 6-time Ms. Olympia, in a bikini of red macramé net. Madonna Grimes and Milamar Flores doing a version of spoons: Flores' chest straining into Grimes' back, her crotch to Grimes' hip.

So are photographers of any other women's sport doing this kind of thing with Venus Williams? Sheryl Swoopes? Rebecca Lobo? Gwen Torrance? Picabo Street? Janet Evans? So far it hasn't happened. So why use this kind of representation when it comes to bodybuilding and fitness champs like Lenda Murray, Cory Everson, Madonna Grimes? What is it about bodybuilding and fitness that seem to so readily lend themselves to this kind of unsophisticated sexualization? Isn't it possible to render these athletes in a different way?

In his debate with some feminist interpretations of the representation of female athletes, Allen Guttmann argues against what he sees as feminist "hostility to the erotic element in sports," stating that it is the body itself, not the photographs of it, that are erotic--that the athletic body is erotic regardless of how it is shot. It is no more possible, in his view, to eliminate the erotic dimension in representation than it is to eliminate muscles from a worked-out body.viii I grant him that premise, but what Guttmann fails to emphasize is that there are different forms of the erotic, and the kind that the bodybuilding magazines sell is not athletic eroticism but rather pornographic eroticism. The work of Bill Dobbins is one example that makes use of both these modalities. As I argued in chapter four of Bodymakers, his 1994 book The Women contains examples of both kinds of eroticism I am discussing here, and while the former does important cultural work in terms of how it promotes the sport, the latter is undermines that very work.

Following Guttmann, but differing from his emphasis, I define pornographic eroticism as characteristic of any representation that operates synechdochically--that is, any representation that takes sexuality, which is one part of humanity and human experience, and makes it stand for the whole of that human being and experience, any representation that makes sexuality the primary characteristic of the person represented. I define athletic eroticism as a representation that includes sexuality as one dimension of human experience, as a quality that emerges from the self-possession, autonomy, and strength so evident in the body of a female athlete. Athletic eroticism includes sexuality as one quality among many, not a trait that is present to the exclusion of all else. As long as the bodybuilding industry chooses pornographic over athletic eroticism in their representation of female bodybuilders and fitness competitors, a representation that reduces these athletes to their sexuality, these sports will never be taken seriously as sports, and Ben Weider's dream will never be fully achieved.

An article in the June 1998 edition of Ironman focuses inadvertently on this difference between athletic and pornographic forms of eroticism in a way that joins the debate about the representation of female athletes to the more specific debate about female bodybuilders. The "Point Counterpoint" column was devoted this month to the question of female muscle, and the pro-muscle side of the debate contained the following point of view, written by Butch Lebowitz: "I used to think women's bodybuilding was heading in the wrong direction . . . year after year I'd see the physiques getting bigger and more ripped, see the women flexing on stage and think, `Man, I wouldn't want to wake up next to that.' Then one day it hit me. That's not the point, you friggin' sexist moron. They're not building their bodies to give me a woody; it's a competition, for crissakes, and they have an obsessive drive to be the best at something. It's an athlete's mind-set."ix Thank you, Butch. If Butch can come around to this point of view--they're not building their bodies to give me a woody . . . it's an athlete's mind-set --surely whoever is responsible for the conceptualizations of the magazine pictorials can come around to this realization as well. It's the athleticism, stupid.

Indeed, there is some evidence of just such thinking in the most recent issue of Flex (June 1998, there may be hope yet), which for the first time since the early nineties includes a pictorial of two women training in the gym together rather than engaged in some kind of teasing sex play with each other (as in the centerfold of Amy Fadhli and Madonna Grimes in the February 1998 Flex, clad literally only in strings, sprawled on their stomachs, girls-just-wanna-have-fun smiles on their faces, buttocks elevated, Fadhli behind Grimes with Grimes' pink strings playfully lodged between her white, white teeth). "Girl Power!", featuring former Ms. Olympia Lenda Murray and current Ms. O Kim Chizevsky, is in direct contrast to the same month's centerfold pictorial of Dale Tomita in stock-porn modality, decked out in plastic-and-steel stilettos and with sections of fishnet draped over her. In "Girl Power!" we get nine amazing pages of Lenda and Kim in full cut-and-pumped-up glory, straining through a real workout , wearing real lifters' clothes, not bikinis and heels. They are concentrating, serious, doing their thing. They are athletes, and they are beautiful, bis and tris and lats to die for. The "Hot Tomita!" spread is a clear example of what I am calling pornographic eroticism, while the "Girl Power!" spread is an example of what I am calling athletic eroticism.

Now I'm sure that there are some "morons" out there, who still think that the main purpose of women's bodybuilding and its representation in the bodybuilding magazines is to "give them a woody," and these "morons" will write in to Flex complaining about how supposedly monstrous and unfeminine Kim and Lenda looked all flexed and striated, quads half a house thick, sweating and straining through heavy concentration curls. But to me "Girl Power!" was the most encouraging thing I have seen in a bodybuilding magazine since the early `90's, a sign that maybe the general cultural acceptance of female athletes was finally rubbing off on the magazine's editorial board. Progress at last--my spirits soared. But then, about a hundred pages later, I got the report in "Flex 'n Femme that the February 1998 Penthouse ran a six-page spread of Dobbins photos from The Women, and ten pages after that I ran smack into "Hot Tomita!" So which is it? Are we going to give female bodybuilders and fitness women a little respect, presenting them as athletes who have a sexual dimension, or are we going to reduce them to a synecdoche for cliched sexual fantasy? Make up your minds, Flex.

So who do you love? And what is at stake in these schizophrenic representational spreads? Do we truly want widespread, mainstream recognition of bodybuilding as a sport? Do we, in a cultural context becoming increasingly supportive of female athletes and their achievements, want that recognition only for men? Do we want women's bodybuilding and fitness to be accepted--as Olympic recognition would seem to merit--as serious sports, or do we want to relegate them to the realm of an alternative beauty pageant, the site for the production of reader's woodies? Aren't woodies--or attraction and appreciation, anyway, also possible in response to athletic eroticism, to representations that focus on women's athletic achievements, not cliched sex?

In the arguments I am making here, I am not advocating censorship. I am not suggesting a boycott of pornography. What I am advocating is a corollary to what Ben Weider has worked his whole life to achieve--that bodybuilding become "a sport to be respected the same as other sports." I am advocating that female bodybuilding and fitness athletes be respected the same as other athletes. And this is never going to happen--nor is the mainstream acceptance of bodybuilding for which Weider has worked so hard--if these athletes are denigrated within their own industry by representations that frame them in the context of pornographic rather than athletic eroticism.

Along with cultural critic Sidney Eve Matrix, who finds her positive experiences as a bodybuilder in the gym compromised by the pornographic eroticism that is used to represent the top female competitors in the muscle mags, I also "look forward toward the future . . . [when] women will continue to gain power and influence in the muscle industry, and then the major magazines will not be able to get away with the+ir outdated and inequitable attitudes. Beauty ideals for women are changing, and the demand for positive images of women with muscle mass is growing."x But the question of images and the cultural work they do is much broader than how individual women feel, for as long as the bodybuilding industry is so blatantly willing to exploit rather than respect its own, it will never gain the kind of mainstream cultural respect it has been seeking since its inception. Female athletes are here to stay. Female bodybuilders are here to stay. Disrespect us at your own peril.

Endnotes
iBen Weider, "The Long Road to Glory," Flex May 1998, p. 55.
iiLeslie Heywood, Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Bodybuilding (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1998), especially chapters two and four.

iiiAllen Guttmann, The Erotic in Sports (N.Y.: Columbia UP, 1996), p. 168. Guttmann quotes from Mary Jo Kane and Susan L. Greendorfer's important and influential study "The Media's Role in Accommodating and Resisting Stereotyped Images of Women in Sport," Women, Media, and Sport, ed. Pamela J. Creedon (London: Sage Publications, 1994).

ivGuttmann, p. 168.

vThe President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Report, "Physical Activity & Sport in the Lives of Young Girls: Physical & Mental Health Dimensions from an Interdisciplinary Approach".

viKaren Karbo & Gabrielle Reece, Big Girl in the Middle (N.Y.: Crown, 1997), p. 175.

viiElizabeth Wurtzel, Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women (N.Y.: Doubleday, 1998), pp. 2-3.

viiiGuttmann, p. 162.

ixButch Lebowitz, "Point Counterpoint: Female Muscle," Ironman (June 1998), p. 173.

xSidney Eve Matrix, "Compromising Positions: The Portrayal of Women in Bodybuilding Magazines," posted on the Faith Renee Sloan website, www.frsa.com/bbpage.shtml.