by Mark Meloon

Most people are genuinely horrified when I tell them that I admire female bodybuilders. The thought that immediately runs through their minds is that my interest stems from some bizarre sexual perversion and that I must have had a very troubled childhood. Oftentimes, questions such as "would you like to lie down on this couch?" or "tell me about your mother" follow. I assure everyone that I am in the best of mental health!

We live in a society where individuality is frowned upon and conformity to the norm is stressed. Although, this pressure is strongest in the early teen years and seems to let up a bit as we get older, one has to be very careful about how s/he expresses their individuality and creativity lest they be considered 'weird', 'strange', 'abnormal', and a host of other derogatory descriptors. The pressure to conform is especially strong for women. One of the major underlying themes in the media is that women HAVE TO try to look attractive to men. While we all want to look good, women are bombarded with this message at a very early age and the pressure on them is far greater than it is for men. The role of women in society is expanding as far as employment is concerned but still remains pretty restrictive as far as freedom of personal appearance. Most women are willing to do an awful lot to try to achieve that 'Cosmo' look that the media would have them believe is necessary to get the attention of some man, including starving themselves and painting their faces.

Now, of course, you can imagine what would happen if some group of women decided that they were going to express their individuality by working to achieve a different look! That is, instead of mindlessly accepting society's definition of beauty, they worked hard to design their own style of beauty. Chances are, society would take a very dim view of this and put some pretty strong pressure on these women to 'be like everyone else'. Enter the female bodybuilder -- a woman who is confident enough to be herself in spite of the fact that everyone is telling her not to. I admire female bodybuilders because they have the strength of character to do what they want to in the face of awesome opposition! And the opposition can indeed be pretty awesome. Not too many people are willing to go up to a male bodybuilder and start laughing at him! The same is NOT true for the women, however, as most of the top stars have some pretty awful stories to tell about their experiences in public. Strange, isn't it? Either the woman bodybuilder or the man are strong enough 'to deal with any trouble makers', however, hecklers seem to feel no fear in humiliating the woman. I'll leave you to think about why that might be, and what this might say about how society views men and women differently...

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