Female Bodybuilding

[thicknasty]

It seems lately that the debates regarding how female bodybuilders should judged are becoming more and more common.

On one hand there is the perspective that bodybuilding should be judged solely on muscularity, conditioning and symmetry. In the pursuit to achieve more muscle with more condition bodybuilders often rely on more drugs (aside from training and dieting) which can lead to more masculine facial features, that female bodybuilders are being penalized for now. But what if a male bodybuilder came out on stage with great muscularity, conditioning and symmetry but had feminine characteristics in his face such long pretty eye lashes with eye liner and no adams apple? Is he going to be penalized for that? NO! He will be judged on solely on his muscularity, conditioning and symmetry, not his facial feature, so why penalize females for theirs? Of course this is going make female bodybuilders less marketable for products because the vast majority of todays women don't want to look masculine. But female bodybuilders never really were, and more than likely never going to be, marketable for any mainstream products which would bring in good money to the sport so why try to change it anyways? Why not just leave it the way it is with a set standard of judging so that there isn't so much controversy in the placings and no misunderstanding of how to come in to the shows? It's aggravating seeing great female bodybuilders who obviously know a lot about dieting, training and supplementation and have paid their dues and done their homework getting beat by smaller and softer competitors just because they have a prettier face. Bodybuilders should be judged according to bodybuilding standards (muscularity, conditioning and symmetry) not marketability!

Then on the other hand there are those who feel that the marketability aspects of female bodybuilding is more important. And that the if the females keep going in this same direction as the males (bigger and leaner) that there will eventually be no sport at all because everybody will lose interest.




Should the face even matter? What do you guys think?



(the pole that says "judge by marketability" basically means "should the face matter")

 

[Gavin Kane]

I train only one female pro, and I must admit I love that she is still very feminine and pretty. She is so much more marketable that way and for some reason, I just enjoy working with her.

 

[norm1220]

I agree with thicknasty 100% on the 'femininity' issue. It should NOT be a factor. Femininity is far too subjective to be considered when judging a physique. Bodybuilding is NOT supposed to be a beauty contest, at least not in the beauty pageant sense. Development, Proportion, and Conditioning and Presentation are all that need to be considered.

It's time to start treating the gals as fairly as the male competitors. We all know what kind of discipline and dedication it takes to do this stuff right, why make them work so hard and not have a solid way of predicting their chances in a show?

I realize that plenty of folks don't find muscular women attractive, but muscularity is what bodybuilding is about. Whether or not you would want to sleep with a competitor should not enter into the picture.

 

[oldfella]

We are talking about Body Building, yes? well then it should not be a question of pretty or feminine. It is about muscularity and symmetry. If you want a beauty contest then enter one of those. Once in a while a female will come along that has both. Pleasing , hell yes. I admire beauty from all angles. I like beautiful physiques and beautiful faces. But the judgeing should be from a Body Building perspective. These girls train their asses off and deserve so much more credit than just beng labeled as steriod taking freaks. Talk to some of them, they have feeling just like us. The negative comments and finger pointing hurts. We now have figure shaping and fitness shows where there is a category for just that, beautiful, streamlined ladies. Keep Body Building the way it was intended to be, about muscle not makeup.