Promoting Muscular Women




Despite all the athletic success women have had especially over the last 43
years, muscular women are still viewed as problematic. The exact amount of
muscle it takes to make a problem varies from person to person. There's nearly
ubiquitous agreement though that at some point muscles are too big to be
womanly. I think that does a lot of harm not only to the women under scrutiny
for this offense, but to all layers of society. To explain what I mean, I
think it's important to take the trouble of describing my perspective, and to
clarify a few points. Firstly, I use women in sports to make my arguments
because much of the available evidence centers around athletics, and it's the
easiest for me to obtain. I know women from any walk of life can be muscular
whether they've ever played sports or not, and this applies to them too even
though I don't directly mention them. secondly, I use a lot of information
based on events in The United States of America. This is not because I think
it accurately represents all nations and societies, or because I prefer it
over another place. I'm not endorsing any of the websites whose webpages I
link to either. I know the most about it, which allows me to be as honest and
convincing as I can. Lastly, I often use muscular and strong together as part
of a single idea. This is not to oversimplify the distinctions between muscle
structure, size and strength, but rather it's recognition on my part that
these concepts are interconnected, especially for women. I am not trying to
challenge the fact that someone with smaller muscles than somebody else may be
stronger than that person. To a certain extent, one can't exist without the
other, so I think it's wise to treat them almost as if they were one and the
same in this case.

Half my motivation for endeavoring to bring attention to the most recurrent
difficulties facing muscular women in society is rooted in my personal
circumstances. I was born roughly three months premature. From the
complications that ensued during my delivery, a brain hemorrhage contributed
to me developing mild spastic cerebral palsy, and retinopathy of prematurity
left me totally blind. Of my two impairments, cerebral palsy is the more
challenging to deal with as it limits my mobility. Fortunately, on the whole
it's not really that bad. I have practically full use of my upper body, and I
can walk. On my own, I walk best on flat surfaces and I can even stumble up
and down moderate hills. I can use most stairs with a handrail. For everything
else, I have to hold onto at least one person. A second person augments the
capabilities I get from external support. Mainly, I can move faster in general
to the point of achieving double rhythm for short distances, jump, and I can
better cope with different types of terrain which is more useful. The one
factor that most fosters the specific conditions that enable me to be
productive is control over my environment. It's been a consistent part of my
life since early childhood. My life is about to change in a way where my
environment is largely unknown, and my ability to master it is certainly not
guaranteed. I've always been able to depend on people to help me with
something I can't manage by myself. They may no longer be around most of the
time. My entire foreseeable future is different from everything I have
experienced so far because of all the unprecedented situations I must address.
Geography is among the first issues I have to resolve. For the first time, it
may become an obstacle. Nature is nothing like a concrete floor. I can't
smooth every bump, cover every ditch, flatten every slope, level every hill,
fill every hole, straighten every curve, and cut every curb between my
destination and me. It's difficult for me to keep my balance in strong winds,
and I can't walk well enough in snow even with others to be productive. If I
have to carry something on me like a laptop, I'm less stable in all cases.
Dressing for cold weather complicates matters further. Gloves and mittens make
it harder for me to use my white cane, and impossible to use a cellphone.
Wearing a hood or hat is like being partially blindfolded. Each of these
factors, both individually and as a whole have an impact on my performance.
They affect fundamental issues like how I get to and leave my job, the way in
which I work, even the likelihood of employer discrimination. Having children
and taking part in a family of my own increase the impact of my disabilities.
I'll be responsible for the wellbeing of multiple people including myself.
Since I won't be able to carry out many quotidian physical activities, family
members will have to do the work that I cannot in addition to their own. My
inability to contribute as much to my family as I will take from them will
lead to discrepancies that I am sure will accumulate somewhat over the years.
I'm not going to cook, vacuum, clean the floor and the like, and carry my baby
or babies from one place to another, among other things that haven't even
occurred to me yet. At a minimum, the combined lifetime costs of my cerebral
palsy and blindness are estimated to be $1,542,000. Those expenditures,
coupled with the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result of a pay
gap for women in the United States that's difficult to calculate, as well as
the everyday cost of living, may preclude us from hiring assistants to help
with such situations. in addition to home and work, there's an entire social
aspect of life that I am unwilling to forego because it's bound to yield the
fewest opportunities without a strong foundation of physically capable people
for all the physical events it entails. I do not want the sex of the person
I'm with to limit what we can do, but in my case the current state of things
makes that more likely if she is a woman. For instance, I do not want to be
unable to go to a store or someone's apartment because she is unable to carry
me across the street. I do not want to be unable to go to an ice-cream shop
because she can't lift me on to an elevated stool. I do not want to be unable
to go to a mall because she can't carry me up or down dozens of steps with no
railing, nor be unable to enjoy a friend's company because she is busy, and so
can't leave behind the purse or bag or musical instrument that prevents her
from helping me traverse an arduous area. I do not want to be unable to sit in
a tree because she cannot climb up and put me on a branch, nor be unable to go
to, or get around in a city because she can't lift me into a public
transportation vehicle, and/or because I move too slowly on my own two feet to
catch it in time. I do not want to let my lack of knowledge keep me from
traveling to another country because I cannot independently go from place to
place. And I do not want a woman to think that she could never get big or
strong enough or meet some other goal that would enable us to do these and
other things if she were so inclined. In all the aforementioned examples and
scenarios, my dependency on others to overcome my cerebral palsy is evident.
Strength is the only variable one can voluntarily adapt for this purpose
because there is no device, exercise regiment or surgery to effectively
circumvent my handicap. It can unquestionably enhance my quality of life, and
everyone else's who interacts with me on a personal level. Even the size of a
person's muscles makes a difference. The wider their shoulders are, the
broader their back is, the bigger their arms and legs are, the more we can
accomplish. Both strength and bulk are less common in women than men. Focusing
on and trying to change the reasons why this is will have an impact that goes
far beyond my personal concerns.

For most people, the conversation begins and ends with biology. They believe
that men and women develop differently and therefore women cannot perform the
same physical feats as men. The numbers clearly contradict this assumption. In
1970 the men's world record in the marathon was 2 hours 9 minutes and 28.8
seconds, and the women's was 3 hours 2 minutes and 53 seconds. That's a 34.2%
difference between race times. The current women's record is 2 hours 15
minutes and 25 seconds. The current men's record is 2 hours 2 minutes and 57
seconds. That's a difference of 9.8%. As these statistics show, men run the
marathon 5.2% faster than in 1970, and women run 25.9% faster than they did in
the same year. However, women used to be prohibited from all sports involving
running for fear their uteri would fall out and that they would die from the
strain. If this data is any indication of the future, the gap will continue to
shrink. In little league, Mo'ne Davis pitches roughly10 miles per hour above
the national average, and Katie Brumbach beat Eugene Sandow in a contest of
strength in the early 1900's. The disparities that exist between men's and
women's athletics are due to more than testosterone levels, human growth
hormone, and the ratio of slow and fast twitch muscle fibers. At the heart of
the problem is culture, and more precisely body image. There is a deluge of
literature that persistently insists that no matter how a woman exercises and
despite the strenuous tasks she may carry out every day, she is not going to
get muscular so she should not worry about it. But for the few articles like
this one that flatly refutes these claims, this one that acknowledges the
increasing prominence of muscular women in the mainstream, and posts like this
one that presents them in a positive perspective, the consensus of the vast
majority is virtually undisputed by fellow authors. However, there is
documented evidence from researchers in academia such as Molly George, Amber
D. Mosewich, Adrianne B. Vangool, Kent C. Kowalski, & Tara-Leigh F. McHugh to
name a few, that clearly states that women do indeed grow muscle, and they
have the resources to prove it. From soccer players to swimmers, weight
lifters to wrestlers, runners to rowers and so on, the women they write about
handle the appearance of visible muscle differently from any other element of
whatever they practice. They balance the way they look with their
authenticity. If they become too muscular, they are perceived as more
masculine than feminine which negates their attainments and their skills. This
is where my blindness comes into play, because I have no idea what anything
looks like. I cannot conceive of what it is to be black or white or have any
other skin color, be tall or short, thick or thin, stocky or wiry, a redhead
or a blond, European, Asian, or the visual aspects of everything else. I have
never been able to. When I try, my head spins. To me, one's muscularity is
nothing more than a product of their life style. Out of all the traits we use
to differentiate males and females, I don't understand why noticeable muscles
on a woman manifest such a backlash. Other characteristics are not as fiercely
resisted. For example, men tend to be taller than women. When a man is in the
presence of a much taller woman, both of them may feel obliged to behave
towards each other in certain ways because of peer pressure. When the general
population sees the two together, regardless if one or both individuals bend
to it or not, they do not shun and marginalize the woman for her greater
height. Men tend to weigh more than women too. If a man associates with a
heavier woman in public, even an obese woman, the judgments observers make are
not the same as those about muscular women. The consequences are equal in that
they are negative, and they exist because people consider them undesirable.
But in all the stereotypical conclusions people come to with respect to the
obese, they don't question their sexuality. Millions of people around the
world suffer from degenerative neuromuscular diseases like Amyotrophic Lateral
Sclerosis, Tay-Sachs Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, muscular dystrophy and
Parkinson's disease, that are neither as infamous nor have the funding of
other life threatening illnesses like cancer. Those who have no choice but to
live and die with them would do almost anything for the strength to breathe
and breathe easily, at certain stages of progression. In light of the harsh
trials people with these conditions suffer each and every day, it is an
absolute shame and disgrace that in the twenty-first century, society
discourages women and girls from some types of athletic activities, and
influences them to be afraid of how their bodies would look, and to suppress
and sacrifice their potential for it.

All this is reinforced in daily life. According to a 2009 study hosted on the
Women's Sports Foundation website, women's sports coverage accounted for only
4% of all U.S. television broadcasts for the year. Coverage is higher this
year because of Mo'ne, but other than her, athletic women and girls are almost
nowhere to be found in real life situations on TV in the country. Muscular
women are generally only featured in documentaries, interviews, local news
reports, and sometimes talk shows. They aren't on the covers of popular
magazines. Very few movies depict them positively, and the only people who are
familiar with the majority of them take the time to seek them out. There is
only a small number of movies shown in theaters that do, and they are fairly
recent. People don't often tell women with obvious muscularity that they
appreciate their dedication, or the fruits of their efforts. This taboo hides
some pretty damning injustices. There are of course men other than me who find
muscular women attractive, but relationships can be problematic for many if
not most. There are men who want to have relationships with them but fear the
repercussions. Just like members of any other disenfranchised group who can't
be true to themselves, they instead unhappily settle for whom society forces
them to take. Some make life miserable for themselves and their families
because they're constantly dissatisfied. Others eventually break free from
living a lie, but they do so at the cost of damaging their families and
destroying friendships. Others risk a great deal in discussing the topic with
their partner. Yet others who do none of these things live in daily
uncertainty and doubt, constantly wondering what there preferences mean for
their identity as a man and human being. There are men who are reluctant to
express their interests even to close friends, and there are those who have no
one to confide in. The mindset responsible for this does not only encompass
people with personal stakes. Every time someone blows off a muscular woman in
displeasure or disgust, whether they be a man, woman, boy or girl; they have
no idea who they shut out of there life. They don't know what direction there
life would've taken if they hadn't, because they did not make an effort to get
to know her. She could have been anybody, from a friend to a spouse to a
research partner or countless possibilities besides, and she too is denied
being part of the life of the person who rejected her because of prejudice.
Everything they might have attained will never be, because it never had a
chance to begin. We stifle so much opportunity and thwart progress on a daily
basis for the most ridiculous of reasons.

With things as they are, however, it's no wonder why relatively few women and
girls devote time to high intensity strength training. It gets pounded into
women's as well as men's heads from infancy onwards that women cannot get
muscular and/or become strong enough for it to be of any practical use. For
many people, there is no easy rebuttal. They probably don't know any woman who
has deliberately pushed or exceeded the muscle and strength boundaries that
society expects of her. Even if they do, they probably consider her an
exception, not somebody whose feats other women can, or should, strive for.
The average person is in all likelihood unaware of the complex interaction of
forces that shape the most widespread beliefs and opinions about muscular
women, and how uninformed these views are. They have little reason to be.
Their own life experience teaches them that at one end of the spectrum that
except for a few freaks of nature, women appear incapable of surpassing an
inferior level of muscular and strength development. At the other, women who
bare the signs of doping and steroid use represent the only way for females to
subvert their biological inhibitions. People conflate an increase in muscle
mass with the drugs' other effects. Between these two poles is a vast range of
girls and women who are discontent with the prominent musculature of their
physiques and the strength it implies, worrying that through it they are in
danger of forfeiting part of their femininity if they haven't already. They
may want to continue doing whatever it is that made them like that in the
first place, but don't want to deviate further from how they think they're
supposed to look. A competing explanation is that while the aforementioned
preoccupations and ignorance on the general public's part contribute to
people's close-minded attitudes, women just aren't interested in getting
particularly muscular or strong. Time has proven this argument wrong. Not so
long ago this was the predominant view on women in sports. In terms of The
athletic provisions of the United States' Title IX and their impact on
scholastic sports alone, progress in itself blatantly discredits the idea.
Before its implementation in 1971, 294,000 girls played interscholastic sports
in high-school. As of 2009, 3.1 million girls participate in sports, an
exponential increase. While there is no direct correlation between a given
level of strength and muscle mass and any one sport, these statistics
illustrate that a good opportunity leads to all kinds of situations that
people think are unlikely. With this precept in mind, one may maintain that
there is no need for women to try to get more muscular or stronger than their
environment makes them. At least in the western hemisphere, most societies are
more or less automated. What more could they accomplish that they can't
already with technology? I am one example of how reaching and incorporating a
higher than warranted level of strength into one's daily life can benefit not
only them, but others.

Of course, there are many women who do this right now. They enjoy being
athletic and/or getting muscular and take advantage of it in myriads of ways.
I want to add my perspective to what they all are already doing and do what I
can to raise the bar, as the saying goes. I want athletic/capable women to
enrich other people's lives, whatever their goals, desires, and aspirations
may be, just like they've expanded mine. If more people accept female
athleticism in all its forms and help it flourish, it will bring about things
we have never imagined. I want to empower this little sliver of human
experience in hopes it improves the human condition. Even with just as much
potential to produce bad results as well as good ones, I think it can help
make the world a better place. I think it's worth pointing out here that I
know the world is not as binary as I make it out to be. Humanity can't be
divided into one group that accepts muscular women, and an opposing one that
doesn't only because of social norms. All women can't be categorized as those
who choose to get strong and muscular and are happy they are, women who are
muscular and feel uncomfortable about it, and women who choose to avoid any
activity that would enlarge their muscles or display strength. Not every
person who muscular women don't appeal to shares the same reasons, or the same
preferences. Not every male friend I have is able to physically assist me with
all the challenges I encounter. There are innumerable factors that influence a
person, male or female, to live or not to live with such a physical focus on
their body. For that matter, not everyone with cerebral palsy can get the same
benefits as me. Individuals can have a range of afflictions, and what works in
my case may not in someone else's and viceversa. Notwithstanding, social
intolerance of muscular women is the foundation of so many of the absurd
barriers that impede all the progress and good they can bring about, in big
and small ways. All the data here shows that women aren't concerned with the
process of performing a physical act, but overwhelmingly so about where such a
physical act, and the literal embodiment of their ability, position them in
society. Any athletic inequalities that may or may not stem from female
biology compared to male biology are irrelevant, for the simple fact that
female athletes keep redefining what their supposed limitations are. Rather,
they're more likely the outcome of a combination of a systematic lack of
research, experience, and personal, financial, and other incentives to
constantly improve as much as possible. When people finally stop viewing
muscles and strength as antithetical to female identity, and start rewarding
women and girls instead of punishing them for it, their successes will be even
more profound. When they're encouraged on multiple levels to run faster and
jump higher and do the extra rep and lift the heavier weight, they can start
using strength more effectively as the tool it can be. Do you have any ideas
on how to make this so? When I talk about this with my friends, some of them
tell me a variation of, "If you could see you would change your mind." With
your help, I just might change theirs and others' because I can't. Please send
your thoughts to insightwithoutsight@gmail.com.Thank you kindly.