I present to you this article, which I'm sure you won't bother to read, but if you do not, how the hell are you going to know what I'm going on about? Cue the "but we never know what the hell you're going on about anyway, Andrea", to which I say: shut up. Anyway, Leigh Peele, the author of the piece, is a personal trainer, and the gist of the piece is that when your average woman says, "I don't want to bulk up," she means she doesn't want any visible muscle at all and she fucking means it. In fact, your average woman (and your average man?) thinks that any kind of visible arm or shoulder definition on a woman is gross and masculine. They think that in the rather famous white bikini shot, Jessica Biel is "bulky."
Ms Peele's point in all this is that if you are a trainer and a client says this to you, it is not your job to tell her she's not going to get bulky (when your definition of bulky and hers aren't the same damn thing at all) and it is not your job to convince her of the error of her ways; it is your job to help her get the body *she* wants. I agree. The analogy to me in massage therapy is that if your client comes in and asks you to spend extra time working on her low back, you don't then spend half the massage working on that spot in her upper left trap that *you* think needs attention. You may be right technically-speaking, but the client is paying their hard earned money and they deserve to get the service they want.
But that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that it absolutely blew me away that anyone would think Jessica Biel is "bulky" or masculine-looking in that photo, that anyone ever watched Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 and didn't think, "holy shit, I want her arms", and basically that apparently the vast majority of the American public think visible female muscle is ugly. I am so proud of the fact that you can see definition in my delts and biceps now even when I'm not flexing, it just never occurred to me anyone would think it's ugly and manly. Frankly, I think it's beautiful. If I actually make it through this winter from fucking hell, I look forward greatly to wearing sundresses and tank tops and letting my arms out to play in public, 'cause I don't think they have ever looked better. (At least not since 1987 or so. Carrying my kid around and being young gave me pretty arms too.) But I might just be alone in this! Gasp. If any of all y'all are embarrassed to be seen with me because my muscles make me look too butch, despite, y'know, my boobs, my floofy hair, and my eyeliner, you just let me know. I'll wear sleeves just for you.
The other point of this post is that, yeah, as Ms Peele points out, there's a certain decision to be made when you're working out about what your goal aesthetic is. Obviously, if you're playing a sport, that dictates it. Form follows function. Swimmers have wide shoulders, sprinters have nice asses. And obviously, genetics plays a part. I could decide I'd like to look like (an older) Gabrielle Reece, but since growing a foot isn't gonna happen, that would be a silly, silly goal. But within those limitations, there are choices to be made. It's really really difficult to know for sure without one of those dexa scan thingies, but my best guess is that my bodyfat percentage right now is in the low twenties somewhere. And even though I still have plenty o' thigh fat (and, sob, cellulite) at this %, I really do not want to get much lower--certainly not below 20--because oops, there go my boobs. The total annihilation of The Bulgy Polish Catcher's Thighs and really visible abs would mean attaining a level of breastlessness I personally do not want. In fact, to be honest, I've lost enough fat from my butt without gaining enough glute in return (it's hard, dude!) that I don't fill out all my jeans anymore and that's pissing me off. (But then I just pet my bicep and it distracts me. Ha!) So, yeah, I know there are a whole lot of women out there in the gym working hard and dieting to get to 16 or 18% bodyfat and a six pack, but I'm not gonna be one of them.
Alright. That was all over the place. And has many parentheticals. Deal. It's Friday.
xoxo
2 comments:
I'm absolutely fine with womens' muscle definition. You mentioned swimmers, which my kid was, so I spent most of her formative years watching young women with enormous, rock-hard shoulders grow up into--surprise!--well-adjusted young women. More people need more exposure to the idea that people don't need to conform. Muscle also opens other sorts of amusements, such as volkslauf, rock climbing, and smacking down unruly patients.
I think that's part of what shocked me: people of our children's generation grew up with girls playing sports seriously, much much more than I did, so you would think if they were habituated to the idea of athletic women, they would also be fine with women *looking* athletic. But apparently not. Sigh.
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