Becoming Battle Ready. Violate the Dress Code's Salute to the Hardbody Hustlers of Yesterday

Becoming Battle Ready.

Violate the Dress Code's Salute to the Hardbody Hustlers of Yesterday.

It happens at least once a week.

“You know you really shouldn’t lift so heavy, you’re going to get too big.”

“Why do you train like a man? Are you trying to look like one of those bodybuilder chicks?”

“You’re really strong… for a girl. Just be careful, you don’t want to get bulky.”

Yet, week after week I’m still there, in the gym, doing my thing.

As a strong muscular female I’ve gotten used to the looks, the jeers and less than desirable commentary from both inside and out of the gym. From my father’s reaction to my “guns”, to the looks I get from bro’s when I out lift them - it’s safe to say that I’ve become pretty good at shrugging off those who aren’t as pleased with my current physical form … but I’d be lying if I said that this has been an easy process.

Self-respect and love can be hard to find when you live in a world where for centuries female muscle has been scrutinized, demoralized and shamed. Let’s face it. There has always been strong opinions on what the female form should look like, and often these bore little relation to biology, logic or even the potential that women have for developing musculature.

Historian David Chapman notes, “There is something profoundly upsetting about a proud, confident, unrepentantly muscular woman. She risks being seen by her viewers are dangerous, alluring, odd, beautiful, or at the worst, a sort of raree-show… This inability to come to grips with a strong, heavily muscled woman accounts for much of the confusion and downright hostility that often greets her.”

What Chapman discusses is nowhere more visible than in the domain of contemporary competitive female bodybuilding - where since conception, a mere 37 years ago, has faced a tumultuous cycle of struggle, triumph and unrest. Established by Henry McGhee in 1977, the first competitive female bodybuilding contest saw women with soft, small muscles, that Leslie Haywood notes did not “challenge” the accepted notions of masculinity and femininity. These women were not even allowed to flex their muscles in fear of appearing too masculine. 

 

From the early years of competitive female bodybuilding – the March 1982 edition of Iron Man. Wait what? That’s considered “going too far” and “unnatural”?

The battle for respect for female muscularity did not begin with the advent of competitive female bodybuilding. Physically powerful strong muscular women have always been considered an upset to the cultural ‘status quo’. There has been, and arguably still remains, an ambivalence about woman and muscularity – one that has been documented since mid-19^th century. During this time, strong female bodies appeared at the fete, carnival and circus scene. These women were viewed as the “other”, displayed in exotic and sometimes frightening ways. No matter how extraordinary their athletic feats were, these women had to balance being strong and powerful with the rigid ideals of what a female should look and act like. 

       Miss Ella (real name unknown) was known for her acrobatic acts during the early 20^th century, however she also performed ‘postural acts’. Although a staple in today’s bodybuilding world, this photograph revealing a “side-tri” establishes Miss Ella as one of the true pioneers of women’s bodybuilding.

Deemed the most successful female student of prominent physical culturist Professor Attila, Caroline Baumann was also a prosperous vaudeville strength performer and fitness instructor (photograph c.1910).

Not all forerunners in the struggle for muscle were professional strongwomen or performers.  From female athletes working to gain a sport on the male dominated sports field, to the women who simply wanted to stay ‘fit’ without cultural resistance, the battle for acceptance waged on throughout the early 20^th century.  

 

Discussed by Chapman, this 19^th century pin-up image called “Seaside Belles” depicts ‘nice girls’ and dare I say it, a ‘naughty girl’. Not only is one of them showing off her muscular arm but she is FLEXING to do it! This is something that was considered beyond taboo at the time.

By the late 1920’s and throughout the 1930’s a new model of the “able-bodied woman” became embraced within popular culture. Made possible from their employment and role in the war effort, and supported by new images of women expressed in 1940’s comic books, girls were now allowed to be tough. The act of weight training was deemed as sexy thanks to Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton. Ideals had changed and a lightly muscled female body was accepted. 

Southern belle strongwoman, Stanil Lawa travelled the few remaining vaudeville theatres of the mid-1930s. Notice an eerie familiarity to the current women’s physique division from Lawa’s 1936 ‘front-double bi’ photograph where she doesn’t clench her fists for fears of showing too much muscle.

(Top) Mildred Burke, the greatest female pro-wrestler during the 1930’s had to deal with constant mockery regarding her desire to succeed in this male dominated sport. (Bottom)Edna Rivers completing a 505-pound deadlift in 1944. River’s athletic feats caused much anxiety, with both men and women questioning her ‘femininity’.

This mini-muscle revolution would end quickly. Following WWII women were sent back into the home to be proper housewives and to accept the ‘traditional gender role’ without question. Even though female muscle started to be embraced by mainstream popular culture of the late 40’s, the middle decades of the 20^th century would not be as forgiving. Ultimately, women would have to wait over thirty years until being strong and muscular would be accepted again.

Bev Francis, Rachel McLish and Carla Dunlap gracing the 1983 Olympia Stage.

We see many of the same battles that were being fought over a century ago still being waged today. Without a doubt we have come a long way over the past 120 years but let’s face it, within contemporary society both hyper-muscular men and women are still objects of ridicule - often simply dismissed as “steroid abusers” or “freaks”, and still said to “threaten” the gender-rigid rules embedded deep within our body conscious society. 

To the hardbody hustlers of yesterday that were are willing to stand up for what they believed in and be independent from the confines of society, I salute you. 

Thank you for demanding respect in a world ready to shut you out. Thank you for fighting for what you believed in and forging a path for those of us who continue this battle today. You are the original DEATH SQUAD! 

As for me. You can find me at the gym, because I too am battled ready. 

By Violate's own Victoria Felkar

Victoria Felkar is a graduate student, researcher and instructor in the School of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia, specializing in sociology the body, sport history and physical culture studies. 

*You can find more about the history of muscular women in Venus with Biceps (2010) by David L. Chapman & Patricia Vertinsky.