Denise Rutkowski

[Tom4036]

In no way I was trying to degrade her or her accomplishments in bodybuilding, I was just stating a fact and that she was beautiful in her bodybuilding days.

[UK_Fan]

From the very early days of bodybuilding which was then, Physical Culture in the 1920's the seamy side was an issue.  Bernar McFadden peeped at the mandatory naked file of gals competing through a peep hole in the back curtain.   He was the original Weider/promoter.  It has always been an uphill battle to separate the art from the sexual when it comes to promotion of women's bodybuilding.   That's100 % understandable just by the very nature of this sport.   In the more recent era what with the computer and wide use of performance drugs women got lured into self promotion with sexual lures..some subtile, some obviously purely sexual, encouraged by their muscle-luster fans. 

What I'm saying is...it would be mighty refreshing to celebrate the physique of this woman's artful development of the female form without obvious sexual orientation in presentation.   What she did in the past, how she was promoted in the past, how she self promoted herself as a sexual object ...is the past.    It would be nice to leave it there and possibly broaden that pedestal  upon which we place her.   Muscle development, balance, form, and the aesthetics of an artfully developed female body.....period   

Indeed - even though I've always found female bodybuilders very sexually attractive, particularly Denise in her hey day in the early 1990s, I've always greatly appreciated (and have said so on many occasions, here and on other forums before) the more aesthetic appeal of many female bodybuilders - and not always the largest or most muscular at the time/at a contest.  I would easily put Denise in my all-time top 10 aesthetic female bodybuilders (physique-wise - I would say they have an 'elegance' about their physiques that you could easily seen being sculpted into art [what bodybuilding used to be all about]), with Annie Rivieccio, Juliette Bergmann, Nikki Fuller, Zuzana Korinkova, Sharon Marvel, Alina Popa, Bonnie Priest, Sue Price, Janice Ragain, Anja Langer and many other competitors like yourself from the 1980s and 90s in the mix.

I am most impressed today/last decade or so how some women, such as Alina Popa, Annie R and others still can build large physiques but which are very aesthetically pleasing as well, especially without the 'aid' of breast implants and/or any/significant cosmetic surgeries, heavy use of PEDs (compared to other competitors) etc, when there is so much pressure on modern athletes to do so, especially now that careers of those entering the pro ranks are far shorter than they used to be due to the lack of funding and poor treatment of the women's side of the sport (though lately improved due to WoS's involvement).

[DRF]

Indeed - even though I've always found female bodybuilders very sexually attractive, particularly Denise in her hey day in the early 1990s, I've always greatly appreciated (and have said so on many occasions, here and on other forums before) the more aesthetic appeal of many female bodybuilders - and not always the largest or most muscular at the time/at a contest.  I would easily put Denise in my all-time top 10 aesthetic female bodybuilders (physique-wise - I world say they have an 'elegance' about their physiques that you could easily seen being sculpted into art [what bodybuilding used to be all about]), with Annie Rivieccio, Juliette Bergmann, Nikki Fuller, Zuzana Korinkova, Sharon Marvel, Alina Popa, Bonnie Priest, Sue Price, Janice Ragain, Anja Langer and many other competitors like yourself from the 1980s and 90s in the mix.

I am most impressed today/last decade or so how some women, such as Alina Popa, Annie R and others still can build large physiques but which are very aesthetically pleasing as well, especially without the 'aid' of breast implants and/or any/significant cosmetic surgeries, heavy use of PEDs (compared to other competitors) etc, when there is so much pressure on modern athletes to do so, especially now that careers of those entering the pro ranks are far shorter than they used to be due to the lack of funding and poor treatment of the women's side of the sport (though lately improved due to WoS's involvement).

I mentioned this on multiple occasions, Denise's profile is possibly the most comprehensive you would ever find of a 90s BBer; she competed and was one step away from just conquering the entire female building sport in 1993, performed de facto wrestling, tried her chance at 2 strength show events, novice acting roles, tv and movie appearances. Holistically, there is no bodybuilder that had and did what she was capable of at her heyday and this is not just waxing lyrical, look at Cory Everton, the only reason she got to where she is was by virtue of her sort of being a progeintator of a bit more muscular look for FBBers (not to mention her more than cozy relationship with those at the top echelons of the Olympia hierarchy), and Denise took that leaps and bounds ahead (but that was the norm and she had to adapt). Ironically though this might be the same reason why Denise abruptly decided to quit the sport: she got interested in something else.

[alison brundage]

Yes....
The aesthetic vs the sexual has always been two driving forces in both men's and ladies bodybuilding.  Once you drift into the sexual , unfortunately there is a degrading of the gift of her aesthetics/development which involved an enormous effort on top of the natural gift.  There were few with the natural gift.  To take away from that would be a shame.

The sexual muscles out there are a dime a dozen...the gifted in form and development are few.  Denise is one.  That is what needs to hit the mark in a presentation of this woman as one of the all time greatest women in bodybuilding.
Alison

[DRF]

Will properly scan these later..some tidbits of information on Denise I came across...enjoy

[DRF]

Yes....
The aesthetic vs the sexual has always been two driving forces in both men's and ladies bodybuilding.  Once you drift into the sexual , unfortunately there is a degrading of the gift of her aesthetics/development which involved an enormous effort on top of the natural gift.  There were few with the natural gift.  To take away from that would be a shame.

The sexual muscles out there are a dime a dozen...the gifted in form and development are few.  Denise is one.  That is what needs to hit the mark in a presentation of this woman as one of the all time greatest women in bodybuilding.
Alison

Personally, the crux of the matter- as I see it- is what these individual FBBers preferred and hence, displayed on stage. Denise's symmetry, muscle density and development are certainly not up for discussion but here is the question, bearing in mind her pre-bodybuilding background, did she choose to present her package in a way that came across as promiscuous, I mean look up her 1993 Ms Olympia performance on youtube (the one with carla dunlap commentating) and you would unmistakably see Denise (In Carla Dunlap's words): "Treading the line between what is acceptable on stage, and what isn't."  With that being said, what is to stay that this didnt put her at odds with the judges?


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Definitely an inspiration for many!

[DRF]

For those interested in reading, here's an article on FBBing and how it described Denise Rutkowski at her peak (as shown above): https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/34906/67681_00004095_01_ndalianis014.pdf?sequence=1

[alison brundage]

Yes....
The aesthetic vs the sexual has always been two driving forces in both men's and ladies bodybuilding.  Once you drift into the sexual , unfortunately there is a degrading of the gift of her aesthetics/development which involved an enormous effort on top of the natural gift.  There were few with the natural gift.  To take away from that would be a shame.

The sexual muscles out there are a dime a dozen...the gifted in form and development are few.  Denise is one.  That is what needs to hit the mark in a presentation of this woman as one of the all time greatest women in bodybuilding.
Alison

Personally, the crux of the matter- as I see it- is what these individual FBBers preferred and hence, displayed on stage. Denise's symmetry, muscle density and development are certainly not up for discussion but here is the question, bearing in mind her pre-bodybuilding background, did she choose to present her package in a way that came across as promiscuous, I mean look up her 1993 Ms Olympia performance on youtube (the one with carla dunlap commentating) and you would unmistakably see Denise (In Carla Dunlap's words): "Treading the line between what is acceptable on stage, and what isn't."  With that being said, what is to stay that this didnt put her at odds with the judges?


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Definitely an inspiration for many!

Good point DR Fan, .
Back in the early 1980's FBB posing took a turn of it's own away from that of men's standard posing presentation.   There was an enormous creativity in transitions that you saw in women's contest posing routines.  You did not see this in the men's arena.   Those gals with some natural dance talent had an advantage.  Carla Dunlap was a synchronized swimmer. Mary Roberts was a ballet dancer.  Obviously Cory Everson had dance coaching. Deborah Dianna another talent in this regard.  Presentation then became a huge factor that could separate the wheat form the chaff in  women's competition.  Each gal used what they had to their greatest advantage ( as Perry Raider would say) .  Now this was an eye opener for sure !   Gals had a sexual allure just standing there...add to that movement.  Now if a sexual move was the movement possibly that might have blown a few judicial circuits.....it might have been more than they wanted to see that early in the game.  Keep in mind how strong the commercial element was in promotion.  The monied powers that promoted wanted girls on their covers and inn their articles that the majority of women would like to emulate, and thus sell their mags and products. .   Pole dancing styles might not have been their cup of tea...thus the push-back.

This is merely my own theory here.  Denise's posing style may well have disadvantaged her tad . 

ALISON

[DRF]

Good point DR Fan, .
Back in the early 1980's FBB posing took a turn of it's own away from that of men's standard posing presentation.   There was an enormous creativity in transitions that you saw in women's contest posing routines.  You did not see this in the men's arena.   Those gals with some natural dance talent had an advantage.  Carla Dunlap was a synchronized swimmer. Mary Roberts was a ballet dancer.  Obviously Cory Everson had dance coaching. Deborah Dianna another talent in this regard.  Presentation then became a huge factor that could separate the wheat form the chaff in  women's competition.  Each gal used what they had to their greatest advantage ( as Perry Raider would say) .  Now this was an eye opener for sure !   Gals had a sexual allure just standing there...add to that movement.  Now if a sexual move was the movement possibly that might have blown a few judicial circuits.....it might have been more than they wanted to see that early in the game.  Keep in mind how strong the commercial element was in promotion.  The monied powers that promoted wanted girls on their covers and inn their articles that the majority of women would like to emulate, and thus sell their mags and products. .   Pole dancing styles might not have been their cup of tea...thus the push-back.

This is merely my own theory here.  Denise's posing style may well have disadvantaged her tad . 

ALISON

With all due respect, Carla Dunlap seems to be pissed off by Denise's routine so much so that she only started complementing her after being asked to discuss Denise's strong points by the other commentator..she also referred to Ben Weider not wanting performers to crawl on stage which is something Denise incorporated in all of her 3 1993 contests (USA NPC, JAN TANA, MS O).

Bodybuilding not entailing some sort of sexual overtone or connotation seems slight naive thinking because in essence we are talking about performs with more than perfect bodies displaying their packages in swimsuits and considering how the human body is hardwired, perceiving it as sexual is certainly involuntarily inevitable to a certain extent i am afraid.

However when one just glimpse at her tappings with WPW and RM, you could easily acknowledge that "sexuality" was what she was aiming for, heck she even stated- in verbatim-:" I hope I turned you arm men, glute men,...every kind of body part me." Further reinforcement below.  She could have tammed her enthusiasm a bit, this might have helped her career, yet in saying that we are changing who she is and this is not the objective. we are here to respect what she delivered to sport, not degrade nor alter her image.

[alison brundage]

The aesthetics of perfect human form does not have to be sexual.  Look at the Grecian study of body form.  Consider the study of body form in schools of art. 

Denise did promote herself sexually in many different venues from contests to off stage internet etc.   That form of self promotion may well have hurt her in her standing and as well her sucess in top  promotion by the mainstream commercial entities as both Rachael and Cory had received. .  It is what it is.  She brought it on herself willingly.  Who knows if she may now regret it.

[DRF]

The aesthetics of perfect human form does not have to be sexual.  Look at the Grecian study of body form.  Consider the study of body form in schools of art. 

Denise did promote herself sexually in many different venues from contests to off stage internet etc.   That form of self promotion may well have hurt her in her standing and as well her sucess in top  promotion by the mainstream commercial entities as both Rachael and Cory had received. .  It is what it is.  She brought it on herself willingly.  Who knows if she may now regret it.

In a sense, it shouldn't all be contemptible; maybe she just wanted to carve a niche for herself and with the trajectory of FBBing through the 2000s its easy to see others such as Denise Masino, Angela Salvagno, Gayle Moher who walked her path by taking the "other side" of bodybuilding to a whole different level, unfortunately, there will always be demand for that "other side". Essentially, I think Denise would have been more successful had she emerged during the 2004-onwards bodybuilding trend especially with the proliferation in the usage of the internet, she would have resorted to "self-promotion" and basically sidestepped the need to be recognized by the monied entities who come with their own set of baggage. Anyway, its all said and done now.   

[DRF]

Something i thought worth sharing: After scouring the net I came across a posing demonstrations dvd titled Perfect Posing which featured Denise Rutkowski as one of demonstrators...its an 84-min long video so i decided to include on the segments Denise featured in which might have made the video a bit disjointed, anyway, the audio has been left unmuted although background music was added, resolution quality is not the best but its better than nothing, right? enjoy.




http://depositfiles.com/files/6yd6odelf

[DRF]

great video!! thanks man!!

Glad you liked it, if you want to view the whole dvd just search for perfect posing on YouTube before it gets taken down...

[DRF]

[DRF]

Lenda Murray? Cory Everson? No no NO...Feast your eyes upon this goddess! Enjoy....

will upload the actual pdfs in the upcoming days..Guys does anyone know where the 1991 orange county DVD could be bought from?