Hidden Obsessions & Female Muscle

[Female Bodybuilding]

It seems that many people that love female bodybuilders keep it hush hush in their public lives. These private admirers sift through female muscle related websites and forums, afraid to let the outside world know. Why is that?

The internet has created a new culture where anyone can anonymously find and access information on any interest or fetish. A sort of digital Peeping Tom arose or … the Lurker. Lurkers are common in internet culture and research indicates that they “make up over 90% of online groups” (Nonnecke
& Preece 2000). I would guess the number amongst female muscle fans is even higher. Here may be a few reasons why.

MSNBC recently did a story on how Cultural images influence our perception of attractiveness. It cites an article in Psychological Science that says what we think is attractive, or beautiful, is whatever requires the least amount of effort. Basically whatever is easiest and familiar.
“What you like is a function of what your mind has been trained on,” says Piotr Winkielman of the University of California at San Diego. I’ve seen many blogs cite female bodybuilders as “horrifying” or “freaks” yet they show photo after photo. One writer called them
“vomit-inducing” which “inspired me to create this collection of horribly unattractive muscular women.” The photo shown was beautiful
Lenda Murray with the tag ‘ugly women’. Another writes, “Female bodybuilders are like futuristic cyborg soldiers sent to Earth to scare the complete sh*t out of grown men, children and small animals.” We get the point. The general media doesn’t think women with muscle are attractive… or secretly do they? Why go to all the trouble of lambasting these women. An article from Asylum.com rates Female Bodybuilders as the #1 type of woman that men secretly lust over.
They say “Sexual attraction is a mystical voodoo, and we often secretly want to be with those whose body types and personalities that are not considered ideal — and sometimes those that are considered taboo.” So
are women with muscles taboo? A taboo is a social prohibition created by society. Even if female bodybuilder physiques are privately admired by men and women, many still
judge them publicly. Female bodybuilders receive comments ranging from ’she looks like a man’ to ’she could bench press me’. Bodybuilder Kristi Bruce says, “I don’t want to look like a man. I want to look like a
powerful version of myself.” Well said, and I’m sure the thought of most female bodybuilders.

Someone insulted Suzanne Germano with the comment “sleeping with me would be like sleeping with a man.” Another ignorant comment from which I’ve seen many articles in rebut. A certain homophobic fear from society does set in for the admirer, asking the question “does being attracted
to female bodybuilders make you gay?”

In the forums of © Saradas, Isabelle Turrell simply asked for user’s Facebook links. It quickly turned into a discussion on how many admirers weren’t comfortable with adding bodybuilders as Facebook friends. One wrote, “Being a female muscle admirer is like being gay 50 years ago, it’s considered in best case comical, in worst case a deeply perverted sickness.” Fear of what society says is a powerful force.

These are intriguing reasons why some people hide their passion for female muscle from the outside world. Female Bodybuilders may always be considered taboo and a sick, perverted fetish by society. Is there anything than can be done to change perception or does it even matter in the grand scheme of things. I don’t really know the answer, I’m just an anonymous fan.

[guile45]

well put

[gogu007]

Good point...

[l700z3]

That is a good point... I do wonder how many people really are attracted secretly or not to these kind of women... I belive that most are... then I stop and think about an article I once read in Details magazine about men who are attarcted to fat chicks but not just fat ones almost obese... they believed everyone was secretly attracted to heavy women but that society kept people from admiting it... but I can honestly say I am in no way attracted to or hiding an attraction to fat women

What I do find interesting is that FBBs may trigger an inborn attraction switch in a lot of people including women because they have genetic traits we are programed to find attractive (shoulder to wait ratio, lean body mass... signs of strength) so what could happen is these women trigger attraction subconciously in a lot of people which startles them and throws them off making them overly agrassive in their denoncement of them

[goldbricker]

I gave up trying to figure it out years ago and now I don't let it bother me.  I love female muscle...lots of it and that's that.   

[Timmon]

Very well thought out and well written article, Women's Bodybuilding. Personally, if someone starts a debate, I tell them that I think female bodybuilders are attractive, but I never raise the subject myself. Unless, I am asked what physically attracts me in a woman. Like many guys, I also find slim "conventional" women attractive. Almost all of my GF's have been slim, but not thin, and with some toning.  I would never admit to actively seeking out FBB sites and blogs!
Reminds me of an ex-girlfriend I had, who had to take drugs due to premature Osteoporosis (she had to have an ovary removed, and this was a side effect of losing one). She was in her 20's.
The doctors said vigourous exercise would help her, and I encouraged her to weight train. She did put on quite a lot of muscle, so you can imagine, I was delighted, and so was her specialist, as it really helped keep her bones from degenerating.

I must have been mad, because my work at the time was taking too much of my life, and we seperated. We stayed good friends, and I still saw her some weekends, and she continued to pack on more muscle.

Then she got a new BF, who was concerned she was getting too muscular, and she asked my opinion. I told her I thought she looked great, and there was no such thing as "too much muscle" on a woman! But the new BF got his way, and she stopped training so hard and the muscle disappeared almost overnight!   I still blame myself for letting her get away, and the resulting loss to woman kind of a possible figure girl.  Yes, I'd say I'm obsessed!

She is really nice, we are still friends, she is still slim after 3 kids.

[vash1980]

@ timmon

your ex-girlfriend seems to care too much what others think about her. And that's the typical behaviour of everyone out there.

As far as I can remember my initial reaction to fbb was quite positive (I was 15): I was stunned by looking at seeing those women in muscular shape and still feminine. You can say it was love at first sight  . The more I got into it the more I realized the efforts & self-control they have put into to have such a great physique. And I still appreciate that.
The perception depends mostly on your first reaction and your personal character.

Anyway, when it's come down to gender equality unfortunately women have always had a hard time  .

[Phaedreaux]

Good article.
I think everyone has their own idea of what is attractive, and that it varies greatly from person to person. We on here mostly prefer muscular women, but others as said before like heavy-set women, while the majority (supposedly) like the thin, supermodel type (and of course some still yet might like any combination).
Yeah I think probably more men/people out there are attracted to muscular women than admit it, but we probably are still a minority.
The comment about the genetic element strikes a tone with me. If a man were naturally slender, for example, he may wish to find a mate who is more muscular to produce more "balanced" offspring, muscularity-wise. Who knows.
Regardless, at this point, really, who cares what other people think?
And is there harm in appreciating beauty?

"It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile, be yourself, no matter what they say." - Sting

Just my two cents.

[saradas1313]

Its depends on our mind. Offcorse you like thin supermodel type women, but when you overdose of them you will tired and log in to www.saradas.org  want to see some big fleshy muscular women.

[toto_pampam]

Great thread; I always find it interesting to hear the perspectives of others in regard to muscular women. Unfortunately the society we live in goes out of its way to make people conform; some of these conformities are harmless and innocuous while others stifle the individual's creativity, tastes andultimately personality.

Society has an extremely insular and narrow-minded view of "femininity" and what it thinks a woman should look like. While I will admit to not overtly publicising my love of muscular women I have had some interesting conversations with the more open-minded of my friends, in terms of female muscle. Some of these friends have quizzed me as to my attraction to muscular woment and I have often used as a way of explanation that you cannot choose which foods your tongue likes to taste, which smells your nose likes to inhale or which sounds your ears hear - in a similar vein you cannot choose the things that attract and, for me (and clealry all of you here!) I didn't CHOOSE to like muscular women, I just do!

I have frinds who have slept with 85kg women - 85kg of fat, untrained, unfit blubber! Horses for courses, but give me any amount of well-conditioned muscular woman to a beached whale any day! When I pose the question to my friends as to the difference, they simply reply "Because muscles aren't feminine". Says who? Society has conditioned to them to be attracted to a certain type of woman and any female who exists beyond those parameters is deemed to be masucline. Boolocks I say! I see a couple of female bodybuilders regularly at the gym I train at; when I was chatting with one of them last week, I said to her "Looking great (name witheld), your butt's on fire!" She laughed and then proceeded to tell me about the narrow-mondedness she encounters on a daily basis in regard to her physique and the popular concept of femininity. I told her not to let the sheep get her down; she gave me a hug and said "Thank you!". Was pretty cool, hehe.