Women of Steel: Female Bodybuilders and the Struggle for Self-Definition - Hardcover

Lowe, Maria R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0814750931 ISBN 13: 9780814750933

Publisher: NYU Press, 1998

Synopsis

"A lot of people in the general public think female bodybuilding is gross and freaky . . . that that's not what a woman is supposed to look like." So says Michelle, a national bodybuilding judge. In fact, athletic women, especially those in sports where strength, muscle, and sweat feature prominently, are typically viewed by the public as being outside the boundaries of appropriate femininity. And perhaps no group of women athletes embodies this gender outlaw status more than female bodybuilders, who by their bulk and sheer strength challenge our very notions of what it means to be a woman. Why would women choose to look like that? And what does it take to get and stay so muscular?

Maria R. Lowe has interviewed more than one hundred people connected with women's bodybuilding, from the bodybuilders themselves, to trainers, family members, spouses, judges, and sponsors. In Women of Steel, Lowe introduces us to a world where size and strength must be balanced with a nod toward grace and femininity. Lowe, who actually worked out with a couple of the bodybuilders she interviewed, gets at the heart of what it is to be a woman bodybuilder. We learn about "paying the price"--doing the necessary exercise, and sometimes drugs--that allows women to rise to the top of their profession. We follow their successes and failures, and discover the benefits-- including increased self-esteem and physical strength--as well as the sometimes unhealthy effects of their training regimen, from dehydration to baldness to rampant acne to high blood pressure. We travel with the women from competition to competition and find that judges' standards seem to vary alarmingly depending on momentary notions of what constitutes "the overall package"--that elusive perfect body that catches judges' eyes and wins competitions.

Above all, Women of Steel is a keenly observant diary of life in women's bodybuilding, a must-read for people interested in sports, competition, physical culture, and gender.

About this title

About the Author:

Maria R. Lowe is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Southwestern University in Texas.

Review:

"Given current debates over global intervention and government's role in the economy, this volume could not be more timely."
-Justus D. Doenecke, author of "Storm on the Horizon: The Challenge to American Intervention, 1939-1941"

"Provides a helpful backdrop to current debates over social welfare and foreign policy, which have their roots in another time."
-"Washington Examiner",

"John T. Flynn is a subject richly deserving of a scholarly and readable biography, and, thanks to John. E. Moser, he now has one."
-"Chronicles",

"An informative, insightful account of the career of a once-popular opinion-maker."
-"Journal of American History",

"How did an eloquent progressive who voted for Norman Thomas in the 1930s become a cheerleader for Joe McCarthy? This well-crafted biography rescues the memory of John T. Flynn, a true American original, and illuminates a large and neglected terrain of twentieth-century political history."
-Michael Kazin, author of "The Populist Persuasion: An American History" and co-author of "America Divided: The Civil War of the 1960s"

About this edition

• Publisher: NYU Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0814750931
• ISBN 13: 9780814750933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 216