They’re headed our way!
It will exist as one of those frozen moments, an incredibly happy micro-Camelot (because nothing this orgasmically good can last longer than a synapse), sandwiched between the grim discoveries in Kosovo and in the waters of Martha’s Vineyard, when we all stopped to collectively breathe. : “Yes!” We knew it was going to happen, we had been talking about it for weeks, but it turned out too perfect even to have been scripted. It united the entire country, connected generations, genders and races. And it was the best day in women’s bodybuilding.
What else can you call it when the prevailing image throughout America is an ecstatic female athlete, ripping off her shirt and flexing triumphantly before the entire world? and nobody questions it? Newsweek cover: “GIRLS RULE!” The cover of Time: “What a kick!” The cover of Sports Illustrated -wait, isn’t that a MALE domain, where women take up only one spot in the sidebar?
But you can’t argue with the numbers: 90,185 fans (including the president) plus a billion via TV watched Brandi Chastain’s double biceps and Nike sports bra. Twenty-three million dollars in tickets sold for the games. Two point nine million households watched the Brazil game on July 4, an audience larger than Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final. One hundred thousand girls dedicated themselves to soccer between 1990-1997, prior to Mia Hamm became a household word…
Significant as these figures are, they only begin to tell the story, which was playing out in the media weeks before Brandi drilled that top right past Gao Hong. Cheering alongside the usual crowd of painted preteen “mini-Mias,” they were (gasp)…Type! And that draws the attention of advertisers because young men are their main demographic. Guys… women’s sports…football? What the hell is happening here?
For as long as we can remember, women’s sports and soccer have never been taken seriously in the big picture. Tolerated maybe. The prevailing attitude could be summed up by a sportswriter from the Philadelphia Daily News, who scoffed at any implication that the women’s soccer revolution was anything more than cute, a mere blink of an eye in sports, a “winner-one-for-USA.” USA”. “let’s-go-girls-let’s go snap.” It is not any more national awareness, except for NFL football. “Good night” she sobbed. “Good niche. Three weeks until Eagles camp…”
The funny thing about it: it echoes the big wheels in bodybuilding politics. I can’t sell these women or their pageants, but we’ll let them languish. Give the boys a lot of money. Time points to the pay disparity with female soccer players, “some of whom earn less than $30,000 – coffee money for a male professional.” Sounds familiar?
Try this for irony: while women have brought finesse to bodybuilding poses, they’ve actually made soccer more physical and aggressive. Fans argue that women’s football is more exciting and offensive than men’s, noting that “women are more likely to have one-on-one matchups.” women, adding hand to hand to a men’s sport? Dayman! But that final shootout was absolute. hand to hand.
However, to dwell solely on the games and contests themselves is to miss the point. True connoisseurs of female muscle must realize that competitions are just a pretext to bring these women together, outdoors, where they can be seen in a justifiable format. Bodybuilding contests have never been the last word, nor will they ever be, as much as we need them to maintain some kind of dynamic. Whether they knew or cared, Brandi Chastain and her minions have certainly done more to promote the cause of female muscle that everyone (virtually unknown outside of bodybuilding) Ms. Olympias.
How else could you have US News and World Report marveling “now you’ve got big, strong, sweaty women tearing each other down… and excited fans” and Time announcing “Now it’s sexy to be strong.” Or Newsweek telling us “…young, muscular women of unparalleled ability…have become a new kind of national hero.”
You’ve got it all here in one epic package: “aging” lioness Michelle Akers in the air, who heroically delivers during the big game, but removes her IVs and oxygen mask to stumble back at the end; the reluctant idol, Mia Hamm, beautiful, unassuming (when she’s not challenging Michael Jordan “I can beat you” in multi-million dollar venues), her poster adorns the bedroom walls of countless girls (and boys), the number 9 on her jersey the most popular number in town; the dark, enigmatic and forgotten savior, Briana Scurry; and, of course, the take that went around the world, “I-lost-my-ass-over-this-body-I’m-proud-of-it,” Brandi Chastain… These women are household names. And that’s significant to us because its prominence is forever tied to exertion, sweaty, mud-smeared quads, bone-shattering collision and sheer exertion. It’s raw muscle, displayed based on (always an Achilles for public acceptance of bodybuilding), and therefore needs no excuses. Handsome? Say oh! You Tell Mia she’s not like a lady!
And it can only get better; many of these women are more muscular, especially in the legs, than the bodybuilders of the McLish era. Soccer is exhausting. Soccer punishes. Soccer consists of running, jumping, diving, sudden changes of direction, explosive kicks, standing up before even touching the ground, long and precise throws over the head. And now sports nutrition and weight training are universally practiced; in fact, the same edition of US News and World Report that covered the game also included an article advocating high-intensity weight training for everyone.
What does this all mean? It means that in the coming years, you will see these women become much more muscular as the standards of action games rise and a new generation of Mias takes to the field, free from outdated notions of physical correctness and sports. -conditioning (read: squats are great). We’ll have to do something about those baggy uniforms. It is not Lenda or Andrulla; it is not the appreciation of muscle for its beauty, but for what it can do. But it’s a breakthrough for female muscle, and we’ll take it. We’ll take it!