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Flex-rated! Female bodybuilding: feminist resistance or erotic spectacle?

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 23:19 authored by Niall RichardsonNiall Richardson
This paper aims to develop the already extensive writing on female bodybuilding by speculating on the 'possible' eroticism of the hyper-muscular female body. Most of the existing academic literature on female bodybuilding has either praised the built female body as feminist resistance to traditional ideas of femininity or else dismissed it as a strange form of erotic spectacle. Indeed, one of the fastest growing forms of erotic representation is the newly christened form of sexual fetishism termed 'muscle-worship' which has only recently reached public awareness through the new found availability of videos/DVDs and, most importantly, the Internet. This paper seeks to problematize readings of female bodybuilding which view it simply as feminist resistance or erotic spectacle. It argues that interpreting the image of the hyper-muscular female body is dependent upon its context and how it is coded within the representation. While mainstream bodybuilding representations attempt to create a sense of erotic numbness, asking the spectator to appraise the body like living sculpture, muscle-worship erotica contextualizes and eroticizes the body in a very different way.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Journal of Gender Studies

ISSN

0958-9236

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

4

Volume

17

Page range

289-301

Pages

13.0

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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