A brief history of muscularity gender and body image

[Music]

in your head please write the images on

the screen from a scale of one to ten

one being feminine and ten masculine

let me guess

most of you probably picked a number

between six and ten

and how do i know this

well i pulled the isp community

and 86 of them rated exactly that

now what does this mean

well in actuality it’s a very good

representation of our society as a whole

as we often equate being muscular to

being masculine

but also

that a woman who is muscular

is often deemed unappealing

or

threatening

to me she is beautiful

however the reaction i get from people

when i say i aspire to look just like

her

is time and again awful

i’ve heard why why would you want to

look like that you have to preserve your

femininity

this left me genuinely questioning

whether it’s worth it

and doubting my initial desire to attain

that look

it led me to wonder about the origins of

muscular masculinity

because presumably there must have been

a time where being muscular had no

societal meaning

but more than that what it truly means

to be a man and woman in our society

today

and how these roles have impacted all

generations

all from the environment kids are

growing up and now to the drastically

more open environment that the older

generation is adapting to

the story starts around the 19th century

when the concept of being muscular as a

core part of the ideal man or the

masculinity

first emerged

shortly before then big retuned men were

seen as the ideal as it was a matter of

showing their success and wealth

though a renewed interest in ancient

greece sparked a new interpretation of

lean and muscular bodies

the great exhibition which occurred in

london had grecian statues outside the

exhibit depicting lean muscular men

which were seen as godlike

or army fitness programs such as in

france soldiers were known and

celebrated for their physical fitness

following this the united states media

the academics and the politicians of the

20th century believed popular culture to

not be masculine enough

and in western culture christianity

dominated and they too came to perceive

the cultures overwhelmingly feminine

masculine reformers of christianity

began to place weight on being muscular

it resulted in large investments into

the world of sports encouraging young

men to be athletic and creating sports

leagues by the church all in the hopes

of creating a new generation of

gentlemen barbarians

looking back

in my view this connection between

muscle and religion was a key part to it

becoming a societal gender norm

therefore as you might expect since no

such connection was made for women in

muscle the reaction to female athletes

was somewhat different

for the briefest of time there was a

period of praise

however soon after a large debate

surfaced over the pros and cons to

female athletes

popularly it was physicians physician

educators sports writers athletic

officials or casual viewers but to

clarify just men

the large controversy

in the 1910s and 1920s was over the

possible effects it had on the female

reproductive system

as well as whether it had diminished or

enhanced a woman’s feminine charm or

sexual appeal

now this was the beginning

and might i say quite an awful one

though it doesn’t get any better the

next 50 years were shaped by critics

arguing over the appropriate nature to

female competition

educators fear that rigorous competitive

stimulation would endanger the sexuality

of female athletes

on the other hand the aau

the amateur athletic union supported

them

in the hopes that sport would strengthen

the reproductive system to produce a

generation of stalwart american sons

whatever that means

critics began to claim that

sport-induced manishness disqualified

them as candidates for heterosexual

romance with articles coming out on how

to get men for example a real article

from that time the more or less subtle

art of getting a man

more and more it was implied that female

athleticism was contrary to heterosexual

appeal

i feel i can personally attest to this

simply because i’ve often found myself

wondering about my future perceived

attractiveness

if i do continue on this path to

becoming muscular

but moving on these ideas persisted

until the 1970s and 1980s until arnold

schwarzenegger and rambo ignited a

movement of extreme muscular masculinity

and hollywood continued to spotlight

this idea between the connection of a

man’s muscular body and his masculine

power

whether it be the hot love interest and

a romance with six pack abs or the

strong hero in an action movie

hopefully to a lot of you this rings

true

but this is only one part of the story

looking at other societies and cultures

to allow us to further understand the

nuances of how femininity and

masculinity and connection to gender are

perceived such as in east asia

the inseparable connection between

muscle and masculinity never became a

popular trend

there the traditional man of the 1970s

and 1980s depicted a salaryman or

businessman who was hyper focused on

providing for the family with his career

earned wealth

manga and boy’s love created a

generation of men who lacked that same

competitive and conformist nature of the

previous generations

through the media the image of girly or

feminine men continued into the ideas of

soft masculinity

nevertheless the muscular woman is

almost unheard of

unlike western culture they still

idolize petite looking women which

creates an enormous amount of hate and

prejudice towards east asian female

athletes

as i was researching this

it further proves that these truly are

social constructs such as in this last

example the media created a new

environment and the newest generation

had a new set of ideals and a new set of

expectations

but if you still don’t believe me we can

often find ideas which go outside the

typical gender conforming agenda in the

history of other non-western countries

the incas used to worship a dual

gendered god who presented in

androgynous clothing

the sacalams in madagascar used to raise

boys with feminine appearance as girls

or in hawaii where it’s even part of

their dictionary

kane means man

woman

and mahu means

well somewhere in the middle

you might be wondering how these ideas

died out or why we’ve never heard of

them

well agricultural societies

perpetuated these traditional gender

roles thus with colonization

where farming practices were

standardized these roles were

solidified and reinforced

even so with gender being a social

construct i would go on to argue that

biological sex is a social construct too

i think we can all agree on the current

definition of sex the combination of

genitalia reproductive organs hormones

chromosomes secondary sex

characteristics and ultimately the

ability to have a baby

now just to clarify me claiming that sex

is a social construct doesn’t mean i

think these things don’t exist or that

humans don’t have them

but male and female creates a societal

box into which people need to fit into

however whether it’s intersex people

people born with a mixture of these

biological markers or transgender people

people who can transition to having both

markers as well

or cis people these are people who

aren’t transgender who simply don’t fit

all the standardized criteria for

example a woman who can’t have children

therefore i would call biological sex a

social construct

because that specific box is something

we have fabricated

as you cannot deny that a male who

cannot reproduce is still male

yet it defies our definition of being

male

but why am i telling you this

me justifying sex is a social construct

is to make you see that everything

masculinity and femininity man and woman

male and female

are in our heads

they’re made up

trying to use this

big concept to stop a very specific

issue that no human body should be

deemed unnatural despite messaging that

female muscle is

now that you see the origins of our

society’s predisposed beliefs hopefully

you’ll encourage others to forget about

labels to follow their unique paths so

that a younger like me doesn’t question

her future sex appeal just because she

likes working out does that not seem

absurd

over time building muscle has become a

wrongly gendered action

as it isn’t masculine

or feminine

muscle

is simply hard work

thank you

you