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