But surely some norms do exist for a reason and muscle dysmorphia does result in very serious problems in some cases.

I mean, yes to girls who gym, yes to girls who are fitter and healthier than the average unhealthy one, yes to girls with attractive muscles that the rest of society turns their nose up at, yes to sthenolagnics (is that the term? no idea) like us who appreciate such women... but NO to women who become too obsessed with building up muscle to the point of doing all kinds of unhealthy things to themselves!

To defend certain kinds of extreme behaviour by pointing at some societal attitudinal bogeyman is almost like how those obese women you have over there in America go around stupidly campaigning for their "right" to be obese. Whether or not you win the "right" to do silly things to yourself is not the point -- the point is that you're dying because of it!

However, it usually applies to a socially-dysfunctional oddball.

I resemble that remark.  FBB FAN is a decent term(I should say), but I gotta tell you, I have not heard that term "Shmoe" applied to a fan of female muscle.  How often is this term used, and is anyone aware of female bodybuilders actually using this term?

I never assigned a positive or negative connotation to it.  Only that it is used in referance to FBBr fans.


If you hang out over at Unrealmuscle you'll see it turn up amongst the regulars, tho, within the context of a jesting put-down of each other and their interest.  When it’s used in a derogatory fashion, I've noticed that it comes from those with a serious and active participation in the sport.

And try Muscle Mayhem - there was a thread there (Grrlz section?) a while back that got into the topic of schmos, pro/con.