Bill Dobbins’ “Big Can Be Beautiful”

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  • February 9, 2010 at 3:32 am #89900
    Lingster
    Keymaster

    Lots of great photos in this article at FemaleMuscle.com, but Dobbins’ analysis is remarkably wrong-headed:

    In the 1990s bodybuilding for women encountered a lot of resistance as Ben Weider decided that big and muscular female bodybuilders were hurting his chances of getting bodybuilding accepted as an Olympic sport. As a result the women started to see less prize money in contests, fewer sponsors for either the shows or themselves and very little coverage in the magazines. They also had to compete for public attention with first fitness and them figure competitors who were presented as not having “too much” muscle and being the more feminine alternative to the bigger FBBs.

    That’s wrong in so many ways that it’s hard to even know where to begin. The bottom line is that women’s bodybuilding was successful in the 80s because the women were muscular but still looked like women. In the 90s the torrent of steroids simply obliterated the market appeal. Prize money and sponsorships dropped not because of some Weiderian conspiracy, but because the competitors were no longer palatable to a mainstream audience. I won’t name names, but when the girls started looking and sounding like boys, most boys stopped being interested.

    I’m as eager to point fingers at the Weider brothers as the next guy, but to the extent they are responsible for the current, morbid state of female bodybuilding, it’s that they didn’t do enough to enforce their aesthetic judgment. For the most part this was because they were stuck in a dilemma: how to limit steroid use in the female arena without interfering in the use of steroids in the male arena, within one sports federation. The hypermuscular male bodybuilder image was critical to promote their supplements and publishing business, and aesthetics comes in #2 when money is on the table.

    Here’s the article: http://femalemuscle.com/galleries/big-can-be-beautiful/

    February 9, 2010 at 4:51 am #89903
    AlexG
    Keymaster

    Nothing new where it concerns Dobbins – or “Dobbie Bill”, as he was nicknamed in AAWA many yrs ago – pushing his “opinions” as gospel.

    No matter how often he was refuted by some of the denizens of the news group with the facts, being the true believer in blowing his own horn, he relentlessly remained unpersuaded.

    “I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
    ~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

    February 9, 2010 at 11:32 am #89911
    David
    Participant

    Bill Dobbins is the ultimate schmoo and a truly average photographer but he has one thing going for him, his contacts in Weider World. The thing is there is some truth to the conspiracy. If you watch Pumping Iron II you can see Ben warning people about rewarding the women on their muscle mass, probably a violent reaction to newcomer Bev Francis. Later, in the 90’s when Denise Masino brought forward a possible sponsor for the Ms Olympia they turned it down.

    February 9, 2010 at 5:03 pm #89918
    Reason
    Participant

    I’m willing to allow Bill Dobbins the occasional rant since he has done so much to promote Female Bodybuilding over the years.

    However, here I think Lingster is right on the money. If there really was a huge potential market for the bigger FBBs, why wouldn’t the Weiders have exploited it to the max? The bottom line is that most people prefer women to look conventional and that is never going to change.

    Also, things are even worse now, thanks to the backlash to the wide use of steroids in pro female bodybuilding. It seems that now the general public opinion is that a woman is not able to develop even a modest amount of muscle mass and definition without steroids. It’s possible that it is this perception that has led to us seeing less and less muscle in female physique competitions and the women are forced to not train too hard. Sometimes I wonder what they are being judged on. It sucks because some of the best women are forced to retire from competition because they have become too muscular for figure, but are not willing to get big enough to compete at the pro bodybuilding level.

    February 9, 2010 at 5:21 pm #89919
    AlexG
    Keymaster

    A related thread on the topic of FBBing @ RX Muscle.

    Link: RX Muscle Forums: Bringing FBB’s back!

    Thought it might be of interest since the commentary comes from within the BB community.

    “I like a good story well told. That is the reason I am sometimes forced to tell them myself.”
    ~ Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens (1907)

    February 9, 2010 at 10:19 pm #89925
    Mimi
    Participant

    I had no idea that the FBB community was in shambles. Is it all because of the steroid mania? That’s so sad to hear especially when there is so much beauty within any woman who dedicates her life to health and power.

    This is why I will ALWAYS champion a woman’s right to BE whatever she chooses to be. It’s a sad contradiction that the U.S. media wildly promotes and celebrates diversity, yet shuns the beauty of a woman with muscle. Be that as it may, I’m sure eventually we’ll see the art form and lifestyle accepted as a positive thing.

    My one realization is still that day I helped my BB friend at a “kid day” at a local gym, and how we did our best to show that having muscle was normal in every way.

    XOXO’s

    ~Mimi

    February 9, 2010 at 10:56 pm #89928
    Lingster
    Keymaster

    My take: In the 80s, women’s bodybuilding was avant garde. Mapplethorpe’s Lady, Lisa Lyon book was as responsible for this as anything. Gender-blending was new and hot, on both ends of the continuum. Women’s bodybuilding quickly passed into the mainstream because a lot of men like the athletic look or are sexual submissives, and this was a sexy, new expression of that. A lot of women also like the muscle look, usually for the opposite reason, and it was fashionable, as well.

    When a person has a single trait that is associated with the opposite sex, they usually still ‘print’ as their birth gender. When a person has several traits that are associated with the opposing gender, others become confused and most do not find it attractive.

    So when Cory Everson showed off big muscles, her other feminine characteristics shone through. When later bodybuilders showed off even bigger muscles, but were also more striated, had deep voices, coarse skin, more body and facial hair, the wheels came off. Female bodybuilding competitions went from being nearly as popular as male contests – featured on ESPN during prime time – to being fringe affairs.

    February 9, 2010 at 11:01 pm #89929
    Trash Boat
    Participant

    Not this shit again… neverending rant.

    February 10, 2010 at 3:32 am #89945
    Lingster
    Keymaster

    Maitolasi wrote:

    Not this shit again… neverending rant.

    It’s a forum. Never-ending rants are the idea.

    February 10, 2010 at 7:22 am #89952
    FlakBait
    Keymaster

    Lingster wrote:

    Maitolasi wrote:

    Not this shit again… neverending rant.

    It’s a forum. Never-ending rants are the idea.

    Thanks to the new forum upgrades should you disagree with that reasoning there is a form that you can fill out in triplicate and officially submit to the forum’s legal department via AlexG which can be used to help prevent such incidents in the future

    make sure to notate the time and date on the form and you should receive a response from Alex in 4 to 6 working weeks

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