[Lingster]

I have a lot of issues with competitive bodybuilding.  I think the competitions are rigged and I think competitors are generally taken advantage of by the media companies, equipment manufacturers and the supplement companies.  They'll trot out a beautiful, god-like physique for a year or two to push product, until the owner starts to fall apart physically or emotionally, and then replace it with a new one.

Many competitors are motivated by the wrong reasons, more than a few become obsessed with increase in strength, muscle mass or improvements in appearance in a futile hope of overcoming personal issues with feelings of inadequacy.  But the nature of bodybuilding as therapy is that it tends to worsen rather than improve personality flaws – unlike a lot of other sports bodybuilding tends to encourage narcissism and self-absorption.  In bodybuilding, male and female, the most fragile egos are almost inevitably clad in the most outrageously muscular physiques – hugely muscled titans on the outside, puny 90 pound weaklings on the inside. 

The odds of serious injuries, health problems and premature mortality are high.  Bodymass beyond a certain level is a strain on the circulatory system.  High calorie and high protein diets accelerate cellular ascent to the Hayflick Limit, which usually accelerates aging and death.  Crash dieting and extremely low bodyfat do all sorts of bad things to men, and it's even more of a strain on women.  Also, everything authoritative I've ever read on lifting concludes that doing it more than three times a week is a recipe for serious repetitive stress injury, but competitors are expected to do at least that.

The whole thing is rigged top to bottom and the competitors, male and female, rarely come out ahead.  For every Monica Brant there are over a thousand women who suffer a financial net loss or a long-term injury.  But some do come out ahead. 

I love the look of a strong woman, but I regard competitive bodybuilders and other physique competitors as the moral equivalent of veal calves.

[gblock01]

Isn't DCM's Satin Steele comic series a protest against that very concept of the over-competitiveness of the FBB's at FBB competitions?

[David C. Matthews]

Isn't DCM's Satin Steele comic series a protest against that very concept of the over-competitiveness of the FBB's at FBB competitions?

It wasn't my overt purpose, but I suppose it could be interpreted that way. Especially later on in "Contest Jitters" when we get to know Holly a little better… maybe a few of my subconscious reactions to the current state of women's bodybuilding are seeping out?

Hmm… a story that could be interpreted different ways by different readers. Does that mean it's an actual, like, work of art?

Naah, probably not.

[gblock01]

Well… It was a nice thought while it lasted.  😀

[Author]

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