[darkclaw91]

Looks cool, but I wish Wonder Woman was buff. And she isn’t. 🙁

Why is it that female superheroes only sometimes get drawn buff, but rarely in animation?

[darkclaw91]

Sorry for the late reply, been somewhat busy lately.

Back on topic, thanks for the above link, AlexG. I read it and it is amazing 🙂

I wish that more people could be like Brandon, in that they didn’t just blindly follow stereotypes like “Women shouldn’t be buff”. People do tend to forget that despite their “masculine” muscles, female bodybuilders are still women.

The only thing I’m iffy on in that article is the implication that some fbb’s won’t care if you don’t share their lifestyle. I personally hate stereotyping, but from personal experience, I want to disagree. I go to a gym known for both male and female bodybuilders, fitness, figure, etc. and pretty much all the jacked women have jacked boyfriends or husbands.

Side Note: It’s kind of…discouraging that I cannot find a single fbb but I won’t give up.

[darkclaw91]

Oh my god, I cannot believe I’m about to reply/possibly argue with DCMatthews (I LOVE Tetsuko…comics…erm, fanboyism aside now) but as a hardcore Batfan, I just had to say this…

dcmatthews wrote:

Yes, if we have to have to have one or the other, let’s shrink the bosom and grow the biceps. The character’s name is “Power Girl” after all and she should look at least somewhat as powerful as she is.

Which has always been a gripe of mine concerning comics heroines. Find me a hero (besides Spider-Man) whose physique doesn’t look like a Mr. Olympia contender. “Well, they’re supposed to be super-muscular because they’re super-strong”*. But Wonder Woman? Supergirl? Power Girl? Why aren’t they portrayed with muscular physiques?** “Because we don’t like looking at women with muscles!!”

* Even Batman? Now there’s a character who ought to be drawn with a more slender “acrobat” physique as Spider-Man is usually drawn. (In fact, Stan Lee turned down Jack Kirby as the artist for the first Spider-Man story because Kirby’s rendition of the character was too “heroic”-looking.)

**Yes, I know there have been exceptions, but even She-Hulk is drawn muscular only about 50% of the time, if even that (outside of fan art).

I personally think Batman’s muscles make sense. He’s supposed to be trained to peak human levels. From what I know, this would include strength and fighting. I know many buff people, including some who double up as fighters. So Batman being a buff martial artist is not out of the realm of possibility. However, the downside would be that immense and long periods of cardio would break down the muscle. I give him sprints of 20 – 30 minutes tops before he loses muscle, not marathons, due to his training. But that doesn’t matter to me, because I rarely, if ever, see him running this long (usually he uses the Batmobile or something). Also, buff people can be very flexible and agile (at least from some martial artists I know). It all depends on how much you train and what you train in. …Yes, I’m a Batman fanboy…

What we can agree on though is that some female characters need some more muscle. I mean, it makes sense. Personally, when I write, I tend to give muscles to characters (male or female) with strength-based abilities, fighting styles or powers. If they’re psychic or something, most likely they’re not going to be built.

@ all in discussion

This is just my opinion but…

Sadly, I think we need to look at selling comics to the mainstream audience. According to the media, most people do not like bulging muscles on women. On men, it is fine but on women it is said by the media that is unattractive, sadly. So until media overall changes and the mainstream audience is told to like muscles on women, it just ain’t gonna change.

I also think that overall, sociological change would be needed too. A lot of people I know that don’t work out (at all) find muscles on men or women intimidating. Also, a lot of men I know want to build big muscles but are well, lazy. From personal experience, I was…iffy…on if I liked buff women, but as soon I started bodybuilding myself and hanging out with buff women, I loved them much more than skinny ones I used to love more. Fetishes tend to be created from exposure (though not always), so if every male worked out and became buff, then most likely they would all also like buff females…just from getting muscle themselves and more than likely seeing it on women at gyms or shows they would go to. Hence, the media would start portraying women’s muscles as hot. An alternative would be every woman in the world starts buffing up and the media portrays it as hot, but that is also unlikely.

The media tends to portray an “idealized world”. In that world, powerful men are buff, which a lot of men want to be. Powerful women are built like stick figures though, because of two things in my opinion:
1) Most men in real life do want to be buff, tough, badass, etc. However, not all become this and so buff men in comics and such, male buff characters are like fanservice for them in a way. They imprint themselves onto characters like Superman or Batman. However, since they don’t actually become buff in real life, most likely, they are intimidated by buff women and may have never even met one, so a stigma is easier to form.
2) Most men find a thin woman attractive because of two things: the media telling them that is what is “hot” and homogenous relationship theory – people seek out people like them. If you’re a thin male looking for a girlfriend, you most likely want a thin woman. If you’re a buff male, odds are you might want a fbb. Since comics are often aimed at heterosexual men (how many shirtless scenes do you see in comparison to cleavage showing costumes?), then the logical choice by the media for sales, is to play up men’s muscles and downplay women’s muscles…or suffer some sales. If everyone was buffing themselves up, everyone would be muscular in comics. But since they’re not, this is what we have.

Sometimes I think that in a perfect world…we wouldn’t have war or crime (except in fiction)…and people would accept muscles on a woman. They don’t have to like them, but they don’t have to be grossed out either. It’s her personal choice. But…we haven’t really progressed that far yet.

I apologize for my cynicism and insanely long post.

[darkclaw91]

Normally, I’m not a furry. Or even remotely close to it. But I have always liked Felicia, especially when buff. So this picture is amazing. This is basically my reaction upon first glimpse: :woohoo:

[darkclaw91]

Hey, sorry for disappearing so long. Anyways, back on topic:

tre2 wrote:

Careful what you wish for, guys.

Your ‘goal’ should be to date someone you’re compatible with, not just someone you fantasize about. Fantasy is great, don’t get me wrong, but I think it’s a mistake to put yourself out there in that way (with respect to finding a mate).

Good luck.

Yeah, but by now, I love fitness and bodybuilding too much. I would hope to be with a woman who shares my love of fitness, preferably weight lifting and/or bodybuilding. I’m pretty much addicted to natural bodybuilding and to a lesser but still prominent degree; martial arts, boxing and wrestling. So that’s why I think a fbb would be a good match for me…that and I find muscle on a woman sexy. So yeah.

@MuscularTophFan

I don’t know your family, but I feel your pain. I worry what my family would think too. Friends are always nice to talk to though when you worry about something like this, though. I remember talking to some of my friends about my love of the Street Fighter IV ladies…and although they like to tease me about having Chun-Li thighs (which I totally don’t have in my opinion…yet), they still have been supportive. So I suggest asking a close friend on advice how to proceed with telling your family. I would tell my family but probably when I actually date a FBB or when they ask and not before. Hope I helped 🙂

[darkclaw91]

Sorry for double post. Something somehow went wrong, how do I delete this post?

[darkclaw91]

Thanks for all the support everyone 🙂

By the way, I was wondering how early and often I should have buff women in-series. I mean, if it were 100% up to me (and it never is, due to editors) I would have them very often (it’s my favourite Author Appeal 🙂 )…but this I am pitching this for a mainstream audience. As in, anyone with any likes and/or dislikes might be watching. Does anyone have hints on how often buff beauties should appear to please those into femuscle while not alienating the rest of the audience?

Due to the crazy amount of characters, it seems almost every other episode introduces some crazy new fetish (seriously, I did not know how many fetishes there were until I read about them too late into the development of the series…but I think it still works). Everything from catgirls to shape-shifters to well…name it and it has a good chance of being in there. I introduced my first Amazonian character about 15 episodes in, introduced a literal Amazonian recurring one about 30 episodes in and about 50 episdoes in, I introduced another recurring one (the buff female pirate). Then I have the fifth season MG/FMG episode which temporarily buffs up quite a few characters regardless of gender (played for fetish/fanservice to juxtapose the horror in the episode) and an episode where the aforementioned pirate briefly changes reality, along with a few other characters also altering reality. The change in reality for the pirate is so everyone will like her…which has the unintended side effect of making her a celebrity, so others imitate her, including by buffing up. Things do go back to normal…sort of. Also, I briefly made one female character into a superheroine (think Wonder Woman meets Power Girl) in the same ep, should she be buff?

Is that too much or just enough FMG for a large audience? What do you all think?

[darkclaw91]

Saw this on my DeviantArt account, one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen 🙂

[darkclaw91]

Hi, sorry for the late reply.

If you want to pitch to a company in animation, they often have e-mails for this. However, make sure you have everything together. And I mean everything. This includes pitch bibles, concept art, scripts, everything. They can and will ask for these and more from what I’ve heard.

But I don’t know much about video game pitching, sorry.

[darkclaw91]

I don’t know too many, since I’ve only recently begun to indulge in my enjoyment of buff beauties, but for me, I find Cindy Phillips insanely attractive. I love cute faces on buff bods. I checked out Denise Hoshor after seeing her name on here, and she is hot 🙂

I want to check out everyone listed here now, I have a lot of catching up to do.

[Author]

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