Female Bodybuilding Essay, Research Paper

In this paper we are supposed to consider the concern for ?resistance? also known as women transgressing racial and gender hierarchies within the context of ?technological transgressions.? I feel that women are not in fact a ?resistance.? In their initial purpose, women attempt to be a form of resistance. Society has women involved in an activity that is completely dominated by men. Even though bodybuilding is a sport, per se, many people do not view it as one. Body building is a rather ridiculous form of activity whose sole purpose is to show off an individual?s physique and muscles. For many people, including myself, this is not a favorite past time.

Female bodybuilders are examples of technological transgressions. As examples of transgressing boundaries that are set up by the ?dominant social order ?, women bodybuilders are the resistance against this dominant society. When reading this article though, one could see that despite the ?resistance? women believe they are putting up against society; in fact they really are not. They are just conforming to what society wants them to be. To bring this argument into a broader sense, one can look at all the things in which women are now involved. Women believe that they are crossing boundaries and are finally becoming equal with men. When in fact if you look at things, women are not in charge and will never be in charge because it is a male dominated society.

The author feels that the reason for white women bodybuilders desiring to compete in this sport is to break down society?s idealization of the white male body. I don?t agree at all. I feel that women being body builders are for their own personhood. Women feel that they are crossing boundaries and paving the way for future women bodybuilders. The fact that the rules and judges of these competitions are men and look for different things in women body builders than in men body builders is a result of a male dominated society. Instead of trying to erase the structures of the bodybuilding competitions and the rules which are set in place for women bodybuilders, women are just concerned with competing. I do not think women have realized this fact of the system yet. Women bodybuilders have not confronted the system of bodybuilding. ?The most important aspect [of female bodybuilding] is shape, a feminine shape. Our society tells us that a feminine shape is one in which a women has curves, a slim waste, large breasts as well as the women weighing around 120-135 pounds. Women are in fact embracing society?s assessment of them.

As seen in the article, with the two white women competitors who in fact embody what the ideal women bodybuilders strive to accomplish, a film about their ultimate goal of winning an important bodybuilding competition. These women play right into society?s opinions of them. The audience is presented with the two typical examples of women bodybuilders. One women who is the ?butch? type and the other who is the ?motherly? type. These women star in a movie that mocks the entire world of women bodybuilders. Society has led an allusion for women body builders. They tell women they should fit into these roles and they will succeed as bodybuilders. Instead of telling these women the appropriate manner in which to change society?s views of them is through changing the structure of society and the way it works. These women body builders have not changed anything in the gender hierarchy. Therefore, these women are just where they belong in this male dominated society, controlled.

The article also address? women bodybuilders as transgressing racial hierarchies. The author presents this theme through an African-American women who is the winner of the body building competition. She presents this women as ?a compromise between ideologies of muscularity and of femininity.? I strongly disagree with the author. First, as I wrote earlier, the entire system of women body building transgresses no hierarchies, mainly the gender hierarchy. The author is in fact saying that black women bodybuilders are not feminine, they are somewhere between. Black women bodybuilders are like the white women when they do not question the structure of bodybuilding competitions and what they actually are reflecting to society as well as themselves. As a resistance to transgressing the racial hierarchy, I am not sure whether I agree or not. Black women, in general, are not concerned with white women and the desire to assimilate to society?s notions of the perfect women. The black women who are bodybuilders are attempting to enter into a world which is male dominated. I do not think their specific fight is one with white women bodybuilders as much as it is with male bodybuilders. I believe for black women as white women, these women, must transgress the gender hierarchy of our society.

Being a black women and one who is not interested at all in bodybuilding as a sport or as anything, I think bodybuilding in general is a brainless display of the whole category of sports. I agree with the fact that it truly reflects the male dominated society. I agree with the fact the rules and strategies of the sport show society?s control over us. Because women are trying to transgress this gender hierarchy, they need to realize what in fact this sport entails on all levels. They should not be concerned with only competing in the sport. To look at the rest of our society and women?s attempts to put themselves on the same levels as the men, you can see it will never happen. Women are entering the work force and seeing themselves as equals but in fact they are not. Women entering into the different sectors that are male dominated are a controlled ?resistance? by this male dominated society. I do not think men are truly concerned with women entering their world But now the question is, the feminist movement took place over 60 years ago and we can vote, we can participate in male dominated activities, yet are we really equal?