Size Matters: Readers' Choice

I'm delighted to post another addition to the selections from readers for the Fantasy Contest post. And it's not too late if you want to add your line-up to those we've already had. Comment below or on the original post or email 6ft1swell@gmail.com

O Carteiro writes Well, I arrived late at the party. But I guess it's still time to make my line up. Judging on big muscles and beauty combined. I choose everyone on the year they were on top form.

Check out his blogs Blog das Musculosas, Cartas de Musculosas, and my personal favourite Super Trunfo Musculosas, which, it will soon become clear to English-speakers, means Top Trumps. I really think O Carteiro should produce more of these...



... so let's encourage him shall we? I think they are works of genius. There could be an all-time set, then individual sets for the eighties, nineties and so on, or sets for different bodyparts perhaps - a game of Super Trunfo Musculosas Edição BumBum anyone?

Anyway, here are his choices, all the way from Brazil, along with the 'stage names' provided by O Carteiro himself.

[Apologies if the pictures I have are not exactly the correct year specified - I did my best! If anyone has better pics, especially of Judy Miller, then please get in touch.]

Monica Amazon Martin and Denise Babyface Beef Hoshor


Nursel Beef & Boobs Gurler and Christa Berlin Wall of Muscle Bauch


Debbie Bicepia Bramwell and Lisa Calves of Steel Auckland


Juliette Dutch Dynamo Bergmann and Fabiola Eye Popper Boulanger


Sophie Boeuf Canadien Duquette


Christine Flex Freak Envall


Collette Gimme Muscle Guimond and Denise Hardowski Rutkowski


Debi Hot & Hard Laszewski and Marja Ice Giant Lehtonen


Cathy Leg-endary Le François and Heather Major Glutes Policky


Kristy Mamooth Muscle Hawkins and Connie Muskel Panzer Brandt


Annie Potenza Riveccio and Judy The Big One Miller


And O Carteiro adds: Bonus: the upcoming Anne Luise Hulkette Freitas (watch out). Indeed. It's about time I posted some recent Anne Freitas pics. Bejesus she's getting bigger and bigger and bigger...




And it doesn't stop there. Aleesha Meat Armor Young made a belated entrance to the competitor list. O Carteiro reveals To be honest, I forgot to tell her about the contest. When she knew it, she showed up and said: "I think I have the qualifications for the contest". And then made the biggest, beefiest, enormous crab shot I ever seen. In front of that delicious pose, I could just reply "Yes you have". Now, viewers around the globe will have to buy a VeryWideScreen TV if they wanna see the show.




A VeryWideScreen TV and a FemaleMuscleFan-Size box of Kleenex methinks.


Many many thanks to O Carteiro and the other readers who arrived a little earlier at the party. What are the rest of you waiting for?

Scores on the doors after O Carteiro 's votes:

4 votes: Alina Popa
3 votes: Fabiola Boulanger, Tazzie Colomb, Gina Davis, Christine Envall
and Denise Hoshor

Look out for some clips of these goddesses on stage on the Tube Videos page soon...

Marsh In The USA

If you thought Jodie Marsh had got into bodybuilding just to milk one last reality TV show out of her less than illustrious TV career, think again. Jodie Marsh won the title of Women's Fit Body Champion at the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation Natural North American Championships in Washington DC last week. And what is more, 'The Marsh Effect' (a phrase we have adopted here at Female Muscle Slave to describe the softening of the attitude of the mainstream media in the UK to women with muscle as a direct result of Jodie's bodybuilding adventure) has not gone away. In fact, it has taken on a new dimension altogether.



If you aren't familiar with Jodie's pre-bodybuilding career, her first contest and its aftermath, or what exactly 'The Marsh Effect' is, it might be a good idea to check out the previous posts on the subject here and here before reading on.



Jodie has been Stateside for a while now, and was picked up by the media here back in May being trained on Muscle Beach in California with UK female bodybuilder Carmen Knights. It's all in aid of her latest show for DMAX called Jodie Marsh: Brawn in the USA, which premieres in the UK on Wednesday (June 20th).



It came as no surprise to me that Jodie had decided to continue bodybuilding after the first show on  DMAX because not only had she expressed quite clearly that building a muscular physique had made her feel good about herself for the first time in her life, but also because as a result of that, she had received positive media, also for the first time in her life. Yes, of course there were detractors, the usual 'Yuk, she looks like a man' stuff, but they were drowned out by the congratulations and support.




And if she was happy then, after finishing fifth in a local pro-am contest in the UK, she is, quite rightly, over the moon now. In only her second show, she's a winner, tweeting I sincerely apologise if I get boring today but all day I am going to be saying. I'm the INBF CHAMPION!! Haha. Never been happier :-) As noted before on this blog, what comes across more than anything is the huge amount of personal satisfaction Jodie has gained from bodybuilding, and the consequent boost to her self-esteem that it has provided.




But for fans of female muscle like you and me, best of all has been 'The Marsh Effect'. Back in January Female Muscle Slave drew attention to the fact there had been at least one woman directly inspired by Jodie to take up bodybuilding. And guess what? That woman had also discovered that being strong and muscular had made her feel better than ever, both inside and out. Well, now 'The Marsh Effect' has taken another twist.



In an article posted on #socialvoices on MSN, a well-respected commentator on social issues, the marvellously-named Periwinkle Jones, asked Why is it still ok to body-shame muscular women? It was written mainly as a response to the negativity aimed at Jodie's new body from certain quarters.



In my opinion, this article is very very significant, whether five people read it or five million. I've read it, and as far as I can see it is the first time that someone from outside the world of female bodybuilding has equated the criticism of muscular women with criticism of other break-from-the-norm looks. The issue is that it is just another type of body (and one that, in Ms Jones' eyes anyway, is preferable to everybody conforming to the willowy, smooth-limbed ‘ideal’anyway. For the author, it's not a case of whether you like the look of a female bodybuilder or not. It's a case of the woman in question having the right to look any way she wants without being subjected to abuse.



Also significant is the phrasing of the question at the beginning of the article. Look again. Why is it still ok to body-shame muscular women? What this question suggests is not only that it shouldn't be OK, but also the still suggests that, like other looks that were once considered worthy of ridicule but have since become quite acceptable to many societies, one day, it will not 'be OK' to ridicule a muscular woman, regardless of any aesthetic consideration.



So, 'The Marsh Effect' marches on. If she keeps going at this rate, when they come to write the history of female bodybuilding a hundred years from now, Jodie may get a whole chapter to herself, not so much for her physique (although I must say she is looking particularly fine in these promo shots for her new supplement range) but for the way she is making people look at women with muscles in a very very different light.

Congratulations Jodie!

Absession

My absession was becoming a problem. Pictures like those of the wonderful Cinderella Landholt above had become burned into my brain as though with a branding iron, and I could think of nothing else. Whatever I was doing, images of muscular midriffs would pop into my head.




At home, at work, on the bus, or just walking along the street, no matter where I was I could, without warning, be transported by my sick mind to a place where I was close enough to reach out and touch a sublime six-pack. And just as abruptly, I would be back in the real world to find my bath overflowing or I'd missed my station or my boss behind me, concerned. And worse, I'd be sporting the kind of unwanted, yet massive, erection that is generally frowned upon in public places. Help was needed. Professional help.



And so I began my search for a cure. Doctor after doctor, therapist after therapist. All had their theories, and all failed. One tried aversion therapy, showing me hundreds of images of toned and muscular tummies while subjecting me to increasing levels of physical discomfort. A total failure in terms of curing me, but the doctor involved has since published a well-received paper on the potential pain-killing properties of images of fit, muscular women as I found that I can endure a lot more pain than I thought I could if I know there will be another sexy six-pack on the screen in front of me in a few seconds...



At the other end of the scale there was abstinence. Ironic, but again, without effect. Having seen so many images of beautifully-muscled mid-sections over the years, denying me new ones is quite ineffective. It seems my brain has become a sort of massive filing cabinet of data. It takes hardly any effort to conjure up a favourite abs shot (see below).



There was acupuncture, which helped me give up smoking, but failed to ease my absessiveness; there was hypnosis, which just made me believe I actually was a female bodybuilder with rock hard abs (if I hear the word 'jocular' to this day I start touching my own stomach, flexing and moaning); there were endless cocktails of drugs, some of which were most pleasant, but none of which stopped me thinking about being on my knees, licking her ridges while she flexed; and there were endless, endless sessions of therapy.



Finally, I started the 12-step program at Absoholics Anonymous. Spending time with other absessives was a great experience, and definitely helped my collection of images of muscular women to grow, but failed to cure any of us. Is absession incurable? Are we all hopeless cases?



I turned to religion. The priest seemed more concerned about how often I was masturbating than my spiritual well-being. The Rabbi felt that if I turned my entire collection over to him he would be able to understand my problem and thus advise me better. He even offered me money, but when I refused, he threatened to inform my boss I was a hopeless pervert. I ended up paying him to keep quiet. The Imam told me I was doomed, but he was totally taking notes when I told him about my fantasy of being kidnapped by a troupe of kick-ass jihadi babes who grant my last wish before executing me. (No prizes for guessing what the last wish is).



And then, my brothers and sisters, I saw the light. The answer was to stop fighting, embrace this absickness and make it work for me, you and everybody else too. We don't need curing, and we don't need spiritual enlightenment. We are not sick, and we became enlightened long long ago.



Our own church, the Church of Abdominalism. A church that welcomes all who think a sexy, muscular mid-section is the most attractive physical attribute a woman can have, and preaches the spread of this gospel. We shall have no priests, we will call ourselves The Abdominalists and go out to spread the word and hasten the the Abdominalisation of the world.



And to those who oppose us, or call us 'ridge-monkeys', we shall turn the other cheek and go home and worship our abdominal goddess and ask that they be forgiven. For he who has not been abdominalised is doomed to never know the pleasure of the ridges, the ecstasy of the abstasm.



We shall oil the abs of a goddess to show our devotion, both as one and in private worship, so she shall know the priceless value of her spectacular abs. We shall lavish her with gifts of lean meat and fresh vegetables that her physique shall always remain so bloody abstastic, and through the happiness of ourselves and our abdominalised women, the truth of abdominalism shall become known by all.



Are you with me?



Or are you all tutting and shaking your heads right now?!