Favourites Fortnight

Ever FBB

Choosing your favourite ever FBB is, as I'm sure many of you know, a bit of a hiding to nothing, but I have been asked this question a handful of times since I started the blog, so at least I do have an answer I made earlier on this one. So here goes...

I've been a female muscle head for over 25 years now. At first, this meant I bought mainstream muscle magazines to satisfy my cravings. I have my favourites from these years: Anja Langer, Michelle Andrea, Diana Dennis, Denise Rutkowski and even a young (ie. pre-surgery) Melissa Coates among them. But if I had to choose one woman from this period, it'd be Dorothy Herndon.



I can still recall the purchase of that issue of Muscle Training Illustrated which introduced Dorothy to me. The sight of her on the cover and suddenly I was dry-mouthed, trembling with excitement, frantically turning pages to see more of this vision of heart-stopping muscular beauty. Once bought, this magazine remained at or near the top of the pile for many many years after, treasured not least because there was very little of Dorothy that appeared anywhere else.



Little more has come to light since the advent of the internet, but thanks to those heroic scanners of muscle magazines, you can see pretty much all of Dorothy there ever was all at once. But better still, Dorothy's video work with WPW can now be enjoyed by all, as well as this guest posing clip from 1988. And I found that she moved like I always imagined she would - with the graceful power of a lioness.

Dorothy isn't my favourite ever, but she was pretty much my favourite of that era of female muscle lovin'. When mainstream muscle magazines gave way to Women's Physique World, there were suddenly so many more women in many different outfits (albeit only every few months - remember the torture of that wait?!), and among them were women who belong on the same level of my female muscle pantheon as Dorothy.




And then came the internet. All of those past favourites to be seen anew, and on top of that there was a whole new generation of female muscle talent available for our collective and individual viewing pleasure. More images than ever before, more videos than ever before, and it was all easier to access than ever before.




Yet more women for the pantheon.

And in that era, more or less, I first met my two all-time favourites.

GINA DAVIS



It's been a while, but FMS did pay tribute to Gina back in February 2012 (Treasures from the Archive: Gina Davis), pointing out, among other things, how much fun it is to say that your dream woman is Gina Davis and have everyone around you (secret female muscle heads excepted) assume you are talking about Geena Davis.



We also noted that Gina's relatively short competitive career left me (and many others) wanting more, and wondered if perhaps this was the secret of her enduring appeal.



And around that time, news that Gina was posting pictures of herself on social media led me to fall in love with her all over again. No longer was she the huge, ripped bodybuilder Gina, but she still has that brilliant smile, and all those years of pumping serious iron have left her with mouth-watering muscular curves.




DENISE HOSHOR



Her WPW and Ray Martin videos are still the all-time best sellers, so I doubt that I'm alone in my adoration of this Californian female muscle legend. I reckon I first saw Denise Hoshor in the WPW pic above, just one of the many unforgettable images of her of course, but especially cherished because it was the first.



As far as I'm concerned, everything she did as a bodybuilder was magic, but two stand out. First, Denise in Hawaii, posing in a purple bikini and white heels in public. She is in incredible shape. Huge and defined from head to toe, but unmistakably feminine. As the crowd (of men) watching her grows, the more provocative and sexier her posing gets. Second, in a tiny segment of a GMV video (can't remember which, I bought it and threw it out so long ago now, and have never found the exact clip). She's at an Expo, strutting through the crowd in a tight black dress. The GMV camera person asks her to flex, and when she does - biceps, shoulders, pecs, biceps again - camera person is rendered speechless. She flexes one magnificent bicep again and looks beyond the camera. Good? she asks. There's no reply. She smiles, and struts away.



For me, Denise is all about arrogance. There's the way she looks at herself in the mirror as she flexes in the pump room. And then the measured posing you can see in her routines - slow, showing every muscle in glorious detail, looking like she's loving every single second she's on that stage displaying her beautiful strong body. And then there's her knowing smile... You know I could go on and on and on...




So there you are. Gina and Denise. Denise and Gina.

Not the most original of choices, but to me that just shows I'm not alone in ranking (I said 'ranking'!) these two ultimate goddesses highly. They appear at or near the top of most all-time lists I've seen. There must be something about them...

But wait! I hear you cry. What about Alina? Shannon? Oana? Aleesha?

Well, call me old-fashioned, but I feel that if you are talking ever, all-time favourites, then you should apply a little caution when it comes to active female bodybuilders. Case in point: if you'd asked me for a top 30 all-time a couple of years ago, Fabiola Boulanger would definitely have featured. And looked what happened next.

I don't think Alina, Oana or Aleesha are about to downsize - Shannon I'm not convinced about, though it doesn't seem she'll be giving up 'bodybuilding' imminently either - but I'd rather let their careers come to their conclusions before finding them their place in the pantheon if it's all the same to you.




Final faves of the fortnight tomorrow...