Her Legs

Ingrid Avelsgaard, gym legs selfie

Q: I play water polo, so my legs are big and muscular. Guys always make comments and innuendos about them, especially about my strong thighs. I was just curious as to why. (from Glamour Magazine Online, 2/11)

It's a few years old now, and I could have found a similar but more recent example, but I've been wanting to mention this particular article for some time, and today's subject suits it to a tee. It's stayed on the FMS list of things to write about mainly because Glamour magazine decided to farm out the writing of the response to a man because, as they say, there are some questions about men that only a guy can answer.


left: Lea Wiehl; right: Andrea Bisi through her leggings

You have stumbled upon a truth: guys have a fascination, nay, an erotic obsession with muscular, female thighs, begins the reply, frank and to the point from the get-go. And yes, you being a water poloist, will be in the hot seat for that sort of attention. The answer as to why we men love big, strong muscular legs on our women, the writer continues, is both "primitive" and "sexual". Well, who would have thunk that...?


Definition by FMS fave Michelle Davis

On the one hand, the article says, Guys equate muscular legs with being super acrobatic and inventive and bed. Well, I don't know about you, dear reader, but I'm nodding my head at that one. And not only from a "yes, I have that fantasy" point of view. I'm also in agreement because the women I have been lucky enough to have got intimate with who did have strong, muscular legs absolutely were much more acrobatic/gymnastic in bed, and yes, that did make for more "inventive" sex.


Shredded Brazilians Janaina Ferreira (left) and Ana Paula Silva

On the other hand, There is the desire to be submissive, the article continues. To feel powerless, dominated by the muscular thighs of a woman. Women are not supposed to be stronger, thicker, and burlier than their man; the idea of being confronted with that is alluring and kinky. I'm not saying this is right or wrong, good or bad, I'm saying guys see your thighs and it brings up psychosexual feelings of being controlled, "man-handled". Most guys won't readily say it, but their subconscious is whispering to them "I want to be choked by those thunder thighs." Now, whether that kind of thing is your bag or not, once again, it's hard to disagree with the writer. The urge to submit is undeniably a reason why many find strong, muscular legs desirable.


Suan Garcia con furia (force, rage, climax)

But excellent though the article is, I feel it does miss what to me are other important reasons why muscular legs (and by extension muscular women) are so attractive. The first is aesthetic. For me, the shape, the curves that muscular legs have - the flared thighs, the bulging calves, the bow-like hamstrings - are, like the curves elsewhere on a female bodybuilders frame, possibly the main reason why I am so attracted to them. And I think that needs to be said, because one of the body image problems some women struggle with is that their legs (thighs, calves, whatever) are "too big" or "too muscular". Whether this is natural size or the result of running, playing water polo or weight training, it is undeniably an issue some women have. And as far as I'm concerned, the more they read and/or hear that it's their muscles that make them and their legs more attractive, more beautiful than the stick-like media ideal, the better.


"If she looks this good over four months out..." Melissa Wee

Meanwhile, there are women who love their own muscular legs. They celebrate them, and in doing so they inspire other women to embrace their own muscularity. Ali K., a runner and blogger from Georgia, is one such woman. Once upon a time, Ali was obsessed with dieting, obsessed with being thin. She had really low self-esteem. I hated myself everyday. She suffered hair loss, brittle nails and terrible, dry, thin skin due to malnutrition. She was prone to mood swings, a short temper, and problems with memory and focus. It had a negative effect on her social life: I was too focused on how I looked and whether I would have to eat in front of people to even bother making an effort. Ultimately, her zero calorie lifestyle left her clinically depressed.


Beautiful Jennifer Abshire (left) and rising Korean star Kim Ji-hyun

Her runner's blog pretty much amounts to a daily love letter to herself, her new body, and more often than not, her muscular legs. My thighs are strong, muscular, and powerful. They push me through long runs, up hills, across finish lines... They make me feel confident. They make me feel like a woman. They make me feel proud of my body, she wrote recently. And it's a message her followers want to hear. You always amaze me with your incredible posts! I embrace the name "Thunder Thighs" when someone says it, is just one example of the many responses her posts have got.


Geisi Cyborg and her freak

Confidence is sexy. Confident women are sexy. And women who are full of self-confidence because they are happy with their muscular strong bodies are the sexiest women of all. And this, I think, is another point our male writer forgot when he was exposing why so many men were commenting on that water polo player's thighs.

Furthermore, as our runner-blogger Ali mentioned above, her muscular legs empower her. And this theme is taken up by one of her respondents. I am proud to have strong, muscular thighs! she says. My thighs GET SHIT DONE. If I didn't have these thighs, there are so many awesome experiences I would never have been able to have.


Oksana Grishina, Calvzzz! Veinzzzz!

So there's yet another reason for the attraction. Women with strong, muscular legs are the ones who are running marathons, running up and down hockey fields or football pitches or around tennis courts. They're powering through triathlons, completing Crossfit workouts, and they're squatting the kind of weights that most men, let alone most other women, would cower at. Whatever it is their muscles are enabling them to do, they are getting done. And the ability to set and achieve goals is, if not a sexy quality to have, generally seen in society as an admirable and desirable one, is it not?


Sculpted by Katka Kyptova

What I'm getting at here is that there is so much more to the attraction I (and possibly you) have towards muscle than the "primitive" urges the Glamour writer identified. I'm not denying that urge exists, but there are aesthetic considerations as well, along with the positive effects a strong body and strong legs can have on a woman's self-esteem as her ability to complete ever-greater physical challenges grows with her strength.


Up close with Frida Palmell (left); upstanding for Alina Popa, Queen of Muscle

In other words, it gets easier and easier to love her legs the more she loves them herself. And as Ali K. and her running blog remind us, there are more and more women who are learning to love what those big strong muscular legs of theirs can do.


Helle Nielsen's legendary legs

Personally, though I truly admire and appreciate every single woman who has, for whatever reason, developed her leg muscles, my "primitive" urge is strongest for female bodybuilders simply because the aesthetics of their muscles, and therefore their leg muscles, is what arouses me most. Big, strong, and above all, defined.


Big, strong, defined perfection: Marthe Sundby

Enjoy!