Imagine you finally get yourself off to a bodybuilding show. You sit through all the male classes with everything appearing to be quite normal, but as the female contestants take to the stage, your excitement quickly turns to horror. All of them are wearing shorts and vests. And not very short shorts and not very revealing vests at that! Sure, they strike a few poses, but having most of their physique covered, the range of poses worth doing is somewhat limited - no abs and thigh because, well, you can't even see their abs. They do their lat spreads and you have to imagine the muscle beneath their modest vests. Something's very very wrong here, you think to yourself...
Well, that's exactly what you'd see if you happened to be in Rangoon and decided to rock up at a bodybuilding show - very very little of the women indeed!
However, for those women on the stage, the not very short shorts and the not very revealing vests represent something of a triumph. Yes, that's right, a TRIUMPH!
If you'd been at that show in Rangoon before 2012, you would have seen even less. No posing. No muscle. You would have simply seen the "female bodybuilders" parading across the stage in their "longyi", the traditional attire for Myanmar women.
This state of affairs had existed from 1948, when Myanmar gained its independence, right up until just two years ago, when the shorts and vest revolution took place, and women like Myanmar's most successful international female bodybuilder, Aye Aye Soe (pics), were finally allowed to show some (if not all) the muscle.
Abroad, women have been taking part in bodybuilding contests for a long time, she says. But here we were only allowed to join in 2012. It’s quite late if you compare it with other countries. We have to work hard to keep up with them. "Quite late"?! Gentlemen, I think we need look no further for the Understatement of the Year...
Nevertheless, the late start hasn't stopped Aye Aye picking up medals in south-east Asian competitions over the past couple of years. And, as the contests are outside Myanmar, she gets to wear a posing suit while doing so. The 24-year-old only started lifting weights four years ago after she had graduated with a degree in Chemical Engineering. I worked as a clerk at the Myanmar Bodybuilding and Physique Sports Federation, she says. There, a [male] bodybuilder encouraged me to join the sport. When female bodybuilders get older, they still have a beautiful body and they still look like young women. I gradually grew interested in it. Her biggest success so far was winning something called the "Women's Athletic Physique contest" in Singapore last month. I feel satisfied, she says. The success represents Myanmar.
The interest in bodybuilding here [among women] is not very high. Women are afraid that they will have bigger muscles and will no longer be feminine. It’s quite strange or alarming for some people here to see a female bodybuilder.
She estimates that currently there are maybe "a few dozen" female bodybuilders in the whole of the country, so we must see pretty much all of them in a 20-minute piece from Channel News Asia. The reporting style may not be to everyone's taste, but it's certainly the clearest picture you'll get of muscle women in Myanmar.
Apart from the early shock of the shorts/vest contest, the biggest jaw drop for me comes when we meet journalist Mya Kay Khine of the Myanmar Times. Mya Kay has been writing about her female muscle compatriots. I thought it was an important thing to write about, she says. Look out for the moment she reveals her true feelings though, about female bodybuilders and her take on gender equality in Myanmar in general. It is like listening to a voice from the past. The DISTANT past. Like the pre-electricity past. Even things I don't like can be newsworthy, she says. Indeed.
WATCH THE REPORT HERE.
I usually sign off by saying "Enjoy!", but in the circumstances perhaps "Support!" would be a better exhortation in this case. Support, however remotely. A good start might be to send Aye Aye Soe a message on her Facebook page.
There's plenty of reason to congratulate her.
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