So rude. So f***ing RUDE!
And so smug about it, so pleased with his "wit", his "H-E-R not H-I-M" s**t.
I get mostly positive feedback from people, says Robin "Triple Dee" Hillis. Young, old, male or female - people will stop me and ask me how I got my biceps like that or how much time I spend in the gym etc. They always tell me how great I look and how they wish they could do it! Very few negative comments.
There are a lot of people who stare though. But is that negative? I would like to think they are admiring from afar and just don't have the confidence to come up and ask me questions.
I reckon I'd be one of the starers. Hypnotised, rushing, moving to get a better view perhaps, but to all intents and purposes zombified by The Madness. Incapable of forming anything remotely resembling a question, incapable of uttering anything remotely resembling a word in the English language, which at least sets me apart from our smug videographer - and isn't his camerawork s**t by the way - although from Robin's point of view, I guess we'd both fall into the starer category.
Most recently, Robin was towering over the other big girls in Toronto at her first professional show. That's Cathy Lefrançois there next to her, wonderful glutes and all. And there is Robin's elbow, near as dammit the same height as the top of Cathy's head. And here's the two of them again, Cathy looking decidedly tempted by Robin's muscle pit, or at the very least mulling over the fact that she could remain at full height and still comfortably snuggle her whole head in there.
You'd bet she was 6ft plus, wouldn't you? I'd say 6'1" at least, even taller then me in her girly girl heels. But the fact is she's 5'9". Tall for a woman, yes, and definitely tall for a top female bodybuilder, but not nearly as Amazonian as you'd imagine. Guess she walks tall, as they say.
Robin had always been sporty at school. The transformation, though, truly began in her final year. I had to do a project in health class, she says. I picked the topic Bodybuilding and focused on Cory Everson. I immediately joined a gym and have never looked back. I have been steadily training since I was 18 years old.
She competed first in 1993 and didn't compete again until ten years' later, then she had another break between 2005 and 2010. She's now 45, proudly wearing the scars of motherhood on stage, finally a pro after winning the Canadian championships in 2014 at her fourth attempt. The years of steady training have created a physique described by one forum poster as "a dream for every hardcore female muscle fan". And make no mistake, there are plenty of those.
Perfection, according to Robin, is something we all aim for, knowing we will never attain it. But her "stable of adoring fans" might disagree. They call her "incredible", they call her "unreal". Nobody fills out a shirt better, they say. She is an "animal", a "female beast" - and they mean it in a good way. She is a "true Alpha", a "real life Amazon".
For every onlooker with a cameraphone and a shaky hand making snide comments about Robin's gender then, there is, I would bet, at least one of me, utterly awestruck and overwhelmed by this vision of muscular female beauty. I probably needn't be so nervous. None of us starers should. Those lucky enough to have met her report she is "super sweet", that she has "an amazing, down-to-earth personality", and on top of that, that she is ultra-feminine.
People automatically assume that we want to be masculine cause we lift weights, Robin says. I am a girly girl and happen to think muscle is sexy. I love the lines and shape it gives us bodybuilders. And that is exactly what I've always loved about female bodybuilders too, and clearly I am not alone in that.
With her size, Robin certainly has more lines and shape, and consequently, more devoted fans than most. And that - in a nutshell - is precisely why size matters.
Robin on Facebook, and Instagram.
