Others have claimed the title 'Muscle Barbie', most notably Joanna Thomas, Megan Avalon and Wendy Rider. Even Brigita Brezovac has recently been posting pictures of herself sporting 'Barbie Power' and 'Barbie Wants to Be Me' T-shirts. All these women are quite admirable in their own way and are perfectly entitled to call themselves whatever they want, but when I think of the 'Barbie doll' of female muscle, I think of the Italian former fitness competitor, Silvia Scaglione.
This is somewhat ironic because she has never referred to herself as a 'Muscle Barbie', nor has anyone else. As far as I know, Silvia thought of (and maybe still thinks of) herself as a fitness or 'bodyfitness' competitor. Female muscle brethren posting images and clips of Silvia describe her as a 'sex bomb' or 'bombshell'.
Watch the interview with Silvia below and see which words spring to your mind.
Like Barbie, there's quite a lot of Silvia that's not, let's say, entirely natural...
... but it's also that Silvia, for me, represents a certain kind of 'dream girl', a certain fantasy made flesh. And there's little doubt that Silvia wanted to be that fantasy, it was her decision to cultivate that look. And moreover, if some of the claims made about Silvia are to be believed, that fantasy was available for around $1,000 a time at one point.
Now, I'd never say that Silvia was one of my favourite bodybuilders, far from it. However, and with apologies to Orson Welles, watch Silvia in action below and imagine that I were to give you the requisite funds on condition that you spend them on Silvia, would you, would you really tell me to keep my money?
Buon divertimento!
