Muscle and Madmen

And I was thinking 2012 had been a pretty good year for female muscle in the mainstream, but if 2013 continues as it’s started, we are in for a treat!

A female bodybuilder in a make-up ad and it’s beautiful

Advertisement uses muscular female model in a non-insulting, beautiful manner

Female bodybuilder Jelena Abbou shows off her amazing physique in campaign

These headlines and more have been generated by the advertising campaign for a new cosmetics range, called ‘Strength’ (get it?), from MAC, who, apparently, are a big deal in the field. And while I have never taken much of an interest in the cosmetics industry or its advertising methods, they’ve got my attention now!

Flex your femininity with a color collection that’s fearless, elegant and strong, reads the copy. Strike a powerful pose, stand out, redefine the notion of beauty - and do it with strength too irresistible to ignore.

The most exciting thing about this is that for the first time I can recall, a muscular woman is being used in a major advertising campaign in order to associate the product with the qualities she displays. I’ve seen female bodybuilders in ads before, but it’s always been purely for the shock value. But here there’s no irony (not that you’d expect much from a make-up ad), no snigger at all. It’s almost too good to be true!

She's styled and photographed in a way that glamourizes her and highlights her beauty and her femininity, writes Jenna Sauers at jezebel.com, but the ad also does not camouflage or attempt to minimize her incredible body. In fact, Abbou's muscular arms are the focus of this picture. That's what makes this ad so striking, and so incredibly beautiful.

And Sauers’ reaction is pretty much typical. ‘Finally something different… and I love it!’ would be a fair summary of the huge number of articles the ad has generated:

As a fashion and beauty site  we have to do a certain amount of coverage of fashion and beauty campaigns. For the most part, they are uniformly boring. Because they are all the same. Thankfully, those wily pigment junkies at MAC Cosmetics just went and made our job a little more interesting…

This is a body type we’re completely unused to seeing represented in beauty advertising - so unused to it, in fact, that it’s jarring. But it’s also quite a lovely ad…

There’s no denying the image is shocking, and that’s why it’s so awesome. If only all cosmetic advertisements emphasised their subject’s unique beauty…

Admirable that MAC has cast a sort of woman who seldom appears outside of fitness magazines…

Hats off to you, MAC Cosmetics, you folks did an amazing job creating an ad campaign that shows the beauty of a muscular female body in a complimentary, gorgeous way…

The praise, from the articles I’ve read, and I’ve read more than a few, is universal. And even the majority of comments from other readers have welcomed the campaign:

It's about time strong females were used in marketing a bit more. I always see a push for more rounded ladies, but what about super fit ladies? It's great to see the beauty stereotype challenged…

I love it! She looks great and this is a great positive body shape to aspire to. She is very sexy and feminine looking. And strong…

Nice to see women with a bit of character and oomph instead of a load of uninspiring lollipop heads…

Couldn’t agree more!

This woman ‘with a bit of oomph’ was born in Serbia, but left in 1997, at the age of 20, to pursue a fitness modelling career in the USA. Now 35, Jelena has been competing at the highest level in her adopted country for the best part of 12 years.

It’s funny that the only negativity I’ve managed to find about the whole thing has come from female muscle fans themselves, bemoaning the fact that Jelena isn’t a ‘proper’ bodybuilder, only a figure competitor. Sure, the people at MAC have chosen their model well. Ripped she may be, but Jelena is also one hell of a looker.

The PR people have gone for a woman with plenty of the requisite ‘conventional’ beauty. So what? What’s significant is that the model involved has any muscularity at all, and furthermore, that those muscles are the focus of the image. The apparent success of the campaign only helps to further the ‘Strong Is Sexy’ cause. It’s a bit unrealistic to expect the admen to adopt someone like Alina Popa or Sarah Hayes, beautiful as they are, to front a major campaign at this stage.

Interestingly though, while MAC might not be ready to use a fully-fledged female bodybuilder in their ad campaign, it’s quite likely that Alina or Sarah have been using MAC for some time. MAC products are of professional standard, specifically engineered to stand up to the lights and subsequent heat of a live performance. Consequently, the range is widely used not only by theatre actors and pop divas, but it’s also apparently the favoured make-up of female bodybuilders in competition. (Now that’s something that I’d never thought about in all these years of female muscle lovin’ - what make-up do they use?!)

Anyway, back to the point. I, and perhaps you too, dear reader, have often dreamed of a world where muscular models strut the catwalks and adorn the pages of fashion magazines. At the beginning of 2013, it seems to me, the success of this campaign means that dream is a little closer to reality, and that should be something to celebrate.   

Well done MAC, and well done Jelena!

Practising for the MAC shoot?

…for more of Jelena, visit her website and youtube channel