Unbuttoned/Unzipped of the Day

Let’s go back for a moment to the magazine years. The time when every issue of every major muscle mag contained pics of proper female bodybuilders. My female muscle lovin’ eye was always caught by images that are generally referred to these days as ‘Unbuttoned’ or ‘Unzipped’. As I remember, these images tended to be in Robert Kennedy’s Musclemag, always the racier of the major publications (maybe because it was Canadian) but I really can’t say with any certainty if that’s actually true or not.

Anyway, while Crockett and Tubbs were keeping Miami safe from crime, the muscle babes had big hair to go with their big muscles, and images like the ones below offered something a little different and a little more exciting than the usual training or posing pics, and not just because of those big bouffy 80s jackets with enormous collars. While displaying less than normal of the subject’s physique - the arms and shoulders were covered - at the same time the jackets were open, revealing a teasing glimpse of the bikini and the body underneath. As a result, my imagination was stimulated.

Marjo Selin and Cory Everson

This image of Marjo, in particular, seared itself into my brain, and many years later when I came across it again on the internet, it took me straight back to my teenage female muscle lovin' days. Those abs looked as good as they had the first time, but its her sultry beauty and the no-nonsense hand on the hip that elevates this image to iconic levels. One of the great female muscle images, methinks.

I would, of course, imagine what the muscles I couldn’t see would look like, using those I could as a guide to size and definition. I would reckon, for example, that judging by Sue Gafner’s thighs and abs, her shoulders are pretty damned ripped. And I would imagine that Sue had just opened the jacket. And she had opened it just for me because she wanted me to see her magnificent body. And she wasn’t going to stop there. Opening the jacket was just the start. She was going to take it all off.

Sue Gafner

The criminally-underrated Sue Gafner stimulated my youthful imagination.

The only thing that could be better, I reasoned, would be the unbuttoned jacket minus the bikini top. And fortunately, I wasn’t alone in that last fantasy. Several years down the road and the magazine years were over, but the greatest of all female muscle mags, WPW, now had a website, and it was there that I found my fantasy come true, courtesy of the photographer, of course, but more importantly, courtesy of the sizzling Joan Bovino holding her denim jacket open to reveal her ripped tanned muscles beneath.

Joan Bovino

Fantasy made reality!

Thanks to the efforts of the people who scan images from the magazine years for the pics of Marjo, Cory and Sue. I’m afraid the FMS archive is noticeably lacking in any more Unbuttoned/Unzipped pics from that era, but fortunately, there are plenty more recent examples of this particular niche genre of female muscle image.

Welcome to Unbuttoned/Unzipped week!