Was I alerted to this fact by a report of the Sports Minister breaking off from his busy schedule to visit her in her gym and wish her well? Was Rosanna's preparation featured in any sports bulletins on the BBC, the reporter somewhat comically attempting to lift the same weights as her? Was there an article on her in the national press, detailing her career to date? Well,... no. None of these things happened. In fact none of these things ever happen to female bodybuilders. Not in this country, and probably not in yours.
But I did find out that Rosanna would be competing, and it was before the competitor lists became available. And it was from a national media source. Even if it was only as a small online 'calendar' piece on itv online, not an actual article, I was pleasantly surprised to find Rosanna there, not only because any coverage of UK female bodybuilders in the national press is good coverage, but also because the only story here is the fact that she has qualified and will compete. There's no 'celebrity-turned-bodybuilder' angle à la Jodie Marsh, nor any of the nonsense it takes for Rene Campbell to get into the national media (I'm a Bigorexic/Female Bodybuilding Champion Can't Find Love etc etc). So well done itv!
I do, however, suspect that the story was originally picked up by the local media, and consequently made it onto the national platform. I'm not saying that's the only way it could have happened, but I do think it's a likely scenario given the amount of female muscle I have discovered in regional media around the UK. And this local coverage tends, like the piece on Rosanna, to focus solely on the woman, her background and her achievements. There's no angle necessary.
In the national media 'She's a World Champion' is simply not enough, so they need to have 'She's a World Champion Who Can't Find a Man' (yeah, right) or something like that to spice it up a bit. The regional media, in contrast, have pages to fill and not nearly as much happening around them, so the fact that a local lady has made good, even in a sport as widely-derided as female bodybuilding is, in itself, automatically newsworthy.
In the last year, FMS has come across countless articles in the regional media celebrating local muscle heroines. Examples include an April 2012 article about Jen Ford winning Miss Toned Figure at NABBA Scotland in the West Lothian Courier. In September, the Hucknall Dispatch reported that local lass Caroline 'Cee' Oliver would had qualified for the IFBB World Championships. Also in September, the Yorkshire Post interviewed Batley girl Joanne Dudley and Anna Middleton from Bingley, both competitors in Natural Physique Association contests. Rachael Hayes' victory at the Drug Free Athletes Coalition World Championships was celebrated by the (Sheffield) Postcode Gazette in November.
Joanne Dudley
I could go on. Indeed I could also go back, back to 2010, when I first started investigating female muscle in local media, back to a report in This Is Kent about Broadstairs' Vicky Bradley winning the Figure class at the London qualifier for the British National Bodybuilding Federation's National Championships.
The point is, if you care to look closely at your local media, you might find a lot more female muscle than you will if you only pay attention to national press. And any female muscle fans with ambitions to write about the women in the sport could do worse than seek out local muscle women for interviews. There is, after all, quite a good chance that local media outlets would be up for actually publishing your work online or even in print. It's up to all of us to spread the regional love. Has think global, act local ever worked for minority movements before?!
Meanwhile, the best of British to Rosanna in her quest for professional status.
We'll be keeping an eye on events in Columbus, stay tuned for news of Rosanna there.
In the meantime, enjoy Rosanna's guest posing routine at the UKBFF Leeds last year
And, in tribute to Rosanna and all the other British female bodybuilders who represent us, this week on Female Muscle Slave, it's FBBUK. And however pant-wettingly exciting the thought that British female muscle icons Lisa Cross and Rene Campbell will both be competing in 2013 in world-class competitions, FBBUK Week will be waving the flag for some of the less well-known muscle women from these shores.
And we're sure Lisa and Rene, great Britons that they are, would approve.
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