Media Watch: Gal Gadot Buffs Up

As celebrity female muscle pics go, more stir has been created by Israeli actress Gal Gadot's Facebook post from February 17th than most. There's nothing like a good workout in the morning, she writes, showing us her, er, bicep. Love it! You?

The stir is the result of the announcement at the end of last year that she had been cast in what's being called Batman Vs Superman (although officially it doesn't have a title yet, and is listed on IMDb as Untitled Superman-Batman Project). No, Gal hasn't been cast as Superman, and no, she hasn't been cast as Batman, either.

She's going to be Wonder Woman.

The announcement sparked off some hilarious reactions from the world of comic fandom as grown men in bedrooms all over the world complained via the wonder of social media that Gal didn't have the breasts or the muscles to play Wonder Woman.

And, with the above picture and an interview on Israeli TV, Gal has responded.

Breasts... anyone can buy for 9,000 shekels and everything is fine. By the way, Wonder Woman is Amazonian, and historically accurate Amazonian women actually had only one breast. So, if I’d really go "by the book"... it’d be problematic.

Now, apparently Gal is quite a big deal with people who watch movies like Fast & Furious, but I have to admit I'd never heard of her before this picture arrived in the FMS inbox. However, the way she out-geeked the geekboys with her knowledge of Amazonian culture there... Well, I'm beginning to like her.

And, according to her interview, "a good workout in the morning" is not going to be the limit of her mass-building in preparation for the part (and given that the movie isn't going into production anytime soon, she's got plenty of time to build that mass).

It’s the physical preparations that I’m starting now, she says. A very serious training regimen – Kung Fu, kickboxing, swords, jujitsu, Brazilian... I’ll gain body mass.

Well, that is good news. And if there are going to be progress pictures along the way, even better. Meanwhile, like the good female muscle head I am, I will be completely ignoring developments in the world of comic book superheroine debate, although if I fancy a bit of cosplay, there's no shortage of images of REAL Wonder Womans (Wonder Women? Neither sounds quite right!) for the female muscle head to enjoy...

Media Watch

Media Watch is a new series exploring how stories relating to female muscle are reported in the English-speaking world's mainstream media.

FMS was delighted that the very first UK article to come to the attention of our Media Watch team in 2014 was one that was nothing but positive about the benefits of weight training for women. The article, in the 'Life' section in the online version of the Express newspaper, promised 'a bodybuilding champ' would be explaining how 'heartbreak' had 'inspired' her. Now the accompanying picture didn't make it look as if we really were about to read about a bodybuilding champ as you or I would understand the word, but in the UK media, you take what you can get. We read on...



This time last year, Rachel Evans, a 43-year-old PA from South London explained, I'd just got engaged. I was living in a big house in Essex, driving around in expensive cars and dining in the best restaurants. But was she happy? No! On the surface it looked as if I had the perfect life. I was supposed to be happy but in reality I was far from it. I knew the relationship wasn't working and had tried to leave him before but in the end I couldn't bring myself to do it. So when he asked me to marry him just after Christmas when we'd been together for a year I said yes. But just a week later, Rachel was packing her car and leaving her fiancé.

And this change in her life led to another. I suffered from anorexia as a teenager and keeping fit helped me overcome my eating disorder. I had lifted weights before and had always been interested in bodybuilding but I hadn't had the opportunity to try it.



The opportunity arrived, the article continued, when Rachel was introduced to the forgotten IFBB pro of British bodybuilding, the 6'2" (that's 1 full inch taller than FMS' own 6ft1swell, or, if you'd rather, 1.88m) Sarah Bridges, who was last seen at the 2013 New York Pro show as a physique competitor, three full years after her previous show as a bodybuilder.

From February to September I trained rigorously with Sarah and could see my body changing on a weekly basis, said Rachel. I became leaner and more toned than ever and developed a six-pack. My body fat went down to 10% and I began to look and feel like a proper athlete.

Now, before we get to the happy ending, I want you to remember that last bit because it's going to be VERY important later: My body fat went down to 10% and I began to look and feel like a proper athlete. Got that? 10% body fat, looking and feeling like a 'proper athlete'.



Back to Rachel. My dream was to compete in a bodybuilding competition and in October I won the Bikini Diva Champion Total Fitness title. That was my second competition and I was absolutely ecstatic.

So, woman finds self-esteem through weight training at a low point in her life, and meanwhile conquers her eating disorder once and for all. That's the kind of story I like to post, I thought to myself. OK, so she's 'only' a bikini competitor, which might disgruntle a few readers, but like I said before, you take what you can get in the UK media. And I can even give a long overdue nod to Sarah Bridges on the way.

Satisfied, I ran the story past our legendary editor, JJ Musclesucker.

Play up the Bridges angle to keep the muscle fans happy and you've got yourself the go ahead, he told me. Lovely. I began to research this Rachel Evans. I found her old website, where she publicised her makeover, personal shopping and bridal make-up businesses. Her new website, also called MakeOverEssex, was all about Rachel Evans the bikini competitor and sponsored athlete.



And then I came across a story originally from The Sun newspaper from way back in 2009. There was Rachel. And there was Madonna. And the headline for the story was "I wish I'd never tried to get a body like Madonna".

Remember what Rachel said about her 10% body fat this January? That it was only when she had achieved it that she had started to 'look and feel like a proper athlete'? Well, the Rachel Evans from the 2009 article had quite a different point of view...

I have a body fat ratio of about 10% so all the muscles and veins in my arms show up more clearly and prominently than if I was weightier. I have to hide my veiny hands by wearing leather gloves after a workout or if I’m going out in the evening. Only the other day I was painting a ceiling and was struck by the thick, blue vein running from my bicep to the corner of my wrist. It’s not attractive.

Rachel v.2009 also talks about how her breasts disappeared as her body fat ratio fell, how this made her feel 'like a little boy', and led to her getting new boobs. It was the surgery, not the weight training, that made her feel better... and more body-confident.



Don't worry, I'm not about to have a massive rant about the hypocrisy of it all. To be honest, I don't think Rachel is really being hypocritical at all. It seems to me that back in 2009, as now, Rachel Evans is in the business of getting publicity for Rachel Evans. In the past she needed the publicity to attract clients to her various services. Now, perhaps the services she offers are different and she attracts publicity for the benefit of her sponsors as well as for herself, but it's all the same game.

What's interesting to me is this. How does Rachel, fitness fanatic and Madonna fan, get herself into a national newspaper in 2009? By riding in on the back of a general press outcry at how bad Madonna's 'gristly' arms were looking, and by being negative about the effects of her fitness regime. But how does the same woman get herself into the national media five years' later? By being nothing but positive about her 'new' weight training self.

In the end, that's the story this ended up being. Same woman, same body fat percentage, telling a very different story about her life of fitness to the story she had told five years ago. Then, the national media were only too happy to accommodate her disgust at her own sinewy self, but now things are different. Now, they want a positive angle on weight training, they want a life transformed for the better, they want to hear about female empowerment through muscle building.

Enjoy!

Media Watch

Media Watch is a new series exploring how stories relating to female muscle are reported in the English-speaking world's mainstream media.

Today, a look at Australia (and New Zealand), where, once again, Serena Williams' 'muscular' body was the subject of a little media attention, and this in turn led to much comment and debate about women and muscularity in general during the first week of the recent Australian Open.



We've certainly been here before. As long ago as August 2011, FMS reported that Serena's body had been the subject of some negative media attention in the UK, and the 'debate', as the press would have it, about her being 'too muscular' seems to raise it's head every time one of tennis' Grand Slams are held.

However, this time there was a slightly different slant in the Aussie and Kiwi media.

Why Do We Find Muscular Women So Perplexing? was a typical headline - a story from the Brisbane Times website that appeared almost verbatim two days later on the Otago Times website under the headline Muscularity Challenges Feminine Ideal.

We don’t see many muscular women in popular culture – and the display of much heavier and obviously stronger female bodies can be overwhelming or shocking, began the article. Why are we so afraid of strong, muscular women?

After all, there’s nothing unnatural about a strong and muscular woman. What’s unnatural is preventing and discouraging women from reaching their full physical potential in the name of femininity.

Wait a minute! Swell thought to himself. 'Nothing unnatural about a strong and muscular woman'. Pleasingly, this didn't sound like it was going to be one of those typical mainstream media articles about female muscle.


Dr Jamilla Rosdahl

The author, I noted, was no hack journalist but one Jamilla Rosdahl, a lecturer in Gender Studies at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, and a few clicks later Swell was all over Dr Rosdahl's PhD thesis, entitled Sculpting my Feminist Identity and Body: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Bodysculpting and Poststructuralist Feminist Fieldwork.

It's quite a read.

I beg Dr Rosdahl's forgiveness if I am misrepresenting her work in any way, but in a nutshell, it deals with issues that arose when she took up bodybuilding, or 'bodysculpting' as she calls the figure/fitness side of things. What struck her first of all was how, as a result of her body becoming more muscular, her own 'femininity' started to be questioned by others but also by herself, and at the same time how unfair it seemed to her that while male bodybuilders are in no way judged on their masculinity, female competitors are marked down for not showing enough femininity.

It goes without saying that she explains it better than me, but if you are not as inclined as me to get your teeth into such academia and read her thesis, you can listen to an interview with her on a Brisbane radio station from 2011, when she was still doing her research, here.

And Dr Rosdahl was on Aussie radio again during the Australian Open when she was interviewed for another Brisbane station, 4BC, on 14th January, along with Carole Graham, an IFBB executive and former multiple national champion from way back.


Carole Graham in her pomp, and today

The section of the show that includes their interviews is definitely worth a listen in full (and you can do so here) for a couple of reasons apart from Dr Rosdahl's prescence.

Firstly, there is (to me anyway) the revelation from Carole Graham that the Australian IFBB hold female-only shows. And secondly, there is the attitude of the hosts, partly revealed when Graham mentions one of these shows. To these two radio presenters in Brisbane at least, it's undeniable that women with muscle ARE desired and that, as Carole Graham says earlier in the show, the confidence that stems from being in control of how your body looks attracts many more men.

Carole Graham: ... we've got one coming up on the Gold Coast in March, and you know what? Most of the audience is guys that come along and really respect how the girls train...

Female Host: Oh they don't Carole! Oh grow up! They're not coming for that!

Male Host: That's what we tell you Carole, that's what we tell...

Female Host: They come to drool, that's why they come. They come with their tongues hanging out like Pavlovian dogs!

An academic and two popular radio talk show hosts providing positive media for female muscle, albeit it in very very different ways. It certainly makes a refreshing change from the norm.



And here's the show Carole Graham mentioned. If you're in that part of the world and 'respect how the girls train', why not check it out? You probably won't be alone by all accounts, and FMS would love to hear from any readers who do attend!

Info is available on the IFBB Australia website.

You Can’t Trust A Man Called Piers

News that Piers ‘Morgan’ Moron (© Private Eye) thinks Madonna’s arms are too muscular is resolutely refusing to go away. Once a self-publicist, always a self-publicist, and re-locating to the USA (my condolences) hasn’t affected Piers’ ability to generate column inches for himself. Seeing as David Furnish had already put the boot in on Her Madgesty after the Golden Globes, Piers, couldn’t resist kicking a woman when she’s down, and getting himself all over the media just before a new series of his US talk show begins. Yawn.

Wait! I hear you cry. Aren’t you just adding to those column inches? Don’t do it! Walk away!

I hear you, but here in the UK we haven’t forgotten exactly why it is that Mr ‘Morgan’ Moron has gone stateside. The condensed version is that when he was the editor of the UK daily newspaper The Mirror, it was, according to one of the senior journalists who worked for him, ‘very unlikely’ that he did not know that phone hacking was used by representatives of his newspaper, and Piers said as much to the recent enquiry into the phone hacking scandal: Mr Morgan admitted he had listened to a tape recording of a voicemail message left by Sir Paul on his then wife’s mobile phone was how it was reported by The Daily Mail. So, someone played him a tape recording of a message left on Heather Mill’s voicemail, but he didn’t know that people who worked for his newspaper were hacking phones. Yeah, right. And this from the man who resigned because his paper had printed fake pictures of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners, and I think you can see why Piers thought a trip West would be a good move.

You can’t trust what comes out of Piers. In some instances, the opposite of what he says is, in fact, the truth. So let’s assume that Piers wasn’t breaking the habit of a lifetime and that what he said about Madonna and her arms isn’t really what he thinks at all. He’s given us no reason to believe him before, why should we do it now?



And if Piers was lying, how does he really feel about Madonna, and her ‘caveman’ arms? The only reasonable conclusion is he thinks they’re hot. He doesn’t want her on his show because he knows he won’t be able to control himself. Minutes into the interview the urge to jump over his desk, grab Madge’s bicep and start slavering all over it will be too much. And then he’ll be finished in America too.

Since the Piers/Madonna story broke, Female Muscle Slave has been tirelessly hacking Mr ‘Morgan’ Moron’s phone and personal computer, and we can reveal, exclusively, that Piers is one of us. A female muscle addict. Some of the evidence is presented below. All the pictures were recovered from the ‘Morgan’ Moron phone or PC.


Heather Foster left a voicemail on Piers’ phone soon after the TV interview threatening to come over and punch him into next week if he mentioned any other woman’s arms again. Lisa Giesbrecht left a similarly angry message, promising Piers that he had licked cream off her biceps for the last time, while Betty Viana was so angry she had to resort to her native Spanish to express herself fully. The Female Muscle Slave translation team are still working on the English transcription of the message. So far, they have Now listen you hairless boy who licks fuck sticks… We imagine much of the rest of the message will be unprintable.


This picture of Kim Perez was recovered by our hacking team from a folder named ‘You’re So Vein’. Get it? His gift for language is stunning, isn’t it? Also in the folder was a document in which Piers laid out what he’d like to do to poor Kim’s vascular pythons. Needless to say, it wasn’t ‘ban them from television’.


This stunning pic of Aleesha Young was Piers’ most recent screensaver. No, really.


Skadi Frei actually sent this picture of herself to Piers after she heard his comments on a Swiss news channel. These are big arms you silly little man, her e-mail read. Now I dare you to come to my house in the Alps and call me a caveman to my face. Julie Bourassa was also in touch soon after the interview. I could crush your head like a grape, she said on his voicemail. And if you bag muscular women publicly again, I just might. Marja Lehtonen also called to say that Thursday at 2pm is fine. Piers hasn’t been seen since he boarded a flight from New York to Helsinki on Wednesday night.


A hacked e-mail exchange with Sarah Hayes further reveals Piers’ female muscle lovin’ tendencies. Mr ‘Morgan’ Moron begs Sarah for a muscle worship session, and when Sarah explains she doesn’t do sessions, Not for anyone, and especially not for you, there follows much undignified pleading from Piers.


Sarah finally threatens to forward the entire exchange to his wife in order to get him off her case, to which Piers replies, Do it! I’m leaving her for Fabiola Boulanger anyway! Now, a terrible liar and a bit of a pest he may be, but at least he’s got good taste (when it comes to muscle women anyway).


And finally, this image of the magnificent Brigita Brezovac looking particularly magnificent was one of the ones that came up when the hacking team searched his phone for ‘Most Recent Documents’. In fact, if our time calculations are correct, he must have banged one out to Brigita just after his interview finished, rushing to the studio toilet as soon as his mic was off. No, that’s unfair that last bit. That’s just something I made up. He probably waited until he got in the lift to do that. Or the limo. Or both.

Enjoy! And remember, when Piers says he’s repulsed by women with muscular arms, what he means is he loves them.

He probably reads this blog.

Jessica, You're Gorgeous

It’s never good to hear that a beautiful, muscular woman doesn’t like the way she looks, so alarm bells rang when I saw the headline 'Heptathlon world champion Jessica Ennis admits body insecurity' in yesterday’s Daily Mail.



The article is basically a big advert for the new issue of the UK Marie Claire, which has Jessica on the cover, draped in the flag. The gist of the Mail’s take on it is that Jessica feels her ‘muscular’ figure (it’s not that muscular, Iris Kyle she ain’t but that’s the word she uses) isn’t feminine, and merely a ‘tool’ for her career.

However, as I read the article in full, and other articles that appeared in UK newspapers and on celebrity and sports websites today, basically reporting exactly what the Mail had, it became clear that all of them were actually positive about Jessica’s appearance, and all of them mentioned how great she looks in the Marie Claire shoot.

From the Mail: Jessica looks stunning in the magazine's shoot, in which she shows off her incredible figure wearing some very revealing sportswear. From the Star: As these pictures prove, she has got sex appeal. From the Mirror: If looking stunning was an Olympic sport, Jessica Ennis would win gold every time… but believe it or not, she doesn’t reckon she’s a beauty, although there are a million fans who would argue.

A million indeed. In terms of UK searches, only Pippa Middleton has more than Jessica with the word ‘bum’ attached. And that shouldn’t be too much of a surprise to her, as she was, according to the Telegraph, ‘Rear of the Year’ at secondary school.



Comments on the articles are pretty much all positive, and many of them refer to her physique as desirable, more desirable than typically celebrated mainstream body types:

I think you look amazing, give me toned athletic rather than stick insect any day! Good luck Jessica, I'll be rooting for you this summer!

She blows all these ‘celebs’ away.

She is a real stunner, far better than any professional model.

The journalists who wrote the articles, the public who commented on them (or merely searched for pictures of her bum!), and also indeed the man she is engaged to, all agree that she is attractive, very attractive, and that her honed, athletic physique is very much part of that attraction.

So why this insecurity? Another of the comments hits the nail on the head I think: It [Jessica’s attitude to her body]’s not surprising. The media has decided it’s OK to tell women ‘curvy’ means you’re really female [feminine] and if you are slim or don’t have big boobs, you’re worthless. Not the best sentence ever written in English, but insightful nonetheless, and I agree with the poster that, to some extent at least, Jessica Ennis has been conditioned by the media to dislike her own fabulously toned, athletic body.

Tragic as that may be, it’s clear that Jessica is holding a minority opinion. And once again I am pleasantly surprised that the British press and the British public have reacted to a beautiful but muscular (well, toned and athletic) woman in a positive way. And that's not a bad start to 2012.

Judge for yourself if Jessica needs to lose muscle to be beautiful and feminine.




Enjoy, and a belated Happy New Year to all you lovely readers!

Jodie Marsh Takes It Mainstream

There has never been so much female muscle in the UK mainstream press and media. And ONE woman is responsible for it. And, although it should be, it's not Lisa Cross. It's Jodie Marsh.

For those readers outside the UK, Jodie Marsh was once famous for nothing more than having huge boobs. She certainly put in the hours, turning up any day of the week at any nightclub or film premiere where she could flash her tits and guarantee herself a picture in the next day's paper.




Her career 'moved on' to reality TV. The 'highlights' were Celebrity Big Brother and Totally Jodie Marsh, the concept of which was to find Jodie a husband. No, really. And she actually got married to the winner. Surprisingly, it didn't last.

Then, just over a year ago, these images appeared in the mainstream media.
Jodie Marsh had started bodybuilding!



At the time, I was, I admit, sceptical. She looks so much better, I thought, but it's got to be just another publicity stunt - the reality TV work was drying up at that stage, and with the breakdown of her 'marriage', Jodie seemed to be heading for the E list.
How wrong I was!

Last January, I stumbled across a show on The Active Channel on UK TV, and there she was, looking even better than in the photos, being trained by Tim Sharp.
The shows are still up on the website, part one is here.



Then, since the beginning of this month BOOM! Jodie Marsh and her muscles are everywhere. Print media, online 'news' websites, even breakfast TV. She had competed in a pro-am show in September, finishing fifth.




Turns out that Jodie hasn't completely given up her reality TV dreams. Her journey to muscle has been followed by a TV crew, and the show will be on DMAX in the UK in January next year.




Now, as I said at the start, this level of coverage for a female bodybuilder is completely unprecedented. And what's more, it's pretty much all positive. And so Jodie has suddenly become a kind of unofficial spokeswoman for the benefits of female muscle.

When I look back at some of the photos of me in my 'heyday' they make me feel physically sick. I look flabby, fat and full of cellulite. I used to loathe my body but now I absolutely adore it. This is the best I’ve ever felt, and the best my body has ever felt too.

Before taking up bodybuilding I was feeling depressed and suicidal. Now I have a new life ahead of me. I have a great new body and I feel at peace with myself.

Anyone who feels fat and flabby like I used to can change that. What I'm saying is try exercise, get yourself off the sofa. You don't know how much your life could change for the better.

I feel proud when I look in the mirror. I still can't believe it's my body. Like, when I look at my abs, I'm just like, f**king hell, I love it so much!

I'm the prettiest I've ever looked. It has totally changed my life, doing this. My self-esteem is higher, my confidence is higher, I feel more secure, feel powerful – I almost feel invincible. I do feel a bit like Superwoman!



Moreover, it seems that us fellas who like a bit (or even a lot) of muscle on our women are not such freaks after all.

I've never attracted so many blokes in my life. It's been a real eye-opener. Since I became a bodybuilder I've suddenly got about 50 guys interested in me.

It's not hard for me (and you) to understand why this should be. The surprise is that this coverage and these quotes are from national newspapers and national TV networks. Jodie Marsh has single-handedly raised the profile of female bodybuilding to new heights, spoken out about the benefits of muscle building for women, particularly those with low self-esteem, AND made female muscle fans feel like they no longer need to be shy about expressing their preferences. It's quite an achievement.

If you're from the USA, imagine a fading reality TV babe who you never thought was much of a babe. It should be someone who has an annoying accent, and who seemed to be entering the fifteenth minute of their alloted fame time. Now, imagine that she disappears for a year or two, and the next time you see her she is in national newspapers and on NBC or ABC or CBS receiving gushing compliments from interviewers and presenters. Then, in the same mainstream media, results of surveys start to appear in which men who find her and other women with muscle attractive are the majority.

This is what has happened and what is happening here.

And all because of Jodie Marsh...







Jodie's physique may or may not inspire one, ten, a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand women to go to the gym because they want to feel a bit like Superwoman. She may or may not change the public's perception of muscular women (and the men who adore them). She may or may not continue bodybuilding. But she has given the sport more mainstream coverage than ever. When Andrulla Blanchette won Miss Olympia there was absolutely no recognition in the mainstream media. Jodie Marsh finished fifth in a small UK pro-am competition, and today, the best-selling national newspaper (a tabloid, so take the word 'news' with a pinch of salt) has run a story that tomorrow it will have an exclusive video of Jodie Marsh naked on its website.

So, a national newspaper believes it can attract readers with a naked female bodybuilder. Let me say that again. A national newspaper believes it can attract readers with a naked female bodybuilder.

That, dear readers, is a first. And long may it continue.

Check the Tube Videos page for some of Jodie's TV appearances, which I will put up shortly.

I'll leave you with Jodie's ripped abs.



Enjoy!