Underrated: Tatianna Butler

A new occasional series, Underrated is not intended to be about judging decisions - if it was, we could probably run a post about every single woman who's ever competed! Instead, we aim to (re)focus on women who we think do not enjoy the prominence they deserve in the collective female muscle consciousness - someone a new recruit to the female muscle lovin' world would not necessarily come across.

UNDERRATED?



Less than 30 pics on GwM, and no more than a five-page thread on the forum whose first rule is... and the majority of those pages are taken up with more recent, post-retirement pics (more about that later). It's highly unlikely - as it is with all of the women we feature on Underrated - that you would underrate her if you know her, but with that kind of coverage, then it's also unlikely you have come across Tatianna unless you're old enough to remember her from her turn of the millennium pomp.



She was of that era when the line-ups at the USAs and the Nationals read like a list of all-time favourites compiled by some 40-something muscle head (like me). Sarah Dunlap, Heather Policky, Bonnie Priest, Gina Davis, Colette Nelson, Michelle Tuggle, Lora Ottenad, Sherry Smith... I could go on. She competed with distinction against all of them, she totally looked the part, but ultimately Tatianna - despite a couple of top 6 finishes - never placed high enough to win her pro card and compete at the very highest level. After a (thankfully) brief (and unsuccessful) dalliance with the Figure division, she would only ever get out her posing suits again for paying clients. She went "under the radar" as I believe they say on the dark side.

CAREER



If she was competing now and at her 2001-2002 peak, I'd say she would have won just about all of the IFBB shows so far in 2018, with only the Toronto Pro a possible exception. However, in her time she was just one of a thunderous cohort of soon-to-be greats and others, like her, who would have been greats in another decade.



From Baltimore, we first find her competing locally at the Eastern USA Championships in 1996 as a "novice". Four years later she is at the Atlantic States Championships earning her only class and Overall win.The year after that, at her first national level show - the NPC USAs - she makes the Heavyweight top 6, and then at the North Americans places 4th behind Lisa Aukland, Colette Nelson and Carmen Brady.



Though she undoubtedly looked great in 2001, her peak, I would say, came in 2002 at the NPC Nationals. In a Heavyweight division packed with some of the best female muscle ever (not only compared to today but also any other day) Tatianna placed 4th, a 5'9" ripped ebony Amazon showing off her genetic gifts and exceptional development in all their glistening pumped glory. In the judges' opinions, she was bettered on the day only by Sherry Smith, Alley Miesch-Nie and Overall winner Sarah Dunlap. She never reached such competitive heights again - placing 13th at the Nationals in 2003, and the less said about the return as a Figure competitor in 2005 the better.



If you haven't noticed already though, it's time to point out that as well as being a 5'9" ebony Amazon, Tatianna was (and still is, more about this later), an absolutely gorgeous woman. This muscle + beauty combo was then, as now, much in demand on the schmotography circuit, and while it's not easy to find contest pics of Tatianna, she did more than her fair share of glamour work. WPW/Ray Martin (as always) got in earlier than most, much of their work with her done while she was very much in her voluptuous (and quite frankly f***ing ginormous) off-season shape.



There was work with Physique Art (remember them?!) and others that showcased Tatianna in pretty much a "mainstream" glamour kind of way - a model who just happened to have massive muscles! Awefilms, on the other hand, tended to use her as an "action girl", beating up unfortunate/fortunate (depending on your point of view) male weaklings in mini-movies "Sista Paine" and "Gladiatrix FemMuscle Action".



She was also memorably (in my house) shot by Ivana Ford (again, remember her?!) and perhaps most memorably of all by Bill Dobbins, wearing nothing but some sand.

APPRECIATION



The day after the muscle worship episode of Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends aired, I overheard four women in my office discussing the show, and particularly the Female Bodybuilders it featured. "Yuk!" was pretty much the capsule review - Louis spends most of his time talking to Maria Calo and her (short-lived) husband, you may recall. I expected nothing less, I'd been bitterly disappointed not so much by the portrayal of the world I was so fascinated by, but more the choice of subjects. They could have had Yaz Boyum, but instead we got Maria, and the fans Louis spoke to... embarrassing. But then one of the women says, "except Tatianna" and to my delight they all agreed. She was "lovely" they said, "such a sweet person", "so girly", "yes, very feminine".



And it wasn't just on British TV that Tatianna got noticed. She was a regular on those US chat shows that used to feature FBBs from time to time in a kind of "all woman" pro-female muscle way (those were the days, eh?!). Hardly surprising then that Dobbins selected Tatianna (not, note, Maria Calo) to represent his work on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno when doing publicity for his (racy) book Modern Amazons.



She was - on top of being an outstanding amateur Bodybuilder at a time when future legends were all over the NPC - an articulate, funny, stunningly beautiful, strong woman. And whatever "it" is that makes some muscle women capable of reaching out towards the mainstream and not being mocked, she had that in spades as well.




NOW



As you can see, she has still got most of those qualities today. She's still hot, one forum poster says. She's just not big anymore. Oh really?! That bicep is an illusion, is it?

Watch that (mostly cringeworthy) Louis Theroux episode in full here, or just the "Meets Fans of Female Bodybuilders" segment here. I haven't turned up any of the Jay Leno footage, so if you know where it can be found then please do get in touch.

Underrated will return.

Media Watch: Australia

Today, two recent stories from Down Under written by Daily Mail Australia's Laura House, both dutifully regurgitated verbatim in the good old Mail Online here in the UK. They concern two Figure competitors from the state of Victoria - Tiffany Conway, a 37-year-old mother of two, and Ashleigh Wilson, a 28-year-old personal trainer.


Tiffany Conway (left) and Ashleigh Wilson

I don't usually pay that much attention to what's coming out of the Mail's Australia office, but these two stories, published within a few weeks of each other, caught my attention because I think that taken together they rather nicely represent the good, the bad and the ugly of the way the mainstream media deals with female muscle stories.

Let's start with the good.



The "good" in Tiffany Conway's story, as is so often the case with mainstream female muscle reporting - and the Mail and other online resources that keep churning out such stories should be applauded for it - is triumph over adversity through weight-training. In Tiffany's case it was depression and anxiety. brought on, apparently, by such a bad diet that she weighed in at over 80kg before she decided to turn her life around in 2011. Five years later she became Victoria's Masters Figure champion.



The more I exercised and the better I ate, the better I felt about myself, Tiffany tells us in the article. That came through in my energy, and people around me started noticing that I was happier. I looked fresher, and I was just more fun to be around. The benefits to be gained from making such investment in yourself stays with you for a lifetime, and it has honestly touched every part of my life for the better.



ALL good.

We might quibble about the use of the one-size-fits-all term "Bodybuilder" in the article, we might even really get nit-picky and crticise the writer for laziness in her reporting of Tiffany winning "the IFBB competition" in 2016, but on the whole, the story is a very positive muscle message for the women of Australia, with Tiffany an excellent advocate for the lifestyle, its benefits, and for the joys of competing. For 10 years I wouldn't stand in front of anyone in a bikini let alone stand on a stage in a very small bikini in front of 400 people, she says. It was the most empowering thing.



A few weeks before though, Ashleigh Wilson's less than empowering story had appeared in the very same Mail, after the Bikini turned Figure competitor had appeared on Aussie TV's Channel Nine in a show called Operation Thailand.

Brace yourself now.



I've been competing in bodybuilding for about four years, says Ashleigh. I started off in Bikini and I went on to Figure and that's where I've stayed. Within this category they emphasise femininity - decent muscle size and condition but also amazing shape. I don't feel like I can reach that shape that they ask for because I have a flat chest.

I feel like a 20-year-old boy when I'm at the gym and I am lean. It just makes me feel like I'm not a complete woman. I hate how I don't fit clothes. I have to put padding in my sports bras just to feel a little bit womanly. Can you see where this is going?



And so, Ashleigh Wilson travels to Thailand with an Australian cosmetic tourism company, meets the surgeon, and decides to go with a D-cup. This surgery is so important because I want to look good on stage and when I'm walking down the street. I want to feel good about myself when I get up in the morning, she says.

Oh dear.



Here's the other side of the mainstream media's take on female muscle stories - the "bodybuilding left me feeling/looking like a man" angle. Hardly empowering, and in this case, hardly even about bodybuilding, because whatever the reasons for Ashleigh's decision (and I wouldn't for a minute deny her the right to have cosmetic surgery) there are women like Cydney Gillon or Natalia Coelho whose all-natural all-muscle chests demonstrate that enhancements are not necessary in order to win Figure titles. And I bet both Cydney and Natalia feel all-woman all of the time.



Despite originally getting the $3,700 augmentation to achieve her aspirations in bodybuilding, we are told, Jess has since chosen to follow a different path. "Fitness and health is still a big part of my life but getting on stage is no longer something I desire," she says. Less and less about bodybuilding all the time. I did this show to help inform people about the process of going to Thailand, Ashleigh concludes. It was the best thing I ever did and not at all was I scared because I was overseas.

Call me a cynic if you like, but I suspect Ashleigh may not have had to pay full price in exchange for such a glowing recommendation of the her surgical tourism experience.



Same journalist, same news source. One story where bodybuilding has nothing but positive effects on a woman's body image; one story where bodybuilding has such negative effects on her body image the woman turns to cosmetic surgery.

Given the respective women's ages and looks, their mainstream appeal if you like, which story do you think got more media attention, globally-speaking?

Clue: it's not the one about the transformative, empowering effects of bodybuilding.



It's the one about the tits.

FBBTV: From VHS with Love

I remember seeing a brilliant hour-long documentary that aired on prime time ITV at 9pm called "Muscle Madness". It was a kind of "Pumping Iron II" thing that focused on Carolyn Cheshire prepping and competing in a big US contest, maybe an early Ms O. I remember watching it with my parents trying to hide my excitement and arousal, and also failing in an attempt to surreptitiously VHS record it!

Not my experience, but it's a familiar scene. Stumbling across female muscle on British TV in the mid/late 80s and early 90s while the family was watching meant suffering both physical and mental torture. Stumbling across it when watching alone meant setting world records for the sofa to VHS dash. Who knows how many wedding or christening or family holiday tapes were "lost" to enthusiastic young female muscle heads need to get a tape - any tape - into the machine at those moments?

I imagine most of those tapes have long been discarded just like mine were, but thankfully there are some among us - heroes every one of them - who lovingly preserved their precious hoards, and then, later, gave them to the world to enjoy.





Know of any more examples of early female muscle from UK TV that are out there?

Bernie Price popped upon What's My Line? once apparently, then there's Donna Hartley's appearance on The Last Resort, any of Carolyn Cheshire's appearances on Schmoel, sorry Noel Edmonds various shows, or, "The Holy Grail" of Carolyn on Bodymatters. I still hold out hope they are in a box in someone's loft...

FBBTV: Brazil

Unfortunately, there's no sound, but Selma Labat, Loana Muttoni and Karla Bachiega showing off ther spectacular bikini-clad bodies on daytime TV is hardly likely to persuade me that my belief Brazil is female muscle heaven is mistaken.



And when the sun goes down...



And just a couple of weeks after Gracyanne had been on, the same host was hiding his excitement under the desk while interviewing the beautiful Aline Riscado - here.

Ai karamba!

FBBMTV

You might not have otherwise given the song much attention, but when female muscle features in music videos it's difficult not to leave your personal tastes aside and get excited. One day, a better man than me is going to make an exhaustive list of every example of FBBMTV, but for today I've picked four of my own favourite examples.

CAROLYN CHESHIRE in Pump It Up by Melle Mel



DOROTHY HERNDON in Reach by Martini Ranch



Shall we have a little break?

Spot the female muscle superstar burning up the screen in this gem.



Back to the music.

MARTHE SUNDBY in Sing (The Night Is Still Young) by Camp Sounds



JILL RUDISON in Baby Blue by Action Bronson feat. Chance the Rapper

FBBTV: The Far (Out) East

Don't ask me what is going on in today's selections from Chinese TV, I have a feeling that even if I understood what they're saying I still wouldn't be any the wiser.

Seemingly more hosts than guests, wacky sound effects, even wackier animations, and production values that would put Eurovision to shame. Oh, and Julia Vins.



More Julia on Chinese TV here.

And also from Chinese TV, Korean muscle beauty Yeon Woo-ji. Again, exactly what is going on here is beyond me. But it is definitely a lot of fun trying to work it out!



If you can take anymore, parts 2 & 3 are here.

FBBTV: Reality & Documentary

Reality TV seems to love a bit of female muscle.

But some muscle girls don't seem to be doing too well...





However, not all reality female muscle stories are as depressing as the women selling their clothing in order to fund their passion (no doubt), or - even worse - failing to make car payments because they are spending it all on funding their passion!

In this clip "Lori" both has her cake and eats it.



And you can watch a longer version here.

Time for a break.

We'll be back right after this...



"The very best of whatever you desire" - and that turns out to be - at least as far as a woman is concerned - a bodybuilder. And no inverted commas bodybuilder either, but Theresa herself. Why settle for anything less when you can have a true diamond?

Now that's what I call FACTUAL!

Our documentary feature today comes from Ireland.

Supersized Shes (wonder where they go the title, it's genius!) follows bodybuilders Inga Beinara and the previously seen on FMS Sophia McNamara. Enjoy!

FBBTV: Down Under

With women-only contests, the ultra-swoonworthy bodies of competitors like Kayla Rassatti, Taylor Smith, Chleo Van Wyk and Nicky Foord, and, most recently, news that scenes backstage at shows there are reminiscent of the last days of Rome (or perhaps a Friday night get-together at Michael Barrymore's), I think it's fair to say that Australia has been seriously upping its female muscle game in recent times.

So, our TV offering today is one Aussie talk show's take on this female "muscle mania", starring the gorgeous Tracey Lunam and Clara Wilson, and a male co-host clearly getting a good strong dose of The Madness from sitting next to two such goddesses.



And for a little older female muscle fun on Aussie TV, check out NABBA legend Anne Marie Lasserre, looking as amazing as ever (just two weeks out from a contest) on what seems to be the Australian equivalent of the UK's A League of Their Own.



Enjoy, and don't forget to tune in tomorrow!

FBBTV: Will Cyd Survive?

I wish there were more female muscles on TV...

My own introduction to female bodybuilding was Carolyn Cheshire on TV in the mid 1980s, flexing on a popular science show called Bodymatters in an orange bikini.

It was a life-changing moment.

I recall Donna Hartley on Jonathan Ross' The Last Resort not long after that.

There was Gladiators - the women of the UK version had a lot less muscle than Raye, Erika and Shelly so the American edition was by far my preferred watch! And also from the US onto UK TV screens came the daytime talk shows Geraldo and Montel, the latter having more than one show devoted to female bodybuilders as I remember.

In those days it was a case of actually catching the show by luck - hurriedly getting the VHS recording for repeat viewings - or design - with the VHS cued up ready to go! If you didn't see it at the time, you had to wait for the internet to be invented to do so.

Times have changed. When one or more FBBs are on TV anywhere in the world, it isn't long before clips are posted on the forums. There are (or were in the case of the UK) whole TV channels devoted to the fitness industry that regularly feature muscular women and which also have their own YouTube channels to view at your leisure.

Documentaries like Supersize She or Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends or Jodie Marsh on Steroids haven't always painted FBBs (or us fans) in the kind of light we would wish, but in general these days mainstream TV (that I've seen anyway) almost always portrays women with muscle in a positive way, and a forthcoming UK TV documentary featuring Welsh fitness tycoon Kate Austin promises to continue that trend.

And this month in the US, the very gorgeous IFBB Figure Pro Cydney Gillon - a two-time Chicago Pro champ and two-time Olympia contestant nonetheless - is one of the castaways in the new series of Survivor (CBS, first episode Feb. 17th, apparently).







Appearing briefly in a season preview - fast forward to 0.48 - Cydney describes herself as "a woman who takes care of her body, not eating double cheeseburgers all day". And here, kicking off a week of FBBTV on FMS, is her "Meet the Castaways" introduction.



Go Cydney!