Media Watch: Making an ASOS of Themselves

Times, it seems, have changed. Once upon a time you could insult muscular women with impunity and fear no retribution. Well, not anymore, not here in the UK anyway. Or at least not here in the UK when the muscular woman that you've insulted happens to be something of a celebrity with over half a million followers on her Twitter.

Once again, it's time to big up Jodie Marsh.



Once upon a time, Jodie was, in the words of one of our readers all that is wrong in pop-culture, [a] vapid no-talent skank with a repulsive surgically enhanced 'hot' body. But then, as reported by FMS way back in October 2011 (see Jodie Marsh Takes It Mainstream), Jodie took up bodybuilding for a TV documentary. She didn't turn into Lisa Cross, but the results were impressive. Now she's gotten her shit together and is showing the world what a bit of hard work does, our reader continued. The fruits of her labour impressive, her body is actually worthy of attention now.

Another documentary was made (see Marsh in the USA) following Jodie as she prepared for, and ultimately won, a natural bodybuilding competition in the US.

Meanwhile, FMS reported that Jodie's story was inspiring women in the UK to get into the gym and lift. We called this phenomenon "The Marsh Effect", and a year and a half after our first Jodie-related post, we concluded that despite not being the biggest, the most successful, or by any conventional criteria the best female bodybuilder Britain has produced, in terms of promoting the sport and inspiring her fellow women, there's no arguing with the fact that it's Jodie Marsh who has got the results.



Jodie even moved into the supplements game and, with so many women taking inspiration and motivation from her, she has become a sort of unofficial spokesperson for the physical and psychological benefits of weight training for women.

And that pretty much brings us up to 20th May this year, when whoever is (or, more likely, was) responsible for the official Twitter account of "online shopping giant" ASOS made the mistake of insulting Jodie Marsh in a reply to a somewhat sarcastic but nonetheless genuine customer enquiry about the models they use for their clothes.

[The tweet was, shock horror, removed, so click on the pic to see the details]



Jodie, unsurprisingly, was less than impressed...

So @ASOS are saying I like look a man. I am utterly horrified at this comment. Totally unacceptable from such a large company - BULLIES!!!!!
— Jodie Marsh (@JodieMarsh) May 21, 2014

You may remember that Jodie has spoken at length about her past as a victim of bullying, about how it had all but destroyed her self-esteem. Weight training had enabled her to rediscover her sense of self-worth, and she had taken up the cause, becoming an ambassador, the media face of a nationwide anti-bullying campaign.

Her Twitter followers were outraged...

OMG!! Shocking you are an inspiration to many and this is disgusting! You are strong and fit, not manly!! Disgusting ASOS!... How stupid of them to pick on someone who is known for fighting against bullying. Plus you look great... I'm sending back my orders now. This is why I left the fashion world. Nasty people who promote eating disorders... This is disgraceful! Way for them to alienate potential customers just for choosing the fitness lifestyle! I'm horrified by this... Absolutely disgraceful. Do you eck look like a man Jodie! You're beautiful and I absolutely love you!

Within hours, ASOS had sent Jodie an apology. But she wasn't having it, and retaliated by retweeting yet more messages of support from her followers and a picture of herself wearing a dress she had actually bought from ASOS. Do you think I look like a man????? the accompanying tweet read, I don't. And then she followed that up with another message, spelling out to ASOS exactly what they should be apologising for.

. @ASOS that lame apology doesn't cut it. I think my #fitfam will agree that saying a woman who lifts weights makes her look manly is NOT ON
— Jodie Marsh (@JodieMarsh) May 21, 2014

By the evening, national online news platforms were picking up on the story, reporting that Jodie was shaking with rage and/or close to tears. And, unlike the minion at ASOS (who was probably at that very moment clearing his desk), the national media proved itself to be a lot more savvy to the "Strong Is Sexy" zeitgeist, joining Jodie's followers in laying into ASOS's insulting attitude towards her fit, strong and healthy body, and accusing them of promoting harmful body ideals through their choice of models.

At around 8pm that evening, ASOS issued another apology. And this apology was addressed not only to Jodie, but also to anyone else who was offended. On top of that, note ASOS's new-found commitment to promoting positive body image.

. @JodieMarsh we just want to apologise again - we're so glad we got to talk & make a plan to put it right pic.twitter.com/YX4DVcFdwg
— ASOS (@ASOS) May 21, 2014

By the next morning, any online news sources that hadn't carried the story the day before were carrying it now. Even the more high-minded such as The Independent (who wouldn't normally touch a Jodie Marsh story with a ten-foot pole) were jumping on the bash ASOS band wagon. Jodie had promised some good will come from this late the previous evening, and the next day she announced exactly how ASOS was going to put it right - a nice big fat £10,000 donation to Jodie's anti-bullying charity.

Thank you to our Anti-Bullying Ambassador @JodieMarsh has who donated £10K from @ASOS to support our programme! pic.twitter.com/sKNF0TwnGc
— Anti-Bullying Pro (@AntiBullyingPro) May 22, 2014

So a happy ending, then. A VERY happy ending. Talk about turning a negative into a positive! as one of her Twitter followers exclaimed. And for me, and I think all female muscle fans here in the UK, AND all the weight-training women of Britain who sweat so hard for their beautiful bodies, there is even more to celebrate than the fact that a very worthy cause has received a big chunk of money, because from now on, insulting a woman for lifting weights or having muscles is, quite simply, not going to be on.

The ASOS debacle should and probably will have companies up and down the land firing off missives to its employees, particularly those involved in their online presence, making damn sure everyone understands that they are to add women with muscles to the list of things it is definitely not cool to diss on the company time.



Perhaps the next time one of us is in a group of people and someone starts talking about a muscular woman in a negative way, we will think of what transpired on the 21st and 22nd May this year. And we'll turn round to that misguided fool, look them straight in the eye, and tell them they are making a right ASOS of themselves.

I would always encourage women to lift weights & get fit because it's how I learned to love myself & respect my body. It's made me happy...
— Jodie Marsh (@JodieMarsh) May 21, 2014

And if you do pay a visit to her Twitter you can see just some of the women that Jodie is helping to learn to love themselves and their bodies through pumping iron (and, I dare say, taking the odd supplement from her range). "The Marsh Effect" shows absolutely no signs of fading. If anything, it keeps getting stronger and stronger.

Jodie Marsh, I imagine, probably doesn't much fit your idea of what a "female bodybuilder" looks like, and she certainly doesn't fit mine. However, she is doing more to promote weight training for women, and more to make the British public's perception of those women a positive one than anyone else I can think of.



As well as her Twitter, you can keep up with "The Marsh Effect" on Jodie's Instagram and/or Facebook. Learn about and donate to her anti-bullying campaign here.

FBBUK: The Marsh Effect: Results?

The Story So Far...

Autumn 2010: much-derided celebrity boob-job Jodie Marsh crawls out of the Z-list dustbin and announces she's taken up bodybuilding. Some pictures of her flexing appear in the national press.
October 2011: Jodie unleashes her new muscles onto the British media - national newspapers, daytime TV - you name it, she's on it. A documentary about her bodybuilding journey airs.
January 2012: First evidence that Jodie's transformation has inspired women to take up the sport appears and is documented by Female Muscle Slave.
June 2012: A second documentary, Brawn in the USA, is aired in Britain, following Jodie as she competes in, and wins, a show in California. More positive press for her and the sport.



So what can we say now, about a year after we first reported on what we call 'The Marsh Effect'? Has the influence of Jodie's inspirational story started to wane, or is it burning brighter than ever?

We've been keeping a close eye on all things Jodie for the last six months or so, and well, we don't want to get too carried away, but I think it's fair to say that we have more than enough evidence to state that not only is The Marsh Effect real, but also that it has already produced some amazing results. It doesn't seem possible given the fact that the first of her two documentaries for DMAX only aired around fifteen months ago, but a woman inspired to take up the sport by that first round of publicity for Jodie Marsh as a bodybuilder has stood on the stage at the NABBA Universe.



After watching Jodie Marsh Brawn in the USA a while back she inspired me to join the gym and get 'hench'!
(bodybuilding.com forum member)

I’m not aiming for a body-building competition anytime soon but I would like to lose weight, tone up and find those abs which I know are in there somewhere (*prods belly*) so I’ve bitten that damn bullet and joined the gym. I’ve been through every fad diet, lost and re-gained weight countless times but never stuck to anything for longer than two weeks. Unfortunately I don’t think I’m alone in this endless cycle of misery so I’m going to do something about it, once and for all. Believe it or not (and please hold the gasps of horror) I have taken my inspiration from Jodie Marsh.
(TV presenter's blog)

The workouts have been tough, I won’t lie. They have left me feeling like I’ve never done any proper exercise in my life. I’m throwing sand bags around and lifting 70kg… the kind of exercises I thought should be left to Jodie Marsh, but my body feels great and I can already see a difference.
(journalist and broadcaster's blog)



The above quotes are absolutely typical of the kind of thing that turns up in your inbox when you set a google alert for 'Jodie Marsh +' (I know, we spare no expense in our hunt for information!). I included the third as an example of how, though she's not always explicitly mentioned as an inspiration per se, she is by far the most name-checked female bodybuilder in this country by women who are writing about beginning to lift weights in the gym and adjusting their diets accordingly.

And it's not just in my inbox that evidence of The Marsh Effect has turned up. Swell is delighted to report the evidence of his own eyes and ears. I know someone inspired by Jodie Marsh to take up weight training and start mixing up protein shakes.

I'm not about to post pictures of her on this blog - well, not unless she sends me some, and I'm not about to ask her to do that because that would be weird - she's a friend, an ex-colleague and because of her Marsh-inspired fitness regime (and you'll just have to take my word for this) she's looking about 100 times better now than she was about six months ago, feeling about 200 times better and her self-esteem and confidence have gone through the roof.

Meanwhile, viewers of the Active Channel in the UK may have already come across another Marsh-inspired story of transformation. In October 2011, an overweight mother-of-three called Rachel Turner was watching the UK daytime show This Morning...



I saw Jodie Marsh, she was giving an interview about her bodybuilding. That was my eureka moment. That was it, I would become a competitive bodybuilder. Clearly not one to do things by half, Rachel not only took up the same sport as Jodie, she actually called Jodie's then-trainer, Tim Sharp.



The following January (2012), having only been training with Tim for a little over a month, she made the decision to compete in the NABBA South-East contest that April. Rachel not only made it onto that stage, she finished second in the Toned Figure class and consequently qualified for the NABBA Britain in June. She finished 3rd, thus qualifying for the NABBA Universe.



In November, almost exactly a year after beginning her training with Tim Sharp, Rachel Turner stood on the stage in Southport and made the top six. And ultimately, it was all because she had seen Jodie Marsh and her muscles on daytime TV. If you need a better illustration of what The Marsh Effect has achieved, I don't know where you will find it.





So, if we return to the question posed at the start, I believe it's impossible to deny that Jodie Marsh is the most influential female bodybuilder in the UK today. In fact, I think we can go further than that, because she's almost certainly the most influential ever. She's far from being the biggest, the most successful, or by any conventional criteria the best female bodybuilder Britain has produced, but in terms of promoting the sport and inspiring her fellow women, there's no arguing with the fact that it's Jodie who has got the results.



See more of Rachel here, and read her story on her website.

You can catch up with the previous posts relating to Jodie Marsh that you might have missed here.

The Ennis Effect Needs You

FMS don’t like to blow their own trumpets, but we did, after all, coin the phrase The Marsh Effect to describe the increase in women lifting weights as a result of Jodie Marsh’s foray into bodybuilding and its subsequent press. However, credit where credit is due, The Sun has beaten us to it this time, today reporting on how Jessica Ennis’ showing at the Olympics has given rise to what they are calling ‘The Ennis Effect’: a surge in women craving six-packs just like Team GB’s golden girl Jess.



So far, so good. And the article goes on to say that personal trainers are reporting a huge rise in women seeking washboard stomachs.



But before you start dreaming of a nation of women working out and toning up those abs in sweaty gym sessions, the next sentence betrays the true nature of the article: And one Harley Street clinic, LoveLite, has had a 200 per cent increase in women booking in for tummy-fat removal since Jess’s triumph.

Oh dear. So this isn’t going to be about the sweat after all?

Well, yes and no. The article focuses on three women inspired by Jessica’s bod, her abs in particular, and the lengths they have gone to to achieve the Ennis look. But two of the three have gone to clinics rather than gyms, one to have ‘non-surgical lypo’, the other a ‘tummy tuck’.

Nevertheless, Natalia Ryumina, an actress from Croydon, deserves our congratulations for taking the hard way. I could never get rid of that last layer of fat around my tummy, she says. Consequently, a top personal trainer was hired, new movements targeting specific abdominal areas were introduced, Natalia started travelling with an abdominal exercise gadget so she’d never miss a workout, and now, she says, I look at my tummy in the mirror and I can see the definition I’ve always wanted.

However, Natalia had a pretty good exercise regimen going even before she was allegedly struck by the Ennis bolt during the Olympics, so if we’re going to take the article at face value, we can only conclude that ‘The Ennis Effect’ is going to be good news for Harley Street clinics, and not such good news for fans of female muscle.



But if Claudette Santana hasn’t managed to bring a smile back to your face, don’t despair, for there is a ray of hope in the article. Apparently, 72% of women would rather have an athletic figure than a skinny one. Now, even if that means two out of three of them go to the clinic, that still leaves one out of three hitting the gym.

So, at this dark time of the year, let’s focus on the positive. One in three of 72% of women who want washboard abs might go to the gym as a result of Jessica Ennis’ Olympic exploits. It’s something to cling to, isn’t it? Certainly better than nowt.

And it gives us an excuse to post some sexy abs, so it can’t be all bad…




81% of men, according to The Sun, would prefer a woman with an athletic build to a skinny one, so let’s all do our bit to help the Marsh and Ennis Effects and refuse to settle any longer. Let’s start insisting on it, shall we?



It might involve us getting off our arses and getting ourselves into the best shape of our lives. I mean. You can’t expect her to do all the work while you sit on the sofa and scratch your plums, can you? Too much effort? Well, what about if you ended up cuddling a woman with abs like these every night?



FMS can only conclude that if we are to avoid becoming a nation whose female stomachs are all the result of cosmetic intervention rather than exercise and sensible diet then we all have to do our bit. New Year is approaching. Resolution time.

So, in a final bid to make you resolve to make your resolution increase the amount of female muscle lovin’ happiness in the world today, I leave you with…




Enjoy!

Marsh In The USA

If you thought Jodie Marsh had got into bodybuilding just to milk one last reality TV show out of her less than illustrious TV career, think again. Jodie Marsh won the title of Women's Fit Body Champion at the International Natural Bodybuilding Federation Natural North American Championships in Washington DC last week. And what is more, 'The Marsh Effect' (a phrase we have adopted here at Female Muscle Slave to describe the softening of the attitude of the mainstream media in the UK to women with muscle as a direct result of Jodie's bodybuilding adventure) has not gone away. In fact, it has taken on a new dimension altogether.



If you aren't familiar with Jodie's pre-bodybuilding career, her first contest and its aftermath, or what exactly 'The Marsh Effect' is, it might be a good idea to check out the previous posts on the subject here and here before reading on.



Jodie has been Stateside for a while now, and was picked up by the media here back in May being trained on Muscle Beach in California with UK female bodybuilder Carmen Knights. It's all in aid of her latest show for DMAX called Jodie Marsh: Brawn in the USA, which premieres in the UK on Wednesday (June 20th).



It came as no surprise to me that Jodie had decided to continue bodybuilding after the first show on  DMAX because not only had she expressed quite clearly that building a muscular physique had made her feel good about herself for the first time in her life, but also because as a result of that, she had received positive media, also for the first time in her life. Yes, of course there were detractors, the usual 'Yuk, she looks like a man' stuff, but they were drowned out by the congratulations and support.




And if she was happy then, after finishing fifth in a local pro-am contest in the UK, she is, quite rightly, over the moon now. In only her second show, she's a winner, tweeting I sincerely apologise if I get boring today but all day I am going to be saying. I'm the INBF CHAMPION!! Haha. Never been happier :-) As noted before on this blog, what comes across more than anything is the huge amount of personal satisfaction Jodie has gained from bodybuilding, and the consequent boost to her self-esteem that it has provided.




But for fans of female muscle like you and me, best of all has been 'The Marsh Effect'. Back in January Female Muscle Slave drew attention to the fact there had been at least one woman directly inspired by Jodie to take up bodybuilding. And guess what? That woman had also discovered that being strong and muscular had made her feel better than ever, both inside and out. Well, now 'The Marsh Effect' has taken another twist.



In an article posted on #socialvoices on MSN, a well-respected commentator on social issues, the marvellously-named Periwinkle Jones, asked Why is it still ok to body-shame muscular women? It was written mainly as a response to the negativity aimed at Jodie's new body from certain quarters.



In my opinion, this article is very very significant, whether five people read it or five million. I've read it, and as far as I can see it is the first time that someone from outside the world of female bodybuilding has equated the criticism of muscular women with criticism of other break-from-the-norm looks. The issue is that it is just another type of body (and one that, in Ms Jones' eyes anyway, is preferable to everybody conforming to the willowy, smooth-limbed ‘ideal’anyway. For the author, it's not a case of whether you like the look of a female bodybuilder or not. It's a case of the woman in question having the right to look any way she wants without being subjected to abuse.



Also significant is the phrasing of the question at the beginning of the article. Look again. Why is it still ok to body-shame muscular women? What this question suggests is not only that it shouldn't be OK, but also the still suggests that, like other looks that were once considered worthy of ridicule but have since become quite acceptable to many societies, one day, it will not 'be OK' to ridicule a muscular woman, regardless of any aesthetic consideration.



So, 'The Marsh Effect' marches on. If she keeps going at this rate, when they come to write the history of female bodybuilding a hundred years from now, Jodie may get a whole chapter to herself, not so much for her physique (although I must say she is looking particularly fine in these promo shots for her new supplement range) but for the way she is making people look at women with muscles in a very very different light.

Congratulations Jodie!