A New Golden Age? Part VIII

A follow-up to FMS' recent conversation with PumpItUp regarding the past and present "Golden Ages" today. Big big love to JT for this stimulating (in thought and...) piece.

ALINA HD



I too started with traumatic magazine-buying missions, but I don't miss those days. I have a theory that the internet 'Golden Age' really took off with the quality improvements in HD images and videos. In particular, this coincided with the rise to the top of one of the most incredible stars of the past few years: Alina Popa.



I remember seeing images of her 'before' things really took off. I'm thinking the short blond hair, big chunky muscles... She had 'something' but didn't especially stand out.




Then she went high definition.



Not just the images, but Alina too. There are images of Alina that are almost impossibly beautiful: the sharpness of her muscle definition; the shiny bulging peaks, abs, quads; the sharp beauty of her cheekbones...



Everything worked together and we could see her in absolute clarity.



Alina's transformation into a high definition muscle goddess was made doubly impressive as the images of her changed to high definition at the same time.



For me, Alina characterises now as being THE Golden Age for female muscle fans because all these images are readily available and can stay this sharp for ever.



No dodgy scans of creased and crumpled magazine pages! 



Gentlemen, your thoughts please! Let's keep the conversation going.

A New Golden Age? Part VII

PIU: I am only just bookmarking Instagrams and trying to catch up.

FMS: Not sure I agree with your Instagram tactics there. The joy of it is in the "Insta", wherever you are and whatever you're doing, you can keep up with what your favourite muscle goddesses are doing and thinking and - most importantly - how they're looking at that very moment. Can't recommend it highly enough - Sharlene Franken, Sierra Mangus, Theresa Ivancik, Asha Hadley... I could go on. To be honest I find it hard to remember what life was like before it!

PIU: I am sure I will get up to speed with Instagram. In one sense with the direct social media we get a more personal impression of those in the sport, perhaps more rounded. In another way the distance that the early much more selective images added to the sense of them being even more exotic, otherworldly and glamorous.



Which might almost lead me to my last choices to explain. Meral and Michelle (yet another Michelle!) from a memorable shoot in the 80s. Both still looking good today.



And Meral at least still in the business - check out her website.



FMS: Meral. Wow. Still absolutely drop dead gorgeous. Valerie Gangi is another from that era who still looks amazing. Better not to mention Denise Rutkowski though!

PIU: Fast forward to an image of two contemporary hot bodies in the gym, Carly Thornton and Corinne Ingman.



Like Meral and Andrea, they know how to present themselves, they are equally confident, proud and look the viewer straight in the eye. They may appreciate the admiration and more we fans offer them but as the financial rewards are still not that great for most, whether they compete or not, ultimately they are doing what they do because they want to, and we are eternally grateful for that!

FMS: Was going to have Carly and/or Corinne for myself until you beat me to it. Newer faces (and bods), keeping the UK's tradition of quality female muscle alive. So happy about Carly's breakthrough last year. Unexpected but richly deserved and (if you follow her Instagram!) you can see she's absolutely going to go for it as a pro.

Corinne I reckon will follow before long. She's long overdue a bit of luck as far as competitions are concerned, but in the meantime her insane conditioning has won her a legion of fans, both male and female (again, Instagram her!)



So, for my final two I thought we should include the then and now Queens of Muscle. The Weider-backed beauty who ruled in my youth, and Ms Rising Phoenix, who gets absolutely zero love from the IFBB.

Does she care? Not a bit. And I hope, I really hope, that this is where FBBing, at least pro FBBing, is going. Away from federations that don't want these women, and onto a new, fan-sponsored, athlete-led organisation that eventually brings all the Physique, Figure, Fitness women over too.

A lot of the things we've talked about - the internet, social media, and the interactiveness this makes possible between the women and the fans - makes this doable for the first time (I think) and the work of Wings of Strength to keep pro FBBing alive has shown the way.

PIU: Aside from the whims of certain internet companies or government interference, we perhaps now potentially at least, have a kind of pluralism (to borrow from political theory) from a few (print) sources to multiple centres of power (no pun intended) in a globalist online world. As you rightly suggest, if power is increasingly in the hands of the women and the fans, as individuals or groups, it can hopefully continue to adapt positively and flourish for many years to come!

And that, dear readers, is all we wrote.

Many many thanks to PumpItUp for helping me make a (yet another) dodgy idea into real posts, which, if they were half as enjoyable to read as they were to make, are not too shabby at all. As always, it's been an education to pick his brains!

Check out the UK's longest-running female muscle blog here.

A New Golden Age? Part VI

PIU: I think my pic of Dona Oliviera is one I treasured, I must still have it somewhere, I supposed I paired it fairly randomly with the Asha Hadley because of the pumped deltoid pose as well as the other obvious attractions both have to offer.

FMS: Yes, Dona still looks amazing, and she was a favourite of mine too, as Asha is today. Of course I only knew Dona from the magazines - the on stage shots and the glamour. On the other hand, I/we can see Asha on stage and glammed up, but also drenched in sweat at the gym, enjoying herself on a day off, taking in a baseball game etc. etc. She puts herself out there via social media, so - though I may be deluding myself - I feel like I actually "know" her to some extent.

PIU: And Dona's back and was still looking great in 2014 at 53!



FMS: My next pair are Tonya Knight and Sharlene Franken. Again, Tonya, arguably as much media exposure as an FBB ever had. A tour of Britain even, if I remember correctly. She was on TV at least twice while she was here.



And yet, she remained remote for me. I never had - and still don't - any sense of the person behind the muscles.

PIU: Certainly remember Tonya's visit. Still got her appearance on the Jonathan Ross chat show on VHS somewhere. And bought the Bicep Bombshell tape from one of the big record stores in Oxford St. (remember them?)



FMS: Sharlene is kind of in direct contrast. She is only known via her own social media. One of the Muscle Moms you mentioned, she uploads clips and selfies. Mostly she's working out, flexing, posing. She updates almost every day, and her Instagram has become one of my favourite follows since I first discovered her.

The final part of this "conversation" (for now) follows tomorrow...

A New Golden Age? Part V

PIU: Not sure entirely why I paired Jackie Paisley with Tina Nyguen, other than both being relatively lightweight and lean and showing quite a bit of flesh but the quote from Jackie does fit nicely into the fitspirational transformational aspect and the before and after of Tina certainly shows how conventionally pretty but unremarkable looks can turn into a jaw dropping Goddess.



But to be honest I probably really really wanted an excuse to include that pic (almost any pic) of Tina in her underwear.



And like with Diana Schnaidt [see yesterday] I just cannot comprehend how the average guy on the street couldn't find her attractive or why so few truly athletic women don't make the photo shoots or covers in the mainstream world, let alone become real huge stars.

We have understandable backlashes against the very skinny in fashion or the occasional so-called plus size model (who is usually closer to average/normal in size compared to the woman on the street) but female muscularity still seems to be one of the last taboos in mainstream media. In the 21st century!

FMS: Glad you found an excuse to choose a Tina Nguyen underwear pic! And while we're on the subject of hot hot heat...



Time for a confession! My magazine collection quickly began to take up a lot of space back then, and given that upwards of 90% of all the pages were of little interest, I would carefully cut out my favourite pics and paste them into scrapbooks.

I remember this one of Cathy Palyo. Can actually see it there on the scrapbook page, feel the same intense excitement of spending some quality time with this bronzed and beautiful goddess.



These days, there are so many more images, but some still have the same power over me. Exhibit A, Theresa in the pool for Her Biceps. Wow. Just WOW!

PIU: Yeah, ahh... Cathy P. I think because the print images were rarer as well, we treasured the iconic images more and apart from the occasional hairstyle, these 30 plus year old images don’t date one bit. Yet look at vintage Playboy type pics and as well as the over use of airbrushing or soft focus, they do tend to much more reflect the look of the times. Cathy would still not look out of place in any of today's print mags or paysites.

I started putting loose cut out pics into those photo albums you used to get, with the sticky transparent covering pages that used to hold them in place. I had several albums then they seemed to take up too much space or more likely I just got too much stuff to be able to organise them. I still mean to get round to scanning them, there's still a lot of stuff from that time that I haven't seen already online, specially the more obscure stuff.

FMS: Glad I wasn't the only one creating albums back in the day! Don't feel like such a freak now. Never kept mine though, sadly...

PIU: Theresa is well... the Package! Highest new entry on the Hot and Hard 100 last year, at 12. Will she make the Top Ten this time?

The 2016 FMS Hot and Hard 100 Countdown - COMING SOON!

A New Golden Age? Part III

PIU: Britanny Finlay is another self-promoter who I found by discovering a few teasing shots of her via Instagram. She became the IFBB Ms Fitness Australia 2014 at, wait for it, aged 19!

I paired her with the feline Sharon Bruneau mostly just because they are both looking lean in an "Oh My God" sort of way.

FMS: Lots of OMG moments back then with Sharon! Another great beauty - as we've discussed before, it's no wonder we got so addicted. Sharon had a movie star aura, I always thought. Real charisma on stage.

Brittany Finlay I have never heard of before. Great picture though. Love that super lean look, which again is probably due to the fact that was the prevailing look of the women in those 80s magazines.

Ok, next up, Sandy Riddell and Erica Blockman. Not trying to be cryptic, am sure you will get the connection!



PIU: Ah, Sandy and Erica. Which brings me to the thought about FBBs etc. needing other jobs or not.

I doubt the proceeds from comps in the past was enough to retire on, but perhaps the internet age allowed more to flourish with merchandise, sponsorship, personal training related work and for some, sessions and (sometimes adult) video and photo work. But we also have the weekend warriors, the fit moms, the crossfitters, who probably have another life between posting their physical perfection on Instagram etc., as Erica does.

Two more choices each tomorrow.

And in case you didn't know, Sandy and Erica both work(ed) as firefighters.

A New Golden Age? Part II

PumpItUp: My next pairing is the WPW cover of Lisa Lorio and one of my all-time faves Janet Tech with modern media savvy model-look gym-goddesses Larissa Reis and Oksana Grishina.



FMS: Janet and Lisa wouldn't look out of place in Physique either. In Lisa's case, Figure even. Gorgeous women, utterly exotic and other-worldly at the time I came across them.

PIU: I suppose for me, with Janet especially, it was the facial looks, the lean beauty, the particularly friendly smile. Yes, Lisa is definitely more figure in that cover.

I also remember seeing that issue in my local newsagent (a rarity for the then bi-monthly WPW) and plotting how I could get it discreetly into my sweaty hand and out of the shop. I guess it was always more exciting to see two women on a cover than the woman hanging off the arm of some huge guy.

FMS: Lisa Lorio I remember for one picture where she was wearing nothing but braces on top. And I think that is an example of what is the biggest difference then and now. A single image living long in the memory. In 20 years will anybody recall individual (iconic?) images of Larissa? I doubt it, but given there is so much of her out there it kind of guarantees she will live forever as it were. Lisa, Janet and the other women of that era, I'm not so sure.

Interested why you called Larissa and Oksana "Media savvy", how so?

PIU: I was probably thinking of their product endorsements and affiliations. Like Larissa, she has more than one sponsor and a store linked on her site and some pretty impressive photo shoots and videos around.

FMS: Larissa is certainly a canny businesswoman, out of necessity I imagine given her past.

My next two: (young) Juliette Bergmann & sexy Sophie Arvebrink.



PIU: Juliette is one of the coolest Europeans to grace the Olympia Stage, her Olympia routine to Janet Jackson's "Control" one of the most memorable.



Sophie is one of the new self-promoters with an emphasis on gym workout shots. Has she ever done a shoot for one of the paysites? Would we have ever seen her like in the pre- internet/Instagram age?

FMS: Definitely not. Sophie is totally self-promoting as far as I know. She would have had to compete in the past. You're quite right, we'd have never heard of her.

Juliette was one of the few Europeans who remained based in Europe but made a splash in the States - even in her early days. Incredibly beautiful woman quite apart from the body. Those eyes!

The conversation continues tomorrow...

A New Golden Age? Part I

It started as an idea expressed during an email exchange...

PumpItUp: You probably know I’ve always seen the 1980s, when likely both of us developed this "interest" we have as being a kind of "Golden Age", where the main media source we had, magazines, had an abundance of female muscle if you knew where to look.

The aerobics/fitness boom meant female muscle crept into film and TV too. Even hardcore but mainstream newsagent mags like Flex had FBBs on the cover, something not seen today.

When the internet arrived, there were sources like usenet groups but downloading pics was slow on dial up and hit and miss. Many of the paysites we know today hadn't really got going. The Diana the Valkyrie mega site was one of the few sources that I was a member of for a few years, still running.

Now with Instagram, blogs and tumblr, (as well as the paysites as intermediaries), we are seeing some of the hottest fittest women, women who would not have been found if they didn't compete or get picked up by WPW or one of the other print mags.

In the age of Twitter and the selfie, too often with its banality, but the benefit for us is these otherwise unknown beauties are posting pics of themselves directly to the world, inspiring and encouraging others to do the same. Suddenly we admirers are spoilt for choice.

I hereby declare this is (probably) the Second Golden Age of Female Muscle!

A little later, the idea developed into the series of posts you'll see here this week, which I'm delighted to say are co-authored by FMS and the legendary PumpItUp himself.

The format is the same every day. Each blogger chooses two images - one from the days when their female muscle addiction was born, and another more contemporary one, and they are the basis of our discussion about issues surrounding female muscle that was then and female muscle that is now as well as our continuing mutual love for these wonderful women.

PART I

FMS: So to kick off, [PumpItUp has chosen] Tina and Aleesha. Presumably it's a size thing! Tina has a less, let's say "enhanced" look though. Would you say that is a sign of the different times?



PIU: Yeah, spot on. Tina was a phenomenon at the time, primarily those legs of course, specially given her age, and we saw fleeting video and pics of her and limited competing while coming up to date, "enhanced" and popular (look at last year’s FMS Hot and Hard 100) Aleesha is on many of the paysites and has her own website.

We had so many remarkable ladies rise and then fade from the spotlight in the old days, who knows what Tina might have become had she started out in this day and age.

FMS: My first pair is Anja and Dani. An old school bodybuilder and a new school Physique star.



PIU: So would you think that much of old style BB is pretty much new school physique (or with much overlap?)

FMS: I think if you are really talking about the mid-late 80s, then - with the exception of Bev Francis - you can see the bodybuilder then look in the Physique look now.

PIU: I haven’t kept up with all the contest changes but do the divisions now allow women to move between them more easily?

FMS: Seems that Figure to Physique is a well-trodden path these days, and more recently women like Zoa Linsey, Klaudia Larson etc. have been moving down.

PIU: And freakazoid Anne Freitas - anything could happen! After I picked up my jaw at her previous extreme form, from what I've seen lately of her, I actually think I prefer her physique look.

FMS: Problem they (and the IFBB) have is that the WPD doesn't quite know what it is yet. There's a massive difference in muscularity between Latorya Watts (Ms Figure Olympia) and Margie Martin, and Physique covers it, so you have the more muscular women winning some shows, and the less muscular winning others.

2016 may be the year the IFBB 'define' the Physique division better though. Autumn Swansen - who won the Arnold Classic - has had a meteoric rise through the pro Physique ranks, and I think her look is what the IFBB are after.



Funnily enough, she looks even more Anja-like than Dani!

Any comments about this week's post would be especially welcome. What's your opinion about the issues come up in our conversation? Is your idea of the Golden Age of female muscle similar or different, and do you agree we are entering another one now?

Part II follows tomorrow.