Hall of Fame #8

Michelle Baker in a purple dress by HerBiceps; the Abs & Thigh pose; the beautiful rears of Sophie Duquette and Debbie Muggli, as shot by Awefilms and Bill Dobbins respectively (and both C. Moore Glootz nominated); Christina Rhodes hulking out of an orange dress; Juliette Bergmann in a see-through top on a sofa; and Bernie Price at the 1990 NABBA Universe, nipple out after a wardrobe malfunction.

These are the (seven) exhibits to date in the (entirely virtual but you never know) FMS Hall of Fame, a series so in need of resurrection we'd almost forgotten it was dead.

We've gone back to the "original" format of a numbered entry and a single photo set we consider outstanding (though this is no way should be taken to mean that's the only type of thing we're looking to induct) - and chosen Heather Lee by WPW/Ray Martin.



We noted on Wednesday that we thought a series of posts for the "Underrated of the Female Muscle Past" was in order, and Heather could have slipped very nicely in there, but in the end felt she was more deserving of a place in The FMS Hall of Fame.



Remember Heather Lee? Such a popular woman in her early noughties pomp, she was, with her HeatherLeeNJ.com website and multiple racy photo sets, quite the pioneering self-sufficient muscle babe. A sort of naughty Cindy Phillips before Cindy Phillips, and an online media darling whose popularity far exceeded her competitive achievements before social media made such a profile commonplace.



But having made that decision, we were now faced with the task of selecting which of her countless photo sets would make it. There was a suggestion we should just put her entire oeuvre in, but to be honest I'm not as keen on some of her off-season shoots nor her work with HerBiceps - don't get me wrong, they are great, but they're just not quite as great as, for example, much of the stuff she did with Reg Bradford.



In the end I plumped for the very first images I saw of her, and that's mainly because I can recall very vividly the when and the where I first saw them and the rush of excitement Heather's own unique brand of muscular sex appeal had on me.

In those days the kind of affordable internet access I enjoy now was beyond my wildest dreams, but there was plenty of internet at work. Night after night I would stay at my desk until everyone else in the office had left - I didn't have to wait long, we weren't the hardest working team in show business - before using the (super speedy for the time as no one else was using it) office web service for my own personal pleasure. Invariably this started with a search of WPW samples, the best of which I would then print (in colour - I spared no office expense). And you can probably guess what followed.

These images of Heather were among my most treasured at that time, or perhaps "most used" would be a more accurate way of describing them. She was impossibly blond, impossibly beautiful (as I still believed at that time only American women could be). I loved her below-navel tattoo, her smile, her tan, and most of all, her muscles.



Sadly, I have not been able to find (in the FMS archives or elsewhere) the original images, so these three heavily-cropped versions will have to do. In the end, I actually scored points with the management for consistently working over my contracted hours and got a pay rise out of all my late night female muscle lovin' shenanigans.

Welcome to the Hall of Fame Heather, and thank you!

Gaby Quiros: Like the Sun

The one and only time we've featured Costa Rica's Gabriela "Gaby" Quiros Rodriguez on the blog previously was in all her naked glory as one of our Sunday Sizzlers. It left us more than impressed enough to keep a very close eye on this "Warrior Mum", and it's the fruits of our "Gaby Watch" that we bring you today.



The big news is that Gaby has won the Physique class at the Olympia Amateur South America, held in Medellin, Colombia in the middle of last month. It wasn't the biggest field, she only had to beat three other women, but didn't she look good doing it?!



With it, she took her place among the IFBB pro ranks. And very happy she was about it too. This medal goes to Costa Rica, she wrote. And to those who believed in and supported me. Dreams come true if you want and work for them with all your heart.



The minion assigned to Gaby Watch believes she puts everything - "to the last drop" as she says it - into it her work, and he's made us believers too. Since around the time of that previously posted racy photo, Gaby has been hard at it sculpting her (already delicious) body into a physique that is nothing short of volcano interior hot.



Size, definition, the naturally "100% Latina" complexion...



We have not been the only ones who've noticed. Beautiful face, beautiful smile, and a perfect body, says one forum poster. Women like Gaby are like the sun - you don't want to stare too long for risk of going blind! Our Gaby Watch minion would probably concur. If only he could still read text in such less than super-sized font.



Her rise to prominence as both a competitor and a new darling of the fansites could well be good news for opticians all over, in fact. Consider yourself warned.



Gaby on Instagram

The Adventures of Miss Fit

At the beginning of February, a review of Denise Masino's documentary The Adventures of Miss Fit popped into the FMS inbox. Ah! we thought, finally it's available to watch. Good on Denise! And then we read the review...



It came as some surprise that the film was actually released in 2016. We don't pay as much attention to what Denise (and her bits) are up to as we used to, but we'd really missed the boat on this one. It had done the film festival rounds that year, and done rather well considering. Official Selection at Berlin (prestige!), "Most Inspiring Documentary" award at Atlanta Docufest, and Best Documentary Feature at IndieFEST, to name but three of the film's achievements. It's been available for some time!



The review isn't especially complimentary - 4/10 (boo!) - but for a female muscle fan, the idea of watching Denise doing pretty much anything has appeal, and at least some of the film is more about her own background as it is about the "real-life superheroes" who provided the inspiration for it, making it even more interesting for us.



Directed by Gregg R. Simpson, who previously made Denise's 2005 horror Blood + Kisses (who knew?!), the second half of the film is, apparently, taken up with Denise's own creation - the "Miss Fit" of the title - joining forces with the other real-life superheroes to put on a 5km charity run to raise money for a hospital specialising in child cancer treatment. Incidentally, Denise recently announced she'll be doing the the run this year as well - and the link for donations is in her Instagram bio.


"I promised you mud" - the first charity run in aid of St. Jude's Hospital

We've been saying throughout the life of this blog that "La Masino" is a lot more than the sum of her bits (not that we mind that stuff or anything, we just think some appreciation of Denise the competitor and Denise the entrepreneur was and still is in order), and the making, promotion, and cause of this film only make us more convinced of that. Check out the film's website for buy or rent details.



Despite the snooty (and tardy) review, it's rated a whopping 4.9/5 on Amazon!

An Appeal for Kahla Bullemor

It seems ludicrous that such a huge, powerful, strong woman can be struck down so suddenly and completely, but after travelling to India last October on a promotional tour for a supplement company, Kahla Bullemor's health deteriorated alarmingly.


Kahla at the Tampa Pro last year

It is an honour to return to India and share my knowledge on nutrition [and] training, and passion for a sport I truly love, she wrote before she fell ill and returned to her Brisbane base with "symptoms that were consistent with flu". She sought medical help but it took over a month to confirm the diagnosis - Lyme disease.



Treatments available in her native Australia have not been entirely successful, and as she has been unable to work, she has no means by which to pay her five-figure mediacal bills. She is "in tremendous pain every day", even struggling to get out of bed. Consequently, Kahla has looked overseas for alternative, experimental treatments available, finding one in Germany that could restore her quality of life.

Unsurprisingly though, it is prohibitively expensive.



Friends of hers have set up this GoFundMe page to raise money for the treatment (and the cost of Kahla's trip to Germany). The page has been shared all over, including on female muscle fan forums, where, disappointingly, its validity was called into question.



All those "this is definitely a scam" tosspots had to do was look at Kahla's Instagram, where, on February 22nd, and despite very much preferring to "keep a very private life", she thanked her friends and all those who had donated and sent messages of love and support. The only way I can thank you, she wrote, is promise to battle this til the end and come through the other side a better person, athlete, and friend.


Kahla with friend Stacey Howard, who set up the appeal with her husband

Let's Help Get Kahla to Germany

Underrated: Karen Garrett

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.

Readers' suggestions for future posts on the theme would be most welcome.

UNDERRATED?



Search for "Karen Garrett" on Girls with Muscle and you will find exactly 0 images. (And yes, I tried with variations on the spelling of "Garrett" and still nothing).

One thread devoted to her on the forum whose first rule is... contains a single post with a handful of images. Another is a poll asking members to vote "Yes" or "No" as to whether she bears a resemblance to Jada Pinkett(-Smith)(!) "No", unsurprisingly, is a clear winner. And a third, from 2015, wonders "Has anyone heard from her lately?"

CAREER



Karen competed from 1999 to 2012 but with huge gaps in between. According to Muscle Memory, her first and second contests were both in her native New England, and six years apart. On the back of her win at the latter, she went to the NPC USAs for the first time in 2006 and finished 7th in the Middleweight class. Sadly, we haven't been able to find any contest shots from that day, but on the back of that national level exposure she did do her first work with some of the big schmotography sites.



She next turns up on stage in 2011 at the NPC Los Angeles Championships, and wins. And the following year she's at the USAs again, this time as a Light-heavyweight. She placed 5th on that occasion, but sadly was never to be seen on stage again.

APPRECIATION



Karen had a killer smile, but could do smouldering with equal aplomb. She also possessed one of the great eyebrow raises, always perfectly timed to coincide with the pop of a mighty bicep or a rippling side chest pose. The muscle she packed on between her first and second USA appearances left her with a package that would consistently place top 3 at most pro shows these days, let alone amateur ones. That she didn't place higher back in the day was more to do with the competition and a lot less to do with any weaknesses in her physique. Check out the 2006 USA line-up here - you won't believe that so many legendary women were on the stage at the same time - and among the 4 (out of 14) Light-heavyweights at the USAs in 2012 that Karen finished behind, we find Tierany Chretien, Shannon Courtney and Christine Sabo.



At her 2012 peak, Karen possessed not just an amazing, ultra-thick upper body, but a lower half to match. Pics and clips of her from that time have a tendency to leave this viewer seriously overwhelmed, and (with the smile, the smoulders and the eyebrow) she shows off her many assets with exceptional flair. A schmotographer's dream.



NOW?



The latest news is that Karen is quite lucky to be alive actually. Just before Valentine's Day she had a bit of a prang. Her car (see above) is a write-off, happily Karen is all OK.



You can take the girl out of Massachusetts, as they say... She's now based in Las Vegas, where she runs her own Performance Sports Massage business - Fixed by KG.



So, you lovely readers, who's next on Underrated?

Around the World: India

Around the World is an occasional series celebrating the female bodybuilders of a particular country, and examining any issues peculiar to muscle women there.




Ashwini Waskar, Mumbai, 2015

Back in June 2015 when reporting on the success of Mumbai's Ashwini Waskar, FMS noted "the odd thing is that this competitor isn't wearing a posing suit but a plain black sports bra and shorts", but if we compare that to what Kerala's Majiziya Bhanu wore for her Bodybuilding debut a couple of weeks ago, Ashwini's outfit seems a lot less odd.



Majiziya, according to journalist Siddhant Pandey, is "a professional powerlifter". As she was returning home from a recent competition, by chance she heard about a local Bodybuilding contest, and, encouraged by her fiancée, decided to give it a go. Her powerlifting coach hastily sent her some pics of the compulsory poses "on WhatsApp", and, amazingly, she won, despite "exposing no skin [other] than her face and hands".

She's "a proud hijab-wearing Bodybuilder", you see.



Now Pandey's article may be unintentionally hilarious in places. I was quite confident of winning the championship, he reports Bhanu as saying, as I found the other women contestants to be chubby. In other places he makes claims that are simply ludicrous. "She changed the game," he writes, "she will change the way you look at the sport."

No she won't.

But then I did start thinking about the "skin-tight sportswear" she wore on stage "along with her headscarf". I thought about all those places in the world where this would be the only acceptable attire for a woman to wear whatever sporting endeavour she was doing, and I wondered if this really could "change the game" in those countries.


An Iranian FBB - in private

From places like Iran, where Female Bodybuilding is actually illegal, to places like the UAE, very much at the liberal end of strict Islamic obedience, where the sport isn't exactly discouraged, but there are no female competitors, "skin-tight sportswear along with her headscarf" gives women a way to make contests acceptable to the authorities.

Perhaps the only way.


Khloud Essam, Egyptian FBB & Personal Trainer

Ashwini Waskar wore what she had to wear to compete. Majiziya Bhuna didn't have to wear her hijab, it was a choice. But inadvertently she may have shown women throughout the Islamic world how they might realise their competitive dreams.

Suddenly, hijab-wearing Female Bodybuilders don't sound so ridiculous after all.

Tube of the Week

VIRGINIA SANCHEZ NEW POSING VIDEO

After the Sunday Sizzler, the Monday Massive!

Brand spanking new - it only went up on Friday - the frankly enormous off-season Virginia gives you a minute and twenty-one seconds that I'm sure will persuade many to part with some hard-earned dollars and purchase the full thirty-minute video.



Sans wig too!

Previews and purchase at Double-Biceps.

Sunday Sizzler

The sizzle returns to your Sunday...

ERICA CORDIE... OR NOT?

This photo has caused a bit of chat this week. Posted on "dessert shop owner" Erica Cordie's Instagram with an invitation to "caption this shot for me", on the one hand, Hello Hot Beef (good name!) on Tumblr reckoned that "Amazonian Queen Erica Cordie has reclaimed her throne with a single photo", while on the other, on the forum whose first rule is... this: Are we sure it's her and not someone else?

OK, fella, are you paying attention?

What you do is go to Erica's Instagram and find the post. Then, you look at the comments and see that she has credited the "awesome" @gwburnsphotography. Click on that link and you go to his Instagram. Find the photo there - you don't have to scroll down very far - and you see this: "The incredible physique of @erica.cordie".

Unless he's lying too...



Erica probably wishes she hadn't asked for the caption. Suggestions range from the illiterate: Your fucking sexy pls can I sex you baby. To the illiterater: I wonder get laid with you, maybe you broke my d**k! (Thank the Lord he starred out the middle of the dick word. It would have been so rude otherwise). To the illiteratest: When you say you're going midevil on her ass... and she come out like this. (So that's why Midevil European history was always a bit of a struggle for me - I was spelling it wrong).

The life of a Female Bodybuilder...