We begin our survey with the slogan that, if our research is to be believed, is by far the most popular choice for the lady who wants to not only show off her hard-earned muscles, but also wants to let the world know that those muscles are doing wonders for her self-confidence.
Now, we here at FMS, and quite probably you too, never held 'skinny' in much estimation, but if you think about the mainstream media's obsession with skinny beauty, then replacing it with 'strong' makes a lot more sense.
Interestingly, the models for the vests below (top left and bottom right) look a whole lot less strong than, say Sophie Arvebrink (bottom left) who really does have some lovely muscles. So it seems that even those that market the shirts tend to shy away from using really strong and muscular women in their advertising. But hey, you can't have everything, and even those models are an improvement on the norm, and thus definitely a step in the right direction.
Another extremely popular slogan (based solely on our research that is, we have no actual proof) seems to be a message to those men and women who treat the gym like a place to socialise. These iron-pumping babes are here for one reason and one reason alone, and they don't want to hear anything from you (or anyone else) except a few grunts and some heavy breathing. It also serves as a way of having to avoid talking themselves. Should they need to communicate with you, they can just point at their own chests. Or perhaps just inflate them, making the lettering clearer.
Having shut up and trained, we're back to the strong/skinny thing again. I couldn't find an image of this on a T-shirt, but I assume that is what it's intended to be. Now, once again, Swell feels duty bound to take issue here. The fact is, although naked, or nearly naked is always preferable, I think strong girls look good clothed or naked. And look better than skinny girls in either case. I freely admit to being something of an extremist on the subject, and would go so far as to say that a strong girl who has just woken up after a hard weekend's partying having forgotten to take off her make-up looks better than a skinny girl who's been at the beauty spa all day and is wearing her best dress.
On second thoughts, perhaps that's a bit too much to fit on a T-shirt...
I love these 'Strong and Proud of It' type slogans, even if they don't stand up to analysis, it's the sentiment that counts, and FMS will, as regular readers, will know, get behind anything that praises fit, muscular women. Let's not fight about which slogan is more or less appropriate. They're all good, although the consensus around here seems to be that 'Fit Babes Do It Better' is hard to beat.
And now I'm sitting here with my coffee wondering how best to scrape the 'THE' and the 'NEW' off the cup when I've finished up here.
This week we'll be looking at a variety of 'messages' on T-shirts and vests worn by muscular women from the famous to the unknown.
To purchase Strong Is the New Sexy items for the muscle woman in your life, FMS recommends Spreadshirt.
Enjoy!
And for more Sophie Arvebrink and her strong, sexy Swedish bod, look here.
