Maria Popova at BrainPickings.org has written a splendid piece on “Venus with Biceps: A Pictorial History of Muscular Women” by David L. Chapman and Patricia Vertinsky. The book itself is an exhaustive collection of images and commentary, spanning nearly 200 years of female physical strength and society’s varied reactions to it:
“There is something profoundly upsetting about a proud, confident, unrepentantly muscular woman. She risks being seen by her viewers as dangerous, alluring, odd, beautiful or, at worst, a sort of raree show. She is, in fact, a smorgasbord of mixed messages. This inability to come to grips with a strong, heavily muscled woman accounts for much of the confusion and downright hostility that often greets her.” David L. Chapman
“The ambivalence about women and muscularity has a long history, as it pushes at the limits of gender identity. Images of muscular women are disconcerting, even threatening. They disrupt the equation of men with strength and women with weakness that underpins gender roles and power relations.” Patricia Vertinsky
Click here to see the article itself, many wonderful pictures, and an amazing 1901 video of a female circus performer “disrobing” on a trapeze.
In a wayn its nice that they are going against what is thought feminine but then so is smoking ciagrs.If a woman is strong from natural work and play then that to me is far more attractive.She hasn’t gained those muscles from vanity but through endeavor and utility.
Of course should an exponent of the art of caning build up muscles in her arms than taht is all the more commendable.