Flat as a board, what’s wrong with that?

There are some comics fans complaining about why Barbara Gordon’s gotten less busty. While this is increasingly universal to a lot of superheroines and may also be dependent on the cartoonist as it may’ve been before, keep in mind that the earliest instance of a genuinely flat-chested Babs is in a Super Best Friends cartoon by Lauren Faust. (Yes that one.) If there’s room for a distinctive buxom type in Power Girl, there should be one (or more) in Babs, Raven and Terra.

The latter two also started out as being more flat-chested if I’m not mistaken. Babs could’ve gotten a breast lift though it can be argued that contrary to her detractors, she’s capable of pulling off the flat-chested look well. (Though it could be me preferring to imagine her as such.) To be fair, I’ve seen pictures of female bodybuilders sans implants with very flat chests and visible muscles with veins.

The way Babs’s portrayed’s no different and may arguably be closer to what most female bodybuilders look like (if they don’t take breast implants) though it could also be attributed to bad drawing skills but even then it’s the case for the latter.

No big boobs = Not female

I think that’s going to suck for those who’re naturally smaller chested but in the sense that they seemingly fall short of stereotypical femininity even if it’s not their fault why they look this way. (AIS women are even thornier in that though they pass as women and may even get spared of certain problems like menstruation but given stigma at either infertile or childless women as well as gender testing, they’re still imperfect.)

While it’s possible to conceal body hair by wearing more modest outfits (hey that worked for nuns and many Muslim women though the aim is to be pious and pure so), having a flat chest is something that, unless if she got pregnant or fat (or both), is inevitable if she not only has genes for it but also if she has less body fat.

The androgynous woman in the new Terminator film looks this way not just because she has short hair but also because she appears to have more significant muscle tone. I think that’s something haunting female bodybuilders for a long time in that they’re increasingly pressured to get implants.

While naturally buxom female bodybuilders like Kelly Everts/Rasa von Werder exist, everybody else ends up flat-chested. Though genes can play into it, breasts are composed of fat. Inevitably if we go by stereotypes of fat weightlifters, then at least several female weightlifters are going to be bustier than most female bodybuilders especially if the latter never took breast implants.

While it’s true women have more body fat than men do, it’s also true not all women are busty (or lithe for another matter).

Weighing on muscles and preferences

It’s one thing to assume women are attracted to muscular men it’s another thing to realise it may not always be the case. There are women who aren’t that fond of muscular men in general and some can’t stand too muscular men. Conversely speaking, there are men who are sexually attracted to muscular women and are often called schmoes.

Objectifying muscular, fat or hairy women aren’t any better but does poke holes at beauty standards and their expectations. Somebody also posted something that the way society conditions someone to be attracted to runs counter to one person’s actual preferences. (This may be more pronounced in the case of arranged marriages.) In this case, schmoes’ preference for muscular women runs counter to society’s preference for skinnier women.

Same goes for men desiring hairy armed women and chubby chasers.

The weird thing about bodybuilding

While other sports aren’t necessarily blameless as far as steroids are around, yet it’s infamously associated with bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is really one trainwreck of a sport in terms of reputation. It’s practically about exercising oneself to fulfill an idealised physique but it’s messed up due to people pursuing a more ludicrous look that bodybuilding divisions have to be made depending on degree of muscularity.

In other sports, it’s either due to the level of skill they have (judo), the techniques they do, weight division or the positions they have to act out (goalies, fielders and wingers though I might have a sketchy knowledge of football/soccer). Football, wrestling, baseball, rugby and fencing also have stedheads. But bodybuilding’s infamous for how blatant its issues are in some regards.

Nor all these sports necessarily any less homoerotic either (there are nude calendars and shots of these people) and they’re not any less homophobic either (homophobic bullying’s a problem as it is anywhere else). Bodybuilding’s peculiar not necessarily because it’s unique in having those but because it’s magnified a lot more as I know about it.

Older bodybuilding magazines were assumed to be gay porn. All the other sports aren’t necessarily any less homoerotic (or homophobic) but at least involve a lot of legitimate action. Not that bodybuilders aren’t any less athletic and there are those with legitimate athletic training but not when they have to straddle the line between performance and accidental objectification.

That and gay for pay.

Sadik Hadzovic

A bodybuilder from New York City but one whose family came from Montenegro and/or Bosnia (depending on the source). Being formerly skinny, he struggled with insecurities and emulated those he felt he wished to be, which he ended up fulfilling himself when he took up bodybuilding for good.

When he first got photographed, that’s when his modelling and bodybuilding careers took off. For a while he dabbled in fashion and underwear modelling until the time he switched to a bigger bodybuilding division. He still models on the side (especially athletic clothing) though he has another business to keep himself paid.

It could be that he’s gotten much bigger so he’s not conventionally attractive anymore or so as they say*.

*Mig 55
The funny thing is, it’s more what men want to look like rather than what women want. Women would prefer him from a couple years ago if anything. dude is getting HUGE.

Not necessarily any better

There’s a new study on a trend suggesting that fit physiques are now increasingly considered more attractive than skinny ones. Maybe not entirely better but may as well be a necessary evil in light of how common obesity’s is (to some) and that when robots start taking over certain menial tasks (they’re already doing it), women would have to become more active in sports and menial household chores more often.

Even gardening and farming for personal use could see an uptick. To be fair, prioritising muscular women over skinny women isn’t any better. It may become the new skinny woman vs fat woman debate. Not that skinny women haven’t been bullied but if muscular women ever get prioritised, they’d probably go through the same dilemma skinny men have been through.

(There’s already a woman going through it named Rene Campbell.)

Maybe even worse as most women store more fat than men do. A skinny woman would technically be fatter than a skinny man is. It would get trickier if unless if they undergo a special diet or have rare genes (ala Rasa von Werder) breasts would inevitably shrink a lot. Fat women get penalised for not losing weight to gain muscle.

Skinny women get penalised for being too frail. It might already be happening and not without the unhappy consequences.

Built like her

Again I can vividly remember going to a Comic Vine forum about how built should Wonder Woman be and to be fair, with Gal Gadot having military training beforehand should make her just right enough for the role. Her acting skills could be dubious but at least casting directors actually found the right person to portray Wonder Woman this time around.

On the second thought, as Kellie Everts/Rasa von Werder is one of the very few very muscular women with naturally big breasts (these would also include the Williams sisters) most other female bodybuilders get breast implants. It’s almost as if every superheroine (in comic books at least) are built like Kellie Everts.

Marvel’s Elektra was actually inspired by another bodybuilder Lisa Lyon though one supposes this didn’t last long once latter cartoonists arrived and didn’t get the reference or inspiration. Not that flat-chested superheroines don’t exist but that there aren’t enough consistently flat-chested ones at that even what they’re doing should shrink their breasts as most can’t be bothered to get breast implants.

Lucky Figure

Especially in bodybuilding where an idealised physique is prized for both symmetry and muscle growth. In the case with women, the retention of visible breasts matters for some reason concerning their femininity or lack of it. I guess Kellie Everts/Rasa von Werder might be the female equivalent of a male bodybuilder with lucky anatomy and genes to pull off what’s seemingly impossible and still look good with it.

To be fair as exercising goes with losing body fat (including breast fat), Everts would’ve gotten smaller breasts at some point or another just not as drastically as other women do. Hence why many of them take plastic surgery. Not everybody can be Kellie Everts so that’s going to be the problem for many who want to get fit but still have a very feminine body. Similar things can be said of their male counterparts to whatever degree that is.

Comes to think of it

Comes to think of it, Kellie Everts/Rasa von Werder might be the few naturally buxom/feminine looking female bodybuilders around. The lucky few given bodybuilding judges’s curious standard of femininity involving breast size and stuff. Breasts are made out of body fat and may shrink whether if she exercises a lot or if she starves herself.

But given somebody’s genetics and physiology as well as whether if they get pregnant with children or not, that depends on the individual. Werder might be one of those characters to ‘retain’ her femininity and good looks well onto old age. Considering her build, somebody like artist Frank Cho might be onto something or someone albeit somebody who’s not his muse in anyway.

She gives a better idea of a fit, very feminine looking woman would be like. But then again not too many women are like her in anyway but similar things can be said of their male counterparts.

Kellie Everts

Kellie Everts/Rasa von Werder’s one of the pioneering female bodybuilders, seldom ever credited by others. As she wrote in one of her websites that much of the work she’s done for bodybuilding got credited to somebody else. She actually beat Lisa Lyons by appearing in Playboy and writing her own book first! Other than that, she might be one of the few female bodybuilders who’s naturally buxom.

Not necessarily the only one but one of the better surviving examples of such, let alone not at all on steroids and surgery. Considering that bodybuilding judges have an obsession with wanting female bodybuilders to look recognisably female, Werder does fulfill their standards better and naturally so. She’s got lucky genes so to speak but barely gets much credit these days. Not entirely forgotten but mostly and practically discredited.