FEMALE MUSCLE

QUESTION: What are your views on getting the promoters, advertisers, and public to view female bodybuilding the same as men’s bodybuilding?

ANSWER: We’ve got two problems here. One, for centuries society in general has expected and viewed women and femininity in certain ways. So we’ve inherited an evolutionary and sometimes misogynistic perspective that prevents us from accepting that a woman’s body comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. The mass media today has done a lot of damage in perpetrating this myth as we are now bombarded 24/7 with images of what women ‘should’ look like. This creates a “reality” for our subconscious. The second issues is that yes, women’s bodybuilding is indeed a niche sport, just like other women’s sports that may not get much attention or funding from the vast majority of the public. Anyone here sat and watched hours of women’s archery, or wondered how much “pro archery” athletes make? Call me a realist but I think no matter what people do, bodybuilding (in general) will remain a niche sport. That said, I see female athletes under-appreciated in the majority of publications and media (not Muscle Insider of course). Female bodybuilders have a vast amount of knowledge, both training and diet, that could be shared with the fans and ‘gym rats’. Believe it or not, there are women out there who would like to be respected for their accomplishments and knowledge versus having their only option for promotion a T & A spread. Certainly ‘sex sells’ but female athletes offer a vast array of knowledge and are often some of the hardest working and disciplined athletes out there. Think about it. Most female athletes don’t make a living at bodybuilding, so most have full-time jobs, parenting and general life responsibilities as well as committing major time and resources into getting up on stage. We have a lot to learn from these women and I’d like to see the industry utilize these women with informative articles, training seminars and some real-life exposé’s to open up and combat the negativity that we often see from keyboard warriors who may have never met a female bodybuilder in person.

To read more of IFBB Pro Zoa Linsey's work, please visit her website at: www.zoalinsey.com. If you have a question you want answered, email us at: questions@muscle-insider.com