It will exist as one of those frozen moments, an incredibly blissful micro-Camelot (because nothing as orgasmically good can last longer than a synapse), sandwiched between the grim discoveries in Kosovo and in the waters of Martha’s Vineyard, when we all stopped for a collective breath. : “Yeah!” We knew it was going to happen, we’d been talking about it for weeks, but it turned out too perfect to even have been scripted. It united the entire country, connected generations, genders and races. And it was the best day in female bodybuilding.
What else can you call when the prevailing image across America is an ecstatic female athlete, tearing off her shirt and flexing triumphantly before the entire world? and no one questions it? Newsweek cover: “GIRLS RULE!” Time cover: “What a kick!” The Sports Illustrated cover – wait, isn’t that a MALE domain, where women occupy only one spot on the sidebar?
But you can’t argue with the numbers: 90,185 fans (including the president) plus 1 billion via TV watched Brandi Chastain’s double biceps and Nike sports bra. Twenty three million dollars in tickets sold for the games. Two point nine million households watched Brazil’s game on July 4, a larger audience than Game 7 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final. One hundred thousand girls dedicated themselves to soccer between 1990-1997, before Mia Hamm became a household word…
As significant as these numbers are, they only begin to tell the story, which was playing out in the media weeks before Brandi drilled that upper right past Gao Hong. Cheering along with the usual crowd of painted pre-teen “mini-Mias”, they were (gasp)…guy! And that gets the attention of advertisers because young men are their main demographic. Boys… women’s sports…soccer? What the hell is happening here?
For as long as we can remember, women’s sports and soccer have never been taken seriously in the mainstream. maybe tolerated. The prevailing attitude could be summed up by a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Daily News, who scoffed at any implication that the women’s soccer revolution was anything more than cute, a mere blink in sports, a “winner-one-for-USA.” USA.” “go-girls-go instant.” Ho-hum. All the ruckus had been orchestrated, even for buses full of bored rental-car fans. Women’s soccer would never break the national consciousness, because there are it’s not any more national consciousness, except for NFL football. “Good night” she sobbed. “Nice niche. Three weeks until Eagles camp…”
The funny thing about that: It echoes the big wheels in bodybuilding politics. I can’t sell these women or their pageants, but we will let them languish. Give the boys a lot of money. Time points to the pay disparity with female soccer players, “some of whom make less than $30,000 – coffee money for a male pro.” Sounds familiar?
Try this for irony: while women have brought finesse to bodybuilding poses, they’ve actually made soccer more physical and aggressive. Fans argue that women’s soccer is more exciting and attacking than men’s, noting that “women are more likely to have one-on-one matches.” women adding hand to hand to a men’s sport? Dayaman! But that final shootout was absolute. hand to hand.
However, to dwell solely on the games and contests themselves is to miss the point. True connoisseurs of female muscle need to realize that competitions are just a pretense to bring these women together, out in the open, where they can be seen in a justifiable format. Bodybuilding contests have never been the last word, nor will they ever be, as much as we need them to maintain some kind of dynamic. Whether they knew or cared, Brandi Chastain and her minions have certainly done more to promote the cause of female muscle than all (virtually unknown outside of bodybuilding) Ms. Olympias.
How else could you have US News and World Report marveling “now you’ve got big, strong, sweaty women tearing each other down…and excited fans” and Time announcing “Now it’s sexy to be strong.” Or Newsweek telling us “…muscular young women of unparalleled ability…have become a new kind of national hero.”
You’ve got it all here in one epic package: the “aged” lioness, airborne Michelle Akers, who heroically delivers during the big game, but sheds her IVs and oxygen mask only to stumble back at the end; the reluctant idol, Mia Hamm, beautiful, modest (when she’s not challenging Michael Jordan’s “I Can Beat You” in multi-million dollar places), her poster graces the bedroom walls of countless girls (and boys), the number 9 on her jersey the most popular number in the city; the dark, enigmatic and forgotten savior, Briana Scurry; and, of course, the shot that went around the world, “I-lost-my-ass-for-this-body-I’m-proud-of-it”, Brandi Chastain… These women are household names. And that’s significant to us because its prominence is forever tied to exertion, sweaty, mud-stained quads, bone-shattering collision, and all-out effort. It’s raw muscle shown in function (always an Achilles for public acceptance of bodybuilding), and therefore needs no excuses. Elegant? Ha! You Tell Mia she’s not like a lady!
And it can only get better; many of these women are more muscular, especially in the legs, than the McLish-era bodybuilders. Soccer is exhausting. Soccer punishes. Soccer is all about running, jumping, diving, sharp changes of direction, explosive kicks, getting to your feet even before you hit the ground, long accurate overhead throws. And now sports nutrition and weight training are universally practiced; in fact, the same edition of US News and World Report that covered the game also featured an article advocating high-intensity weight training for everyone.
What does this all mean? It means that in the years to come, you will see these women become much more muscular as the standards of action games rise and a new generation of Mias takes the field, freed from outdated notions of physical correctness and sports. -conditioning (read: squats are great). We’ll have to do something about those baggy uniforms. It is not Lenda or Andrulla; It’s not the appreciation of muscle for its beauty, but for what it can do. But it’s a breakthrough for female muscle, and we’ll take it. We’ll take it!