Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Body Building

by Leslie Heywood

Book Overview

"A highly unique and refreshing contribution. Heywood not only theorizes the relationships among feminism, activism, and bodybuilding but also provides what so many works on built female bodies lack-a feminine historical context. . . . Heywood concludes with a call for women to 'feel our muscles, our power, our terrible, wonderful, monstrous strengths' by leaving behind aerobics, replacing light weights with heavy ones, and claiming our right to take...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813524806
• ISBN13: 9780813524801
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Must-read for all iron grrls

A superb analysis of the cultural impact of the muscular female body. Heywood helps us understand that when a woman lifts weights, she does far more than strengthen herself physically and psychologically. She strengthens women's place in society and weakens the old patriarchal notions of female frailty and passivity. Heywood also helps us realize that the common practice of oversexualizing female athletes -- which is practically the norm in the bodybuilding industry -- diminishes the woman's power and serves to bring the potentially revolutionary female athlete back into hegemonic standards of feminity. Being a female powerlifter myself, I appreciate the fact that, unlike so many feminist theorists, Leslie Heywood derives many of her arguments from personal experience. Bodymakers is a must-read for any female athlete, or for anyone interested in women's studies or the sociology of sports.

Review of one chapter "American Girls, Raised on Promises"

The chapter "American Girls, Raised on Promises" is fantastic. It's a critical look at the differences between the way culture and gender have been viewed through the lens of rock music lyrics in the 80s compared to the 90s, then extended to views of women and bodybuilding. In particular Ms. Haywood focuses on the poignant and ironic song "American Girls" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and how Petty manages to describe to perfection the way young women in America, esp. the 30-somethings, feel about the gap between what we were raised to believe we could do and the hard realities of the world. I keep coming back to this essay again and again because it says so much about me, like a little wound that needs licking.

Bodymakers: a must-read on body culture!

Leslie Heywood examines the forces which shape the aesthetics of womens' bodybuilding. Her vision goes deep; she lives what she writes about, and her criticism of the movers and shakers of the bodybuilding scene is right on. Especially interesting is her comparison of photographers Bill Dobbins and Bill Lowenburg. Dobbins' work stereotypes and fetishizes; Lowenburg's questions. The truth, according to Heywood, lies somewhere in between.