Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Body Building (Paperback)

by Leslie Heywood (Author) "Behind the image there is emptiness, so deep it is almost its own source of light..." (more)
Key Phrases: postmodern witness, bodybuilding photography, bodybuilding industry, Mary Reilly, Tom Petty, Pumping Iron (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Women with muscles are a recent phenomenon, so recent that, while generating a good deal of interest, both positive and negative, their importance to the cultural landscape has yet to be acknowledged. This newness, along with the ways in which muscular women challenge traditional ideas that associate women with physical weakness and incompetence, femininity with diminution and childishness, and the female body with softness, has led to a widely held belief, both inside body building circles and without, that the cultural implications of female body building are limited to a small subculture. Leslie Heywood looks at the sport and image of female body building as a metaphor for how women fare in our current political and cultural climate. Drawing on contemporary feminist and cultural theory as well as her own involvement in the sport, she argues that the movement in women's body building from small, delicate bodies to large powerful ones and back again is directly connected to progress and backlash within the abortion debate, the ongoing struggle for race and gender equality, and the struggle to define "feminism" in the context of the nineties. She discusses female body building as activism, as an often effective response to abuse, race and masculinity in body building, and the contradictory ways that photographers treat female body builders. "Bodymakers" also reveals how female body builders find themselves both trapped and empowered by their sport.

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813524806
• ISBN-13: 978-0813524801
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #851,071 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bodymakers: a must-read on body culture!, May 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Body Building (Hardcover)

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.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read for all iron grrls, August 18, 2003

By	Patty G "irongrrl" (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

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.

14 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of one chapter "American Girls, Raised on Promises", October 8, 1999

By	Karin Wikoff ([e-mail]) "thelmagirl" (Aurora, NY) - See all my reviews

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.