Fit Women, Hollywood, and Today's Society

[FitGems]

Curt has seen this already, but I'd thought I'd post this for anyone interested. This has been something that has been bugging me for quite some time. I'm aware that not everyone will agree with this blog post, but I do hope you at least take the time to read it all the way through. I will warn you, it's rather lengthy.

http://fitgems.blogspot.com/2016/03/...fit-women.html

[black-elephant]

All the while, women's bodybuilding is in decline while figure and bikini are up. Much to consider.

[Femphysiquefan]

Hollywood only responds to the public demand. They are going to do what makes them the most profit, and quite frankly the public doesn't like muscle on women, period. Look at the track record. Jennifer Garner in Elektra, Gina Carano in Haywire, Jessica Biel in Stealth, Blade: Trinity and Total Recall. ALL of these films were domestic flops. Hollywood HAS been putting out more and more movies with roles for muscular women and sometimes they are hits, like Fast & Furious and Deadpool (Gina Carano), or Edge of Tomorrow (a bulked-up Emily Blunt). But these successes are few and far between, and in all honesty it's the star power of the male actors in those movies that are the major reason for the success of those movies, not the muscular women in those same films. IMHO you're looking in the wrong place to assign blame. The PUBLIC is to blame for Hollywood avoiding more roles for muscular women, because again, Hollywood is going to do whatever makes the most profit, and the facts are that muscular women simply aren't a big box-office draw. Just my 2 cent's worth.

[Joe Pietaro]

The first movie that I recall a muscular-looking woman getting props was Sarah Connor (can't recall the actresses's real name now) in Terminator 2. When she was doing the pull-ups in the mental asylum cell at the beginning, everyone in the theater was like, "Holy shit" because of her transformation from the first film.

[FitGems]

Hollywood only responds to the public demand. They are going to do what makes them the most profit, and quite frankly the public doesn't like muscle on women, period. Look at the track record. Jennifer Garner in Elektra, Gina Carano in Haywire, Jessica Biel in Stealth, Blade: Trinity and Total Recall. ALL of these films were domestic flops. Hollywood HAS been putting out more and more movies with roles for muscular women and sometimes they are hits, like Fast & Furious and Deadpool (Gina Carano), or Edge of Tomorrow (a bulked-up Emily Blunt). But these successes are few and far between, and in all honesty it's the star power of the male actors in those movies that are the major reason for the success of those movies, not the muscular women in those same films. IMHO you're looking in the wrong place to assign blame. The PUBLIC is to blame for Hollywood avoiding more roles for muscular women, because again, Hollywood is going to do whatever makes the most profit, and the facts are that muscular women simply aren't a big box-office draw. Just my 2 cent's worth.

I must respectfully disagree...to a point. I do agree that the public does share a blame, but how is the public influenced? By what Hollywood and the mainstream media shows? They have a bigger influence on regular people that you want to admit. I've seen it happen all my life, and trust me, this is gonna continue until the end of time.

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[FitGems]

The first movie that I recall a muscular-looking woman getting props was Sarah Connor (can't recall the actresses's real name now) in Terminator 2. When she was doing the pull-ups in the mental asylum cell at the beginning, everyone in the theater was like, "Holy shit" because of her transformation from the first film.

The actress's real name is Linda Hamilton. And thank you for bringing that up as that was a big influence for the article.

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[Joe Pietaro]

The actress's real name is Linda Hamilton. And thank you for bringing that up as that was a big influence for the article.

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Thanks. She was hot in the first one but hotter after the muscle gain.

[Femphysiquefan]

I must respectfully disagree...to a point. I do agree that the public does share a blame, but how is the public influenced? By what Hollywood and the mainstream media shows? They have a bigger influence on regular people that you want to admit. I've seen it happen all my life, and trust me, this is gonna continue until the end of time.

The actress's real name is Linda Hamilton. And thank you for bringing that up as that was a big influence for the article.

I would argue, though, that Linda Hamilton's turn as a muscular Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 was incidental to the success of the movie. IMHO the reason this movie was so successful was NOT because of Linda, but because (1) it was one of the most anticipated sequels in sci-fi film history; (2) Arnold's star power up to that time as well as his reprising the role that made him famous; and (3) state-of-the-art CGI which for the time was mind-blowingly new. As to how the public is influenced, I will agree that mainstream media has some influence on culture, but you have to bear in mind that there are institutions (politics, religion, cultural traditions) that have been around a WHOLE lot longer than mainstream media, all of which have exerted considerably more influence on culture....influence that despite the advances of feminism has caused our society to largely remain patriarchal to this day, which in turn effects public perception of how women should be. And that, in turn, is manifested in how well most films do which have muscular women as characters, which is in the whole not very well. Joss Whedon, in this clip from his accepting an award from Equality Now, says pretty much the same thing.

[sassy69]

If you surveyed the general public who saw Terminator 2 (Linda Hamilton) or even What's Love Got to Do With It, with Angela Bassett as Tina Turner - both times these actresses made you look twice at their physiques, but I think the general public for the most part, were finding it not ultimately totally attractive. Great for a "stare at that" moment, but generally, no. Me personally, I was like HELLZ YES! YOU GO GIRL! , but for general movie going public, I think not.

I also think it's always going to be like that too. There are more & more movie roles that are being pushed in that direction, but for movies that have to bank on the optimal response to make their profit, they are staying on the conservative side.

[Femphysiquefan]

If you surveyed the general public who saw Terminator 2 (Linda Hamilton) or even What's Love Got to Do With It, with Angela Bassett as Tina Turner - both times these actresses made you look twice at their physiques, but I think the general public for the most part, were finding it not ultimately totally attractive. Great for a "stare at that" moment, but generally, no. Me personally, I was like HELLZ YES! YOU GO GIRL! , but for general movie going public, I think not.

I also think it's always going to be like that too. There are more & more movie roles that are being pushed in that direction, but for movies that have to bank on the optimal response to make their profit, they are staying on the conservative side.

My sentiments exactly. I too was CHEERING for Linda, Jennifer, Gina, Emily, and Jessica in all those movies I mentioned earlier, but from what I saw I, like you, was only one of the few who were.

[Joe Pietaro]

If you surveyed the general public who saw Terminator 2 (Linda Hamilton) or even What's Love Got to Do With It, with Angela Bassett as Tina Turner - both times these actresses made you look twice at their physiques, but I think the general public for the most part, were finding it not ultimately totally attractive. Great for a "stare at that" moment, but generally, no. Me personally, I was like HELLZ YES! YOU GO GIRL! , but for general movie going public, I think not.

I also think it's always going to be like that too. There are more & more movie roles that are being pushed in that direction, but for movies that have to bank on the optimal response to make their profit, they are staying on the conservative side.

When the first two Terminator films were released, I was a horny teenager into sports and working out, as were my friends. So we loved it for those factors. But I suppose if you surveyed the theater at those respective films, most would have said she looked more 'lady like' in the first one. I couldn't disagree more.

[FitGems]

I should have said it earlier, but I do want to say thank you to those that commented on here and provided constructive criticism and facts, whether you agree or disagree. I posted this on it-who-won't-be-named-by-me, and to my non-surprise, I was attacked by trolls and was just like "screw it". It was a mistake to think any intelligence would come from there, but here...it's different. Agree or disagree, no one here made me feel less of myself, so thank you.

Back on topic...I posted this on my FitGems FB, and I wanted to post this here and get your thoughts on it.

As you all probably know, this weekend was a pretty big weekend, for example:

Masters Nationals...plenty of superhero-like bodies out.


CrossFit Games...plenty of superhero-like bodies out.


Comic-Con International...VERY few superhero-like bodies out (only ones you will see are cosplay, not the actual actors themselves...female-wise anyways)


So...yeah, there's that... :-/