Why Female Bodybuilding Is (or Isn’t) Dying

By Staff Report
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Updated: January 25, 2017

Courtesy of Crystal Anthony

By Crystal “Wildfyre” Anthony – We’ve all heard it before – ‘female bodybuilding is dying.’ But is it really? Or are there just attempts by people who hate female bodybuilding to kill it? We aren’t liked by many in the industry and I do find it amusing that they think we care much or want their approval. The only thing we ask for is being treated as equals in competition.

What does that mean? That means stop giving out two pro cards per class at the Nationals, etc. to bikini girls for a glorified tits and ass show and just one pro card for the overall female bodybuilder winner! How the hell is that fair? We have to get much leaner, much more muscular and in case you don’t realize it, let me tell you….that equals MUCH MORE WORK! There, I said it and you all know it’s true. Female bodybuilders have to work harder and longer just by the nature of how they have to transform their bodies for their given class to compete.

Now, some bikini girls are going to throw a fit and say, ‘But I work hard, too’. Yeah, ok. But even if you do work hard at being the best bikini girl you can be, you still aren’t working as hard or as long as a female bodybuilder. Our diets are much stricter-if your diet is the same as ours and you have that much fat on you as a bikini girl on stage, you are doing something wrong so yes, the diet is harder for bodybuilders. And you can’t be doing the same workouts we are for the same length of time otherwise you wouldn’t look like a bikini girl – you’d have more muscle.

And now someone is going to scream, ‘But we don’t take steroids.’ Bullshit, I’ve seen a ton of anavar in the bikini/figure world (not to mention other things). There is no way you could diet the same as a bikini/figure girl, work out the same and just change sticking a needle in your ass everyday and – POOF – you’d look like a female bodybuilder. It isn’t going to happen.

Anyway, I got off on a tangent. Sorry about that. I’m just a little pissed about how girls that look like they’ve stepped out of a Playboy magazine suddenly get handed a ton of shit by the federations and women that have busted their ass for YEARS get kicked around. I’m not attacking bikini girls personally. I’m more pissed off at how the federations treat them (and figure) as opposed to how female bodybuilders are treated.

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So let’s go back to the pro cards. Some people want to say not that many female bodybuilders show up at the national shows, and that the number of pro cards reflect that. I guarantee you, if you offered more pro cards, more women would compete. Quality women. Female bodybuilders get awarded IFBB pro cards (in the states) at only four shows a year. And at three of them, you don’t turn pro even if you win your class. You have to win the overall at two of the shows and at the other, the overall turns pro and a second person picked by the judges.

Anyone with half a brain admits female bodybuilders have to bust their ass to get ready for a competition. Most women have gotten burned out on working their ass off, paying the outrageous amount of money it takes to compete, only to win their class at a national show and STILL not turn pro. To my knowledge, it wouldn’t cost any more money to at least offer a pro card to each class winner. Start offering the incentive and maybe you’ll see more female bodybuilders show up. They get kind of tired of busting their ass and spending a ton of money for a trophy. Hell, offer a pro card to at least the overall female bodybuilder at the Junior shows (the other female divisions get pro cards at those shows…lots of them). Offer it, ADVERTISE it and I guarantee you will see a jump in female bodybuilding entries.

And honestly, adding women’s physique didn’t help. All that category is is female bodybuilding with a pretty suit and pretty hair/makeup without the lat spreads. The judges awarded huge girls in bodybuilding, then realized they didn’t like it, told everyone to downsize 20% and then still placed the same people who didn’t change a thing in their physiques. So, since the judges themselves couldn’t get their act together and place what they wanted female bodybuilding to look like, they created women’s physique instead. And you’ve seen a lot of female bodybuilders jump ship and go to physique. Why? Because physique offers more pro cards! It isn’t rocket science.

Oh, and let’s throw this rebuttal in for fun – ‘But female bodybuilders do webcam and sessions. That just isn’t morally right.’ First off, anyone that has ever watched porn or looked at a naked chick/guy has NO place to say women showing off naked is wrong, but you guys watching it is ok? Yeah, try again. Second, if we are now being judged on our morals, then I want background checks on everyone competing. Most would fail a ‘moral compass’ test.

Third, it’s a bodybuilding competition. Not a ‘who has shown their vagina’ competition. Although, maybe it is, just watch a bikini class bend over and assume the position, errr I mean rear pose, please. Wait, the NPC/IFBB changed the rules saying they can’t bend over for the rear pose any more, like that has been enforced. (I actually had to type that last part a few times, as I was laughing so hard trying to type it I misspelled quite a few things.) So what if I want to show off my muscles and tits and some guy jacks off to them? I’m 43 years old dammit, I’m flattered anyone wants to use me as porn material. But I guarantee more guys are choking their chicken to bikini chicks.

So, is female bodybuilding really dying? No, hell no. We may not be a huge presence on the competition stage but can you blame us? What has anyone done to EARN our money or hell, even our respect? But you take one look around social media and you’ll see many, many huge women from around the world that could easily compete as a female bodybuilder if they wanted. So we aren’t dying, we are out there, strong as ever in huge numbers. We just aren’t giving you our time and money to compete on a stage where we aren’t respected. We may be muscular and pretty, but we aren’t stupid.

There’s my 2 cents, love it or hate it.

Until next time guys!

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