Weightlifting Gender Bender

He let out a powerful yell, one much similar to a war cry and began to lift the 500 pounds in front of him off the floor. Everyone on the lacrosse team was cheering him on as the barbell slowly moved up and reached its destination. I stood there in awe at this incredible feat of strength: at this moment that I knew that I too, wanted to be strong. Before I became serious about weightlifting, I would often settle for the minimum amount of success possible. I believed that this was enough to get by in life. Once I began weightlifting however, I saw almost no progress. After reevaluating what I had been doing, I realized I needed to take a different approach and take weightlifting more seriously. I decided to set smaller, more achievable goals

Finally, Dyer talks about muscularity and what this means for male and female activity. Muscularity is the sign of power and achievement. He states, “The muscle man is the end product of his own activity of muscle-building” (62). The male body shows that he worked hard, or in some cases not at all, to achieve the appearance that he has. However, pertaining to the female body, even though she may have worked hard to get the shape she’s in its seen as “something that has been done to the woman” (Dyer 62). The male goes and actively seeks to achieve muscles,

I developed a character to be a representative of the main audience for my essay by taking the characteristics of individuals observed in McComas’ weight room and combining them into one persona. Based off of this, the persona is a male Virginia Tech college student who is familiar with the weight room and the concepts of body building. He is in good physical shape, and wears typical gym clothing, such as gym shorts, sweatpants, t-shirts, or wife-beaters. He has long-term experience with the majority of the weight and machines found in McComas’ weight room, and falls into the category of “serious lifters,” rather than just an occasional gym-goer. He is very perseverant in his work out regiment, and has a focused mindset.

Within sport, as throughout society, gender differences exist. The socially constructed phenomenon of gender dictates a dichotomous system whereby females are feminine and males are masculine. Focusing on females specifically, society determines the feminine traits and roles ascribed to this gender. Being domesticated, slender, passive and heterosexual are a part of the desirable appearance that society has formed surrounding femininity (Wolf, 1991). On the other side of the dichotomy is the masculine realm that sport plays into. Sport is fuelled by muscle, power and aggressiveness, which are behaviours and images associated to masculinity. Sport therefore, defies all existing female gender ideals. It would be assumed that females have no place within this institution due to the gender clash. However, female athletes do exist, and many are very successful. For this to work, sport has established and reinforced the social constructions of gender that exist in society. Female athletes are viewed as inferior and are pushed into gender appropriate sports. Furthermore, they are often labeled as masculine until they can prove otherwise, and so great attempts are made to reassert femininity. The stigma associated to being masculine or homosexual for female athletes is so great that many have become irrationally fearful of this label. The sexualisation of the female body and overt displays of heterosexuality are used in

Beginning with the most prevalent controversy, the obvious physical advantage males have over females. “Weight, shape, size, and anatomy are not political opinions but rather tangible and easily measured.” (Connor) This is a strictly a fact, that men have natural, biological, and evolutionary advantages in many aspects of physical exertion, however, it wouldn’t be fair to say that woman have no hope in physical dominance over any man in the 21st century. Females in male sports aren’t just sitting ducks waiting to be beaten, they have a similar polar edge including speed, flexibility, and quick thinking. Looking at an example of this, Massachusetts high school wrestler, Danielle

“How to Be a ‘Woman Programmer” is an essay written by Ellen Ullman, published in May of 2013, detailing her experiences as a female computer programmer and the obstacles she was forced to overcome to make it in a male dominated industry. Starting her programming career in the early 1980s, Ullman was one of the few female computer programmers of that decade, and it was this that allowed her to stand out amongst her peers. It was Ullman’s undying will to continue her career despite the harassment she suffered at the hands of the men surrounding her that allowed her to flourish. Much like Ullman, I find myself in a similar situation at times within the fitness community. In an industry flooded with muscle-bound monsters and a steroid obsession,

Another observance that I made regarded the male and female distributions throughout the day at the UNC Asheville gym. During the morning there was a disproportionate amount of females, with an estimated 65% of the makeup of the gym being females with most using the cycling machines. However later in the day males were the most populous demographic in the gym, and by far the majority was occupied using the weight room or the weight machines. I propose that this may be due to the main motivation differing between males and females using the gym. Society tends to put more pressure on females to lose weight and be in shape, while there is more pressure on males to have large amounts of muscle and generally be larger, with less emphasis placed

If she can lift one hundred and fifty pounds and can do anything a man can, not only because

Women Weightlifting Are there people that believe women do not belong in the gym, and if they do should they only be using cardio equipment? Many people believe women do not belong in the gym and they definitely do not belong in a weight room or under a weight bar. Although this is definitely not true, because it is just as important for women to go to the gym on a regular basis as it is for men. Many women go to the gym and spend much of their time on a cardio machine, rather than spending a fair amount of their gym time lifting weights.

TRUTH: This myth is particularly common because women worry that lifting weights will bulk them up If you were to look at 1 pound of fat, and 1 pound of muscle side by side, you would notice how much smaller the muscle is even though it's the same weight.

In ancient Greece, body building was almost exclusively for males. Men are the greater physical specimen so in the Greek’s minds, they should be the ones sculpting their bodies and taking pride in their appearance. Women were pushed to the background and were seen to have other responsibilities than athletics. In today’s world women are considered equals. Anything a male can do a woman can also do if she pleases and this includes bodybuilding. Giraldi touches on this when describing how women in the gym will cause men to elevate what they are doing (Giraldi 61).Women are seen in gyms worldwide now and participate in all Olympic sports that males do. This is definitely a change that has occurred over time and is for the

Women are empowered, encouraged and even pressured into being involved in a sport or some type of fitness activities today; however, it hasn’t always been that way (Cahn 278). In the 1920s, also known as the “golden age” of sports, women and young girls faced obstacles such as rejection, gender discrimination, and stereotypes when showing interest in sports or fitness activities. One famous author named Susan Cahn, wrote a book called Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports, and focuses on the decades between the 1920s and the 1960s. For most of the 19th century, females were accused of causing a great deal of danger to the moral and physical areas of masculinity. Through the research of multiple different aspects, such as media, appearance, and gender roles, Cahn puts together an idea and theme that athleticism is seen as a masculine trait because it was once constructed by society itself; which fortunately for the women, that idea can be changed. In the later centuries, Cahn writes about the progress of woman 's appearance in sports, however then describes the difference in respect, attention throughout media, opportunities and wages between men and women. Through both primary sources such as newspapers, interviews, and journals, as well as secondary sources like relevant literature, Cahn writes her book in a historical non-fiction genre. After reading Coming on Strong: Gender and Sexuality in Twentieth-Century Women’s Sports by Susan

There are many existing literatures on women and weightlifting. This research will be focusing on how hegemonic masculinity has set ideas of gender roles and how these women challenge the social discourse that they face being a muscular or look ‘manly’.

Some women athletes are still not accepted. Women who body-build are not given the same respect as men who do. While many

Although, athletes are the role models the boys grow up playing sports but when they do not perform in an excellent or right way they are chided as girls in a away to help them perform better. The language that is in the media attributes and reinforces the dominant discourse that males are stronger than females. (Public research group, 2010). In addition, men are expected to have healthy strong bodies and simultaneously on the other hand isolate and seclude themselves from females as to not care how they look. Men that are obese are subjected through oppression as a result of the factor that they do not fit in the masculine stereotype of a muscle built body. Furthermore, young boys are taught this early and consequently reproduce this discourse to discriminate others in school that do not fit in to Western culture's ideology of masculinity. This discrimination of the obese instills a fear on the youth that to be fat is not ideal and is therefore seen in revulsion and hatred. Nevertheless, the discourse implies that genetics do not play a role and that every male can get this perfect body of masculinity in a sense. Therefore, a man would need to endure the journey for how ever long it takes to achieve this. In contrary, this is not the truth a man may go the gym everyday for a number of years and never achieve this form of masculinity because for their body type and genetics is impossible. Moreover, the stereotypes against overweight men at a first glance