Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Women: Photographs of the Top Female Bodybuilders by Bill Dobbins ISBN: 1885183011 Publisher: Artisan Sales Pub. Date: November, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.82
Rating: 5
Summary: Magnificent & inspiring
Comment: This book remained on my coffee table for years. I wanted others to see how beautiful feminine muscle could be. The pictures are just magnificent. They are of some of the top female bodybuilders of that time. Today, it seems the sport is taking a turn in a downward direction. The sport is constantly struggling to get the recognition & respect it deserves. This book is an excellent portrayal of "Female Beauty".
Rating: 4
Summary: Nice - but not great.
Comment: When i got this book i was very excited. The pics are very great and i like it to look at them. Unfortunatley they are not enough pics of these women who are the most beautyfull girls.
Denise Rutowski, for example, is wonderfull, alluring and i adore her. This one pic (scroll a little more higher) where you only can see her right side (she puts her arms on a chair and looks to it), is the best pic i ever have seen. A wonderfull face, great hands and hair and excelent biceps/triceps. Fantastic.
Rating: 5
Summary: Titanic, muscular femininity!
Comment: "The women" here are unprecedented in history: women with much greater muscularity and strength than many men (including me). Until the 1980s, women did not have the chance to build this huge muscularity. Yet within a few years, massively muscular female bodybuilders (FBBs) were on the scene. Are these women (1) grotesque freaks or (2) a new kind of femininity? The author thinks it's #2 and presents these photos are proof.
None of "the women" here look like men in drag. All have elements of conventional femininity: stunning faces, luxurious coiffures, slender waists, and curvaceous hips. Some model seductive lingerie. But the also have massive biceps, shoulders, and backs, as well as hard, flat, strapping chests with virtually no bosom. (As part of their exercise regiment and diet, FBBs tend to increase their chest size while dramatically losing breast mass.)
So what are "the women": half man/half woman monsters or a new kind of "muscular femininity"--elements of traditional womanhood combined with a new look of strength and power? For me, it's a "new femininity." The elements of traditional womanhood are so seductively powerful in these women that I could never call them masculine. The best description for them is "titanic." The Titans in Greek mythology were a race of massively muscular men and women--the women far more muscular than an ordinary man. Yet the Titan women still had al the traditional elements of womanhood at the same time. And that's "the women."
Two concluding observations from reading this book. First, what we look for in a woman's body depends on what we expect from them. If we expect clinging fragility, we look for a weak, delicate body. But in the age of Xenia, "muscular femininity" no longer sounds like an oxymoron. Second, if a man regards these women as freaks, it may be because he is encountering (for the first time, perhaps) a woman who is more muscular than he, threatening his sense of masculinity. As a small, quite unmuscular man, I long ago realized that not all men are muscular, nor all women weak. Ladies such as "the women" teach us that muscle alone does not define either masculinity or femininity, and they make us more accepting of people who don't meet traditional stereotypes of womanhood or manhood.
In conclusion, this book is a MUST for any man (like me) who admires and is attracted to very strong, muscular, yet feminine women. People with negative stereotypes of FBBs will have them challenged. The photos themselves are creative, artistic, dramatic, and seductive.
My favorite photo: the cover shot of the massive Nikki Fuller in a perfect combination of demure femininity and regal muscularity. A true Amazon Queen!
 |
Title: Modern Amazons by Bill Dobbins ISBN: 3822812919 Publisher: TASCHEN America Llc Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
 |
Title: Physique: An Intimate Portrait of the Female Fitness Athlete by Paul Goode ISBN: 156025145X Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press Pub. Date: June, 1997 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: Picturing the Modern Amazon by Joanna Frueh, Laurie Fierstein, Judith Stein, N.Y.) New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York ISBN: 0847822478 Publisher: Rizzoli Pub. Date: May, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
 |
Title:Pumping Iron 2: The Women ASIN: B00008K77A Publisher: Central Park Media C Pub. Date: 08 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.99 |
 |
Title: Women of Steel: Female Bodybuilders and the Struggle for Self-Definition by Maria R. Lowe, Marie R. Lowe ISBN: 081475094X Publisher: New York University Press Pub. Date: January, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
