Beauty is truth, Richard. Sometimes it finds me. The time I spent with murderers at San Quentin makes "time spent" with bodybuilders at Gold's Gym a piece of, um, cheesecake. The subcultures of lifting steel bars vs.being behind bars are VERY similar. The "trample the weak, hurdle the dead" hardcore mind set, and alla that chest-beatin' we do to Become the The Best is often rooted in self-contempt. Somewhere in our up-bringing we got the messages we were weak, worthless and unwanted. Bodybuilding was part of my search for significance,
value and self-acceptance. And it worked.
Ramazon, you just sound like a fascinating, knowledgable, intelligent, highly accomplished, and experienced FBB woman. You are a breath of fresh air on these boards (like Dina)! I sure would like to get to know you better!
Just guessing on your Getbig moniker "Ramazon"...you wouldn't be Teagan Clive would you(?)...now, there is a REAL legend in FBB; writer, former top-level competitive FBBer, and actress!!
As you well know, these boards are filled with ignorant male chauvinist pig posters who don't know "shiit from shinola" about the fantastic changes women can, and have, made to their bodies through intelligent weight-training/dieting/etc....with two excellent examples: Bev Francis and Jan Todd.
Having personally trained at least 50 girls/women over some 40 years as a health-club instructor, personal trainer, Olympic lifting coach, martial-arts instructor, and HS free-style wrestling coach, I tirelessly encouraged my female trainees/students to train "hard and heavy" with the free weights on just the core strength BB movements (squats, deadlifts, rows, presses, and Olympic lifts, as applicable).
In the process of their physical transformations though intelligent progressive resistance weight-training, I have seen these girls/women bring about remarkable changes in their physical appearance, become physically stronger than most men (including several "macho types" in the gym!), and gain enormous self-confidence, PLUS get rid of their chauvinist pig, controlling, insanely-jealous, boyfriends (even husbands!) who just couldn't handle their inner and outer total mental and physical transformations and GROWTH...as these girls/women gained self-confidence, respect for themselves, and reveled in their new bodies and vastly improved self-image!!
Also, the ability of the magnificent competitive FBB women to change their "look" in just a few short months is simply AMAZING and their dieting regimens/self-discipline (!!!) is just UNREAL!
Yeah, the highly self-disciplined, accomplished, usually well-educated, career-accomplished, FBB woman is just TOO MUCH ALL-FEMALE woman for most of the insecure "men" who frequent these boards to try and handle!! So, all they can do is gang-up like juveniles (after all, "courage" is in numbers!) and bash/flame/ridicule these magnificent female athletes/artists with their ignorant, never-ending, personal attacks!
Oh, and as the likes of Ray McNeil found out, sure, Sally is "doing time" but, at least Ray won't be intimidating, pushing-around, and beating-up any more unfortunate women! In that regard, Sally did society, and womanhood, a service! There needs to be more "Sallys" out there!!!