To me, the original purpose of both the IFBB and the NPC was to make money. Nothing wrong with that as your primary goal, so long as you have secondary goals that are also of merit.
Bodybuilding is not remotely a sport. It never has been and never will be. It was at one time a healthful pastime and was often referred to as "physical culture". It was more a way of life for the majority of participants. Men, and with a few exceptions such as the beautiful "Pudgy Stockton", women participated it. I highly recommend the excellent book "Remembering Muscle Beach" for a look at what was truly an age of health, strength and well built bodies.
What passes for "bodybuilding" today is anything but. It is a subculture if you will with little (if any) health benefits to the "lifestyle" presented by the periodicals of the day. Contestants are nothing less than walking drug vials. Male or female, it matters not. They are all full of dope. The women are even more hideous than their male counterparts. Turgid with MALE hormones, they resemble the mythical harpies sans wings. Ugly as shit on a stick.
The men are so large as to be useless to the world in general. Their muscles have no purpose other than lifting and posing. Whoooooopeeeee. They can't get out of their own way. No one I know of desires to look like these turgid turds. Additionally, no one I know desires a woman that looks like a man. What real man would want a woman that looks like a man?
So that is what the IFBB and the NPC promote. Big ass men and "women", filled with a panoply of drugs, unable to do anything but "pose", either on a stage or in private for schmoes. Both organizations exist to make money off of bodydopers and do so by "promoting" the "sport" of bodydoping. That is their primary goal, their business raison d'être. So then, where does the money come from?
Not the general public. They're too busy watching and participating in real sports, e.g. football, baseball, soccer, tennis, etc. Who then, is the primary audience for bodydoping? For the greater part, homosexuals. To a lesser extent, the friends and families of bodydopers. Don't believe me? Go to a show and watch the audience.
Me? I am no bodybuilder, but I do strive for physical excellence via weight training. I'm more a physical culturist. Old fashioned? Nah. Good health, a decent physique never goes out of style. Besides, looking and feeling good is...well, it's great! Dopers don't have that feeling and so long as they're on the crap, they never will. Never.
And the IFBB and NPC could care less because there's always some neophyte druggie waiting in the wings, hoping to be the next Arnie. There's money to be made. Off of him.
