female athletes

[lph]

This slideshow is awesome (and SFW):

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/27/female-athletes-21-photos-power-womans-body_n_1632501.html#slide=more234839

[OakLeaf]

They are beautiful and powerful women, no question, and I suppose it's nice to see the slideshow slightly pushing the boundaries of what's an "acceptable" appearance for women. But until they start featuring Olympic athletes like (my local hero) Holley Mangold or Jillian Camarena, I'll still be sad about the strictures that our culture puts on women's bodies. :( (I realized after the fact that the photos I chose don't show their beautiful, powerful legs, which are in proportion with the rest of their bodies.)

http://i.usatoday.net/communitymanager/_photos/game-on/2012/03/05/holleyx-large.jpg

http://www.olympic.org/Assets/MediaPlayer/Photos/2008/08/16/82378598%2010/82378598_10_HD.jpg

I don't think things have changed much, if at all, since the news of Tonya Harding's crimes broke, and the worst thing the editorial cartoonists could do was to draw caricatures of her with heavy thighs. :(

[lph]

Yup, things change slowly. While impressive, I don't think we should be expecting weight lifters to be anywhere near the aesthetic ideal for a while yet. This goes for men too, though, I bet most men would rather look like runners or swimmers. But they do have a much wider "window" in which to feel attractive, especially when it comes to age.

I'm just happy the more pictures there are out there showing strong, healthy women with obvious muscles being portrayed as ideals and heros. We need all we can get to counteract the flood of skinny models. And skinny is fine, it's just not attainable or healthy for very many, while strong and fit is.

[lovelygamer]

I love this slideshow! Here is a female athlete and body that I admire greatly, 62 year old swimmer Diana Nyad.:o

[OakLeaf]

Yup, I really admire Diana Nyad too. I have to admit to a little bit of schadenfreude on Nyad's behalf, that Penney Palfrey had to abandon...

[lovelygamer]

Oh yes Oak, me too.

[OakLeaf]

I don't think we should be expecting weight lifters to be anywhere near the aesthetic ideal for a while yet.

I'm sure you're right, but if the slideshow is about an aesthetic ideal, they should just admit it's cheesecake. It is HuffPo after all. Healthy grass fed cheesecake maybe ;), but cheesecake nonetheless.

[malkin]

That makes me want to pull out a camera and shoot pictures!

[lph]

Healthy grass fed cheesecake maybe ;), but cheesecake nonetheless.

:D *snort*