Why are women jealous of fit women? Ask Megan Avalon.
Women bodybuilders, fitness models, and female athletes tend to bring out extreme views, especially from, well, other women. Take what US Women’ Soccer Star Hope Solo had to deal with on Dancing With The Stars 2011 when she was called “too muscular.” Or take this blog post where the author starts out with “Everything I learned about fitness models I learned from a stripper.”
In other words, if you look like a fitness model, you just may be a stripper. Ouch. There are other examples of this hatred for athletic women, too.
Why do women dump on female athletes and fit women like that? What’s the deal? To get some idea of the problem, I asked my friend female bodybuilder, model,and personal trainer Megan Avalon. What started as a small conversation turned into the video above, where she observes “it comes down to two kinds of women: women who are motivated by women who work out, and women who feel insecure or (are made to feel) jealous by these types of women. Or they could be jaded in some way because they think maybe these women have attitudes or are fake, just because they take care of themselves.”
Megan goes on to say that the common mainstream American view of women bodybuilder is especially hard because some women think women bodybuilder’s are “tough or are bitches” and she says that models are known as “dumb and fake.” Avalon says these views are “not the case” at all. But it’s too bad women have such views of other women who take on a practice that not only makes them look good, but keeps them healthy.
Megan says she wishes that women would give each other confidence and motivation, but what happens is a lot of cattiness. In fact, that’s something Olympic Skier Lindsey Vonn pointed to in her interview with David Letterman on Thursday. Vonn said that the 65 women competitors were often “catty” towards each other; in other words, not supportive.
However, Megan also thinks the “jealously issue” can be seen with men judging other male athletes on television. But I have to admit I don’t find guys blasting other guys for being “too muscular” or even thinking about it. If anything, the only group of men I’ve ever known to make comments about a guy’s physique are NFL coaches. At a Super Bowl Party in Houston, then Tampa Bay Bucs Head Coach Jon Gruden was raving about Igor Olshansky, a then rookie defensive tackle at the party, saying to his wife Cindy as we were standing in a circle, “Look at those guns.” At the time, I didn’t even know what “guns” were outside of weapons, but I digress.
It looks like American society could benefit from a non-profit that promotes positive views of fit women and bodybuilders. Such an organization would be of help to the fitness and he wellness industry, and help improve acceptance of women with muscle.
Stay tuned.