The teenaged girl leafed through a stack of old magazines in the attic and rolled her eyes at the 1950s cheesecake photos: women in two-piece bathing suits in the center spread of military newspapers; smiling models advertising cars, margarine or, in many cases, nothing at all, the old ”girl of the week”-type photos.
”They look so round,” the teenager said incredulously, ”and soft.”
Her mother, 40, and grandmother, 63, both charming, dimpled subjects of beach-bunny snapshots in the family`s old photo albums, shared the laugh. Both work out regularly today and believe they`re in better shape now.
If cheesecake was the euphemism for feminine beauty in the 1950s, the operable phrase today might be ”lean cuisine.” Even that falls short, however, of the new ideal, which is not just lean but strong. In recent years we have seen Cher–to name only one celebrity–once content to be fashionably scrawny, suddenly touting smooth, sinewy muscle. ”Keep the muscle, lose the fat,” is the message on one popular cereal box. In glitzy spas, frantic aerobics has given way to methodical weight-training among women, many of whom are struggling not for sex appeal but for strength–of mind and body.
The mystique of muscle, the zen of strength, traditionally a men`s refuge and reward, has become women`s as well. Indeed, the long-held cultural notion of women as ”the weaker sex” is fast becoming as outdated as bustles and parasols.
”The Twiggy days are definitely out. What we`re seeing today is a real movement toward the healthy look, a much more substantial, stronger woman,”
says Marie Anderson, vice president of Elite Chicago modeling agency.
”Models only give you a sample of what`s in vogue, but in the past the girls were nearly anorexic–they called themselves `walking coat hangers`–
today they`re working out with weights and aerobics, dancing and swimming. It`s all part of developing that look of strength and confidence. That new image–and I don`t think it`s a fad–reflects a more healthy outlook on women, more acceptance of women in contemporary terms. She buys her own car, she can go to the movies by herself and she can check into a hotel on her own American Express Card.”
”We grew up in a society in which women were programmed to be sedentary,” says says Dr. Mona Shangold, director of the Sports Gynecology Center at Georgetown University Hospital and coauthor of ”The Complete Sports Medicine Book for Women. ”Exercise was unfeminine, and heavy work, lifting weights, was really unfeminine. And that`s unfortunate because it has produced several generations of sedentary women who suffer medical problems as a result. Society is changing, and the image of an attractive woman has certainly changed, too. Women are now considered attractive if they have visible muscle.”
When Irene Melas, of Chicago, hit 40, it was no big trauma. She felt pretty good, played tennis regularly with her husband and was enjoying her children as they readied to leave the nest. But something just didn`t feel right.
”I finally realized that my walk had changed–I`d always had a bounce to my walk, and now it was gone,” she recalls. More than any of the other middle-age milestones, that bothered her. Twelve years later, the bounce is back. So is the figure and stamina that had waned with age. Her source of energy and confidence (which she didn`t even think about in her younger days) is muscle.
Today the 52-year-old grandmother works out with weights in addition to a more traditional exercise routine. ”Being strong is even more feminine, more attractive, I think, than that old-fashioned view of women as frail or weak,” says Melas. ”It`s silly for a woman to look attractive but not be able to lift a box without straining her back.”
Historically, women had to be strong to manage the labor of homemaking, child-rearing and community demands. But society`s definition of feminine beauty required that softer, more vulnerable images prevail.
The image of women as ”the weaker sex” has formidable roots in science and society, says Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of ”Myths of Gender” (Basic Books, $18.95). She notes that in the 19th Century ”authorities argued that man, naturally stronger, `is fitted for civil and political employments,`
while `the consciousness of her physical weakness renders woman timid and sedentary (and) fit only for sedentary occupations . . . in the interior of the house.` ”
Indeed, some physiological differences between women and men result in the male having naturally greater muscle mass than the female, while she naturally maintains a slightly higher percentage of fat in the body. Unfortunately, this bare scientific fact has been used as a rationale for many women to surrender what strength potential they did have by opting for the passive, weaker role. Taking that choice leaves them more vulnerable to physical injury as well as victimization, especially as they grow older.
The image of physical weakness, like that of intellectual inferiority, is part of a cultural heritage designed to discourage women from challenging their assigned roles, sociologists say. Efforts toward women`s liberation in the 1960s, along with legal reforms that opened opportunities for women in athletics, have helped remove the tarnish from the image of strong, physically capable women.
”Women have an initial resistance to picking up anything heavier than a one-pound weight,” says Christie Graham, a Chicago fitness consultant and former spa owner. ”They think strength means size and masculinity, losing your period and generally becoming unattractive, which isn`t true at all. But at least initially, you`re asking them to change their whole value system.”
Says sociologist Bernard Beck at Northwestern University: ”The idea of strength in women has been growing for a couple of decades. What`s interesting is how in each new period it`s expanded as to what it means. When we go back to the women`s movement of the `60s, strength was developed in the sense of psychological strength–that women were competent, not immature, not over-emotional, that they had autonomy. Since then there`s been this unfolding enlightenment and a reinterpretation of the general biological soundness of women. An appreciation of real muscular development has come much more in the past few years.”
That subtle change in the concept of womanhood directly parallels changes in men`s roles in society, Beck suggests.
”The original quid pro quo was that women would be weak and helpless and men would take care of them in exchange for which they demanded absolute obedience and service. It`s not just that women have become freer of tyranny now, but they`re not being taken care of by men anymore. A woman had better be strong these days because, whether a man likes it or not, she has to look out for herself.”
That simple quest for a feeling–if not the full reality–of independence is the backbone behind the effort to build strength for many women.
”Since I started weight training, I`ve become more confident in my dealings with the people I work around, especially the men,” says one former aerobics freak-turned-free-weights-fanatic. ”Even when the muscles don`t show, you simply feel stronger and in control and you approach everything with that added confidence.”
That exhilaration is not uncommon among women who work on strengthening their bodies, says Graham. ”Most of them become incredibly self-confident once they start working out this way. It`s a whole mindset, the kind that affects every part of your life. Combine that with the physical changes, the firming and the toning, and it`s like magic.”
For many women, strength means liberation not so much from men as from the tyranny of poor health and helplessness that typically accompanies advancing age.
”It improves the quality of a woman`s life if she can do more for herself, even simple things like carrying her own groceries or luggage,” says author Shangold. ”Plus, strengthening exerices help promote bone density and discourage bone loss (osteoporosis) and the accumulation of fat, all significant problems for women as they age.”
”I didn`t think I could ever lift certain things without my heart pounding, but I found with the weight-training I really built up strength. It was wonderful,” says Melas, who began working out with weights about two years ago.
”I feel better now than I did when I was 25 or 30 years old,” she adds. ”I may not look like a 20- or 30-year-old, but I have tremendous stamina now, and it feels great.”
Melas` brother was a serious weight-trainer when he was young, she says,
”and I used to look at his body and think, `Oh, how grotesque, how unnatural!` But the more I read about the differences between men`s and women`s hormones and muscle development, I understood you didn`t have to look like that. Today I think being strong is even more feminine than being `soft.` ”
For Sandy Adell weight-lifting was the natural extension of a lifetime habit of self-improvement on a shoestring budget. A high-school dropout and teenage welfare mother, Adell, now 40, used community fitness classes as an inexpensive activity for herself and her three children. Being physically fit improved self-esteem and confidence all around, Adell says. Eventually she earned a high school diploma, went on to graduate from Wayne State University in Detroit in French and English, and is currently working on a doctorate in comparative literature at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. At 5 feet 4 inches and 118 pounds, Adell also is an amateur bodybuilder.
If Melas and Adell seem a little old to be carrying on so with weights, medical experts say otherwise. Although an older woman who already suffers brittle bones will not be able to safely lift the same weight as a like-aged woman with stronger bones, both have potential for impovement in their muscle strength and tone through a well-designed workout.
”Being strong is a matter of being able to control your own life, of being able to have a say in how you live and determine your destiny to a certain degree,” says Ruth Shriman, 76, senior coordinator at the Jane Addams Center and a community health activist. Physical strength translates into
”hope, satisfaction and courage” for older people and allows them to continue to contribute their talents to society, Shriman says.
Stronger women may even contribute to an overall strengthening of the human race, suggests Fausto-Sterling. Women`s musculoskeletal composition already gives them an edge in some sports–gymnastics and swimming, for instance–an edge they have just begun to display as opportunities have grown for their participation, she says. In the evolution of the human figure, she adds, as generations of boys and girls enjoy the same opportunities for exercise and competition some of the gender differences in stature and strength may disappear.
”No matter how our ideas about male and female physique evolve in the coming years, one thing remains certain–our cultural conceptions will change the way our bodies grow, and how our bodies grow will change the way our culture views them,” says Fausto-Sterling.
The view need not be threatening.
”It`s not taking away from men or competing with men to want to be strong,” says one female weight-training specialist. ”It`s understanding something that has been totally done by men for a long time–developing strength–but that is a very positive quality in a woman`s personality. It doesn`t make you any less feminine, it makes you more feminine because you`ve not only got a shapely, strong body but the feelings that go along with it.”
