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What's the psychological reason why a man might be attracted to a woman with muscles?

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Apr 21, 2022 - edited Jul 13, 2024 - permalink

I prefer my deep doo doo to your nothing.

Apr 21, 2022 - permalink

Damn... that's some deep doo doo there. I just know that my libido goes completely insane at the sight of a muscular female. Been enamored with muscles on girls since for as long as I can remember. I used to question it.... what's wrong with me? My friends think muscles on girls are gross. Why do I get a sudden jolt of excitement? I no longer question it. I just enjoy the ride and thankfully thousands upon thousands of females in the world think that muscles look good on them too.

Lol pretty much. They are more fertile

Apr 21, 2022 - permalink

Personally I find muscular women attractive because as someone who is driven and dedicated I am attracted to women who are like that as well. Most women I meet aren't disciplined enough to even workout once a week, so to find a woman who has that mindset is rare. I don't think it has to do with a power dynamic, I just find the confidence and intensity attractive.

Apr 21, 2022 - edited Apr 21, 2022 - permalink

I don't think you can talk about attraction to muscle women without discussing supernormal stimuli:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_s...

Basically humans, like other organisms, instinctually respond to features of objects in the environment in order to better find food, mates, etc. and because instincts are simple, we will respond more greatly to exaggerated features than to subtle ones.

When a (heterosexual) male goes looking for a mate, he is likely to be drawn to a woman exhibiting certain telltale signs of health and ability to withstand the rigors of childbirth: clear skin, healthy hair, a body with curves "in all the right places", etc. One of these is a certain amount of muscular strength. A weak woman (as women go) makes a poor mate, as there is much effort required to birth and raise a child, forage for food, etc. If you have a finely tuned "schmoedar" you can feel this selection in action: you can tell, even through clothing, by cues like body shape, posture and movement, which girls are strong and powerful. I could look at a lineup of girls and tell at a glance which were the dancers (they had stronger, shapelier legs). But it's active in everyone.

It's no secret that some guys are more intensely drawn to exaggerated versions of mate selection characteristics: women with breast implants, "dummy thicc" girls, etc. But the strength evaluation gets caught up in this too, and hence a few us are drawn to the supernormal stimulus of an outrageously muscular woman, a woman so strong and so muscular that she wouldn't have been found in the EEA. We are like baby birds pecking at red sticks, or the jewel beetles who hump beer bottles to the point of exhaustion and death -- something in our instincts responds so strongly to these women that we can't resist or ignore it!

Apr 21, 2022 - permalink

Society has brainwashed men into believing that women must be the 'weaker' sex. Aside from the miracle of giving birth which is another matter entirely. It is even more important for women to embrace being as strong as they wish to be. Ask any girl who has spent a life on a farm doing the same hard labour as any member of the family. Anyone male or female hoisting hay bales by hand onto a truck will by necessity become very strong & muscular. A mesomorph of either gender the body type to build muscle very easily. There is NOTHING wrong whatsoever with a woman of any age being strong & muscular. Women have joined the trades industry (welding, pipe fitting, construction) & prove daily that they can do the same job that used to be reserved for men only. As for how it makes a woman look, their beauty & confidence are enhanced, looking to me even more attractive A woman who is strong & muscular is even mor beautiful. I have always been attracted to them & always will be.

Apr 21, 2022 - permalink

Society has brainwashed men into believing that women must be the 'weaker' sex. Aside from the miracle of giving birth which is another matter entirely. It is even more important for women to embrace being as strong as they wish to be. Ask any girl who has spent a life on a farm doing the same hard labour as any member of the family. Anyone male or female hoisting hay bales by hand onto a truck will by necessity become very strong & muscular. A mesomorph of either gender the body type to build muscle very easily. There is NOTHING wrong whatsoever with a woman of any age being strong & muscular. Women have joined the trades industry (welding, pipe fitting, construction) & prove daily that they can do the same job that used to be reserved for men only. As for how it makes a woman look, their beauty & confidence are enhanced, looking to me even more attractive A woman who is strong & muscular is even mor beautiful. I have always been attracted to them & always will be.

I concur with the above assessment. 👍 I can attest to women doing jobs normally reserved for men because my ex-wife did just that. She laid heavy underground cable and developed a very strong and muscular upper body!!

Apr 21, 2022 - permalink

In nature, muscles rule. A strong and muscular female lion for instance will catch more prey and feed his highness with more food. The same goes for most other animals that live in the wild. It's a survival of the Fittest agenda in nature, not a survival of the weakest. Hope that about covers an attraction to muscular females, because it's as natural as the sunrise.

Darwin was indeed talking about dudes rubbing one out to Angela Salvagno calling them a bitch and stroking a strap-on.

In all seriousness there's no one size fits all and I'm sure the "natural selection" angle is at the root for some, but as someone else said in here, I think so much can be boiled down to the power dynamic, just that sub vs. dom relationship. That coupled with the role reversal aspect that a woman "shouldn't" be the stronger one probably encapsulates a lot of the attraction for guys.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

I have one more take on this. Or clearly I hinted at it the previous time already.

> Contrary to my earlier explanation the insecurity is not necessarily in the man but can also be a fear of insecurity in women.

Men are attracted to muscular women. Not because they had a domineering mother and need to repeat that trauma to learn to cope with it or to come to terms with it. Or to sexually enjoy an identity of being a victim of abuse. But because hidden behind a domineering, suffocating or manipulative attitude is a neediness. A mother is supposed to be a source of security for a child. But a mother who is fearful and needy can not and does not provide that security.

A boy like this will superficially and on the surface see and experience the mother as too powerful, too selfish and self-sufficient, domineering and overconfident, when in reality all this covers for a fundamental insecurity. So when a boy like this initially grows up, he suffers from an insecurity he will have a hard time putting a finger on. But as soon as the first confident, strong, sporty or muscular girl comes along he will suddenly realize that women can be confident too. That such women exist with whom he does not have to fear for their stability or be afraid of their needs. This will bring him the sense of security he has always been lacking. Or at least a fantasy or a taste of it.

In Freudian terms this is called the castration anxiety, or the fear that women don't have a penis. This is not an anatomical reference but a figurative one. Male children of a confident, mentally well-established mothers have little difficulty overcoming this. But children of a needy and insecure mother will be stuck in a confusing dilemma where the mother is extremely willful, even narcissistic and abusive but simultaneously frightfully weak and insecure.

I know and it has already been said that not all men attracted to muscular women are weak and timid. This is probably because what they are has to do with the relationship with their father and how they perceive women comes from their relationship with their mother. I actually know an example of this but I realized it only after I had spelled out this idea.

I am not saying this is the only answer or that this is always part of the answer but at least sometimes the answer to the original question is the fear of having to emotionally support an unpredictably needy woman. I find it obnoxious when these women are called goddesses, but somehow I see now where it comes from. Also why their confidence and serenity is for some not only nice or sexy but the difference between an emotional heaven and hell.

Finally a strange dilemma. It makes more sense to be afraid of the weakness that motivates the abuse than the abuse itself. Very few men learn to avoid the abuse because they have learned to focus on, live with and basically ignore the fear of the weakness. When a man like this has his first encounter with a muscular woman, he feels maybe relieved, even elated.

But if he has no social skills for getting along with the newfound wonder woman, he might paradoxically wish to repeat the pattern he had with his mother and fantasize of being used and abused all over again. Those who put the greatest stock in the muscular woman's confidence and therefore her lack of need to be abusive at all have the greatest need for sadomasochism. I wish she would twist me into a pretzel can be translated to I wish she were my mother. Because there is this vague idea that this muscular wonder woman could be a way forward.

As someone who had a narcissistic/borderline mother who suffers from obesity related health problems, you described my situation and the struggles I've had with dating to a "t". I had to play the role of a "son-husband" for several years and it's made me emotionally unavailable to the women I've dated. I never thought of the fetish as a coping mechanism of sorts, but it makes a lot of sense.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

Damn... that's some deep doo doo there. I just know that my libido goes completely insane at the sight of a muscular female. Been enamored with muscles on girls since for as long as I can remember. I used to question it.... what's wrong with me? My friends think muscles on girls are gross. Why do I get a sudden jolt of excitement? I no longer question it. I just enjoy the ride and thankfully thousands upon thousands of females in the world think that muscles look good on them too.

Yeah, ditto mate.

Way too much Jung/Freud for my "see heavy weight - lift - grow - attract buff girl" brain.

TL:DR - my psychological reason for buff girls...I want a warrior woman to have offspring with, so I can raise an army of baby warriors. Buff girls look like warriors. Gorgeous, fierce and fertile. There you go.

I don't want a mum. I don't want to be carried like a baby. I don't secretly like guys and have chosen a man-woman. I LOVE the physique and mindset of athlete women. :-)

NB. Already have four baby warriors...could always do with a few more to make my own rugby team.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

Yeah, ditto mate.

Way too much Jung/Freud for my "see heavy weight - lift - grow - attract buff girl" brain.

TL:DR - my psychological reason for buff girls...I want a warrior woman to have offspring with, so I can raise an army of baby warriors. Buff girls look like warriors. Gorgeous, fierce and fertile. There you go.

I don't want a mum. I don't want to be carried like a baby. I don't secretly like guys and have chosen a man-woman. I LOVE the physique and mindset of athlete women. :-)

NB. Already have four baby warriors...could always do with a few more to make my own rugby team.

That was the spartan point of view. Sparta institutionalized sports for women because they believed strong bodies were hereditary.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

That was the spartan point of view. Sparta institutionalized sports for women because they believed strong bodies were hereditary.

No kidding!? That's cool. Married me an Amazon, but with two boobs. Ha.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

Humans often want what we cannot have.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink
Deleted by BuffBabesRule
Apr 22, 2022 - edited Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

Pages upon pages trying to rationalize a fetish. Get over it, it is 2022 you have a weird fetish and it is OK.

It will never become normal or accepted because it is not natural. Women are not muscular by nature nor domineering, they need to inject male hormones, have an obsessive personality to put in the hard work, risk their health and sanity for no reward, resort to surgery, refuse nature in numerous ways and in the end they still desire a stronger Alpha male to treat them like women.

This is why a tiny tiny percent of female population is suitable for GWM.com

Be practical, try not to be swallowed by your fetish, accept it for what it is and either live with it or get rid of it. Trying to find out why you are this way means that you don't like it. Do something, don't rationalize or blame society.

PS I forgot to mention an important point, a fetish progresses or changes the more you feed it. A circus performer might was enough when you were a teenager and now you need FBB pros for the same effect.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

Damn... that's some deep doo doo there. I just know that my libido goes completely insane at the sight of a muscular female. Been enamored with muscles on girls since for as long as I can remember. I used to question it.... what's wrong with me? My friends think muscles on girls are gross. Why do I get a sudden jolt of excitement? I no longer question it. I just enjoy the ride and thankfully thousands upon thousands of females in the world think that muscles look good on them too.

Here's the thing though. They don't think muscles on a woman are gross. No one does in my opinion.

Apr 22, 2022 - permalink

Here's the thing though. They don't think muscles on a woman are gross. No one does in my opinion.

Apparently you didn't grow up in my era. Long before the advent of female bodybuilding, the archaic society I lived in, did indeed consider muscles on females as unattractive. Thankfully times are changing but ask anyone here who grew up in my era. My own stinking mother used to call the circus women manly and ugly because they had muscular arms. My mom and the rest of that narrow minded public would have a heart attack seeing the women we see on this site.

Apr 22, 2022 - edited Jul 13, 2024 - permalink

Women are still, statistically, the weaker sex.

Apr 22, 2022 - edited Apr 23, 2022 - permalink

Actually no. Statistically women are the physically weaker sex, plain and simple, and that is not about to change any time soon. That certain rules and expectations have followed from this has been far more to their advantage than disadvantage.

The reason there are different expectations and opportunities for men and women has to do with raising children. If that is entirely unnecessary or we have suddenly evolved past the need for that or children are born naturally civilized with not only good manners, reasoning ability and personal responsibility but also social and emotional maturity then of course we can ditch everything that has to do with the family unit and build an entire society around seeking pleasure.

A very very small minority of women do farm work and only some of them became exceptionally muscular that way.

Nobody has said a single thing about it being somehow right or wrong by rule or by law. On the lowest level of reasoning ability, people are given a list of things they should do and things they should not do. That is, they're given laws. And then they rebel against those laws. Then they either overthrow the lawgiver or they get punished. It is either liberty to do as you please or oppression, to do as you are told.

The slightly more interesting approach is to think of it as a question of morality. There you are supposed to discuss, like I think many here have already done, what end or what purpose does it serve? And I think we have already found many good, reasonable and interesting answers.

Women become muscular usually as a side effect of something else. Hardly any woman does farm work purely for the sake of becoming muscular. Some are obese or anorectic or in some other way mental and see bodybuilding as an escape from that. Some just want to be healthy. Some embrace the fitness and bodybuilding lifestyle. Some like a profession that is somewhere between a sport, modeling and sex work. Some of them do only one thing of these three, some do a combination of all three.

When it is unintended and inconsequential it is neither right nor wrong. It just is. But if it is an escape, an obsession or otherwise unhealthy, then that answers at least part of the question. First step is to know what your goal is. The second step is to evaluate different ways to get there.

There are many valid goals, but I don't consider not understanding what you are doing and stopping others from understanding what you or they are doing to be among them.

Now we have seen that a small minority of them both can do and want to do such jobs and live in a situation where it is practical for both them and their employer. Now they can either keep doing it or consider it proven and find something else to do.

Or they can forever keep on fighting some invisible demon of patriarchy that is impervious to reason, evidence or observation and will always keep on doubting them and telling them what they can't do. In this case I think they deserve each other and I am nobody to ruin it for them.

Still, in the freest and most affluent societies in the world and in all history, most women still gravitate towards all kinds of soft professions that have to do with children, laundry, people, food and flowers. And no matter how much they are pushed to become physical and competitive and then celebrated, it does not seem to be going anywhere. Some girls are having a try at being manly or boyish and some of them enjoy it but the majority are just becoming sad and confused.

Why a woman becomes muscular and why a man likes it are almost completely two different things. Notice that I said almost. Some do it for men. The many reasons why men might like it have also been explored here.

That is, because it resonates with a childhood trauma.

Or because it makes sex with them physically better.

Or because it is an expression of some ideology of liberation.

Or because it makes the women mentally more pleasant and attractive (to look at, to be with, to have sex with).

Or because it makes for an infinite source of powerful porn.

In all these and other new reasons someone might come up with, the first thing is to consider your goal. The second thing is to consider whether what you are doing either constantly gets you there or has at least some potential to eventually get you there.

Traumas are not cured by repetition. Sexual pleasure is sexual pleasure. There is no denying that and no way around it. I might be a representative of some kind of false consciousness but I don't see much liberation happening through this anymore.

@zarklephaser4, do you have any books or articles to recommend on this subject? Your posts have been very informative.

Apr 24, 2022 - edited Jul 13, 2024 - permalink

I can't think of any good books to recommend.

May 02, 2022 - edited Jul 13, 2024 - permalink

People sometimes get addicted to their cravings instead of fulfillments.

May 02, 2022 - permalink

Because they are ridiculously hot?

May 02, 2022 - edited Jul 13, 2024 - permalink

That's part of the question, not part of the answer.

May 02, 2022 - permalink

what scares me more than learning the potential number of people who think Zarkle is more than a piss-taker is in knowing that Zarkle himself believes he's more than a piss-taker.

that said, my contribution to the thread's question is nowhere as imaginative (or far-fetched), but it's as pertinent as it needs to be. for me, attraction is based on preference. it's the same reason i have for almost anything else i enjoy or designate as a favourite hobby, or music, literature, colour, what-have-you. and the reason why i've never tried to explain why i specifically have an affinity for muscular women is the same reason why i've never tried to understand why i enjoy chocolate pudding so much when i can simply spend the same amount of time and effort in the act of enjoying the pudding.

sincere kudos however to Taosbound101 on their publication relating to the topic. if i ever do write in this thread again, it'll probably be in reaction to my thoughts on its content once i've read it (which i'm really looking forward to). i also appreciate the personal accounts people have offered to explain their association to the question (particularly Computatrium and Bigalmusclefan), with whom i can relate through my own history.

if i were curious for a more didactic explanation beyond that, and i wanted to investigate the anthropological roots of my preferential leaning, i think i'd pay a visit to an actual psychologist. in the meantime, the rambling snake oil piss-takes aren't lacking in the amusement department, so do keep them coming!

[deleted]
May 03, 2022 - edited May 03, 2022 - permalink

I'm not going to add a deep insight or a reference of authority, just my take: I like muscled women and also chubby, sometimes. It has to do with femininity+dominance. I prefer a slightly chubby girl over a skinny one because I think (subconsciously) her body is more suitable for bearing children, and also I like to grab ;-)

In the subject of sex, chubby is prone to have prettier chests than skinny bodies, but buffed bodies are "tighter", and that's a whole different level. I have a particular taste for each type of body (two women might have the same build but to me they are completely different). Not every fbb gets me and neither does every "gifted" woman with a few extra pounds.

May 03, 2022 - permalink

I'll try to explain my point of view with my broken english : What i like is the idea of hard work to get these physique. I really enjoy pictures and videos of a sweaty woman in the gym, showing her efforts and how hard it is. That's why fetish stuff with women getting big instantly by drinking a magic potion doesn't work with me for example. It says something about her personality, she is strong-willed and dedicated to her stuff.

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