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Unquestionably. At least in the U.S. I'm 51 years old and when I was a teenager you had to hide the fact you were into muscular girls. Girls who had visible muscles were usually ashamed of them. Female bodybuilders existed, but they were really on the fringe. I remember buying Women's Physique World magazine or finding VHS tapes from the few companies back then. It was like a cup of water in a huge dry desert. Forget telling anyone you were into muscle girls, you'd be immediately branded as a homosexual, unless it was someone who knew you really well---in which case they'd still think you were weird.
Flash forward to today, girls are flexing everywhere all over social media. "Muscle mommies" are literally common. Most guys who are into it aren't ashamed to say it. Sure, some insecure meatheads still call you gay or say 'that's a man', but it's like 5-10% of what we had back in the day.
There is NO question at all that muscular women are well on their way to becoming "mainstream" in western society (if they're not already there). It depends on what you mean by "mainstream", but there is ZERO doubt in my mind that tremendous progress has been made and it's heading in the right direction at full speed.
Unquestionably. At least in the U.S. I'm 51 years old and when I was a teenager you had to hide the fact you were into muscular girls. Girls who had visible muscles were usually ashamed of them. Female bodybuilders existed, but they were really on the fringe. I remember buying Women's Physique World magazine or finding VHS tapes from the few companies back then. It was like a cup of water in a huge dry desert. Forget telling anyone you were into muscle girls, you'd be immediately branded as a homosexual, unless it was someone who knew you really well---in which case they'd still think you were weird.
Flash forward to today, girls are flexing everywhere all over social media. "Muscle mommies" are literally common. Most guys who are into it aren't ashamed to say it. Sure, some insecure meatheads still call you gay or say 'that's a man', but it's like 5-10% of what we had back in the day.
There is NO question at all that muscular women are well on their way to becoming "mainstream" in western society (if they're not already there). It depends on what you mean by "mainstream", but there is ZERO doubt in my mind that tremendous progress has been made and it's heading in the right direction at full speed.
Yeah, this is precisely my thinking. I honestly feel like I was born at just the right time in regards to being attracted to muscular women lol. I was watching the 1984 movie "Getting Physical," and it was crazy to me seeing how ridiculed the main character was despite having hardly any muscle mass.
Yes. Go to any major US airport or Whole Foods and you’re bound to run into one.
By "muscular," I more so mean someone who clearly exercises regularly and has a impressive amount of obvious muscle tone and development. Or maybe another example would be that of a women is who more muscular and toned that the average healthy-weight man who doesn't lift weights regularly.
I would like to see examples for curiosity's sake of what you consider to be that type of musculature.
As someone who is into strength sports (I train and also compete,) while there are more women in the weight room than there were at little as two decades ago, I don't think muscular women is "mainstream" in the most accurate sense of the word. How many times do you see visibly muscular women when you're going about your day away from your computer?
Flash forward to today, girls are flexing everywhere all over social media. "Muscle mommies" are literally common.
It's the algorithms that are throwing all that "muscle mommy" content your way. If you show an interest in muscular women and search for them, the algorithms will insure that your feed is dominated by them. It's a confirmation bias.
Trust me, I WANT and would love for muscular women to be mainstream and common. But again, while women are encouraged more than ever to lift, visibly buff women are in the minority. And the vast majority of women who lift also do not take PEDs, so they are not going to sport the kind of physiques that we see here, even among the smaller women. I honestly think sites like this skew what is achievable naturally and inflates our expectations on what we consider muscular.
And just because there are examples out there of muscular women in pop culture and sports, it doesn't make for them being mainstream. I love Dungeons and Dragons, and shows like Stranger Things and the emergence of webseries like Critical Role have made it more popular than ever, but it's still a niche interest where most people wouldn't know what an AC or a saving throw is.
Unquestionably. At least in the U.S. I'm 51 years old and when I was a teenager you had to hide the fact you were into muscular girls. Girls who had visible muscles were usually ashamed of them. Female bodybuilders existed, but they were really on the fringe. I remember buying Women's Physique World magazine or finding VHS tapes from the few companies back then. It was like a cup of water in a huge dry desert. Forget telling anyone you were into muscle girls, you'd be immediately branded as a homosexual, unless it was someone who knew you really well---in which case they'd still think you were weird.
I am in my 50s and have always lived in the U.S. This statement is so accurate as to how it was to be into muscle girls at the time.
No I just saw a video were a guy rejected a total goddess because she was too muscular in favor of a very skinny woman. I never see muscular women in person seems like they are less than 0.001% of the population. if videos with fbbs get more than 1 million viewers most of the comments are haters. but most get less views because they are only watched by fans. Things are basically just as bad as in 1990 nothing changed apart from having more videos that don't have to appeal to everyone. in the past you either had to follow the mainstream or become very lonely.
Subjective question of course, but to clarify, by "muscular" I don't necessarily mean someone at the level of bodybuilding or physique divisions, nor someone with a body fat level low enough to be stage-level.
By "muscular," I more so mean someone who clearly exercises regularly and has a impressive amount of obvious muscle tone and development. Or maybe another example would be that of a women is who more muscular and toned that the average healthy-weight man who doesn't lift weights regularly.
Do you believe that women with at least this level of development are mainstream? Or at least far, far more compared to previous decades?
Based upon this definition, absolutely.
When I was in high school and college in the early-late 2000s it was fairly common to see women lifting weights but it was mostly due to sports teams they were on and not by choice. As I've mentioned previously when I was in high school (across all 4 years) there were maybe 5 or 6 female students of note in terms of muscle and this was a school with 1,400+ students so I'm really talking 5 or 6 out of maybe 2,000 given senior classes graduating. Today you have lots of young women who want to lift and want to be 'muscular'. In the summer months I see noticeably fit/'muscular' women all the time.
Unquestionably. At least in the U.S. I'm 51 years old and when I was a teenager you had to hide the fact you were into muscular girls. Girls who had visible muscles were usually ashamed of them. Female bodybuilders existed, but they were really on the fringe. I remember buying Women's Physique World magazine or finding VHS tapes from the few companies back then. It was like a cup of water in a huge dry desert. Forget telling anyone you were into muscle girls, you'd be immediately branded as a homosexual, unless it was someone who knew you really well---in which case they'd still think you were weird.
Flash forward to today, girls are flexing everywhere all over social media. "Muscle mommies" are literally common. Most guys who are into it aren't ashamed to say it. Sure, some insecure meatheads still call you gay or say 'that's a man', but it's like 5-10% of what we had back in the day.
There is NO question at all that muscular women are well on their way to becoming "mainstream" in western society (if they're not already there). It depends on what you mean by "mainstream", but there is ZERO doubt in my mind that tremendous progress has been made and it's heading in the right direction at full speed.
Excellent response. Pretty much the same in Australia now. With girls/women playing in all four football codes right up to the elite professional level, abd the advent of crossfit and the like, a muscular woman is not viewed as something bizarre anymore. Some of the women at my gym lift heavy (with hypertrophy their obvious intention), rarely hit the cardio studio, and talk openly about being as muscular as the can be. I still don't openly share my feelings about GWMs or FBBs, though, but that's more about my insecurities than whether they are more mainstream or not. Thanks for kicking off this thread. It's a great one.
I do believe that muscular women are becoming mainstream, to an extent. You're seeing them in more movies, the occasional TV show, and video games, but they are rarely ever the main character or top billing (so to speak). The overall population will still take an established actress who went through some training over a FBB with hardly any experience, especially now that we've seen more and more martial artists / athletes on YouTube doing their thing, the audience is gonna want more than just (muscular) eye candy.
Sydney Sweeney, the 2024 Hollywood 'it' girl is currently putting on muscle for a role; I would say that's gotta representat mainstream acceptance.
I think it is becoming more visible, certainly in the last few years - however I think it will never be as common as we'd all like, not least because most of the population (me included) are far too lazy to put in the required dedication.
I'd say it may get to the stage where you see a female bodybuilder in public as often as you'd see a male one now - I don't know about anyone else but for me even that's not very often
Do you believe that women with at least this level of development are mainstream? Or at least far, far more compared to previous decades?
"Are they now mainstream?" and "Are they now far more mainstream than in previous decades?" are two very different questions.
Genuinely hard to answer this poll without knowing which question is being asked.
They are becoming mainstream, mostly because fitness has become more mainstream.
Unquestionably. At least in the U.S. I'm 51 years old and when I was a teenager you had to hide the fact you were into muscular girls. Girls who had visible muscles were usually ashamed of them. Female bodybuilders existed, but they were really on the fringe. I remember buying Women's Physique World magazine or finding VHS tapes from the few companies back then. It was like a cup of water in a huge dry desert. Forget telling anyone you were into muscle girls, you'd be immediately branded as a homosexual, unless it was someone who knew you really well---in which case they'd still think you were weird.
Flash forward to today, girls are flexing everywhere all over social media. "Muscle mommies" are literally common. Most guys who are into it aren't ashamed to say it. Sure, some insecure meatheads still call you gay or say 'that's a man', but it's like 5-10% of what we had back in the day.
There is NO question at all that muscular women are well on their way to becoming "mainstream" in western society (if they're not already there). It depends on what you mean by "mainstream", but there is ZERO doubt in my mind that tremendous progress has been made and it's heading in the right direction at full speed.
I'm 46 so this post resonates with me. I can remember going to Barnes and Noble (A bookstore for you younger ones), and secretly looking through Women's Physique Mag but never buying one. Heck, it was just maybe 4 years ago when some friends would chide me about "the type of women I like" but nowadays I am very open about it. Since growing up, if you were a guy into women with muscles, people would say you were gay. Maybe some of that happens now, but because the community of people into muscle is so much larger, it's easier to find people who share your fascination.
Yes. Go to any major US airport or Whole Foods and you’re bound to run into one.
Yes, airports. Fit muscular girls love to flaunt their muscles in airports. It's each one is trying to outdo the others. It's fun to sit back and watch how many of the people in the airports get an eyeful when a muscular girl walks by. Female muscle is definitely going mainstream.
It's the algorithms that are throwing all that "muscle mommy" content your way. If you show an interest in muscular women and search for them, the algorithms will insure that your feed is dominated by them. It's a confirmation bias.
Yeah, I write SEO content for a living. I understand how the Internet and social media works LOL. I don't think everyone is seeing muscle mommy content to the degree I am.
The point is, women like that were 1 in 10,000,000 30-40 years ago. Now they're maybe... 1 in 100,000. I didn't mean to imply that they are literally common and on every corner. Only that they are well on their way and far more common than they were a few decades ago and heading in the right direction.
Trust me, I WANT and would love for muscular women to be mainstream and common. But again, while women are encouraged more than ever to lift, visibly buff women are in the minority. And the vast majority of women who lift also do not take PEDs, so they are not going to sport the kind of physiques that we see here, even among the smaller women. I honestly think sites like this skew what is achievable naturally and inflates our expectations on what we consider muscular.
You may have me mistaken with someone else who thinks that the women on this site are mainstream or somehow represent the norm. I never meant to imply that, if I did.
But the fact remains that the average person is far less shocked by a muscular woman today than they once were. Far more women actually aspire to take their fitness to that level than ever before.
We can perhaps disagree on the level of progress that's been made, but no one can reasonable assert that things haven't changed.
I think the explosion in popularity of CrossFit has helped tremendously. Half of the "battle" is right in the name: CrossFit. It's not "bodybuilding." I think that helps throw off the stigmatic misnomers along the lines of "I want to work out but I don't want to get 'too big.'" More people are discovering how much fun functional strength - as opposed to "show strength" (bodybuilding) - can be in daily life. A much larger percent of people (in the states, anyway) have also suddenly become more interested and attentive to what they put into their bodies in terms of food and its sourcing (and that's taking into account that the US has one of the highest, if not the highest, obesity rate.
Then you get people like Dani Speegle and Christmas Abbot walking in fashion shows - it all adds up in little bits.
Subjective question of course, but to clarify, by "muscular" I don't necessarily mean someone at the level of bodybuilding or physique divisions, nor someone with a body fat level low enough to be stage-level.
By "muscular," I more so mean someone who clearly exercises regularly and has a impressive amount of obvious muscle tone and development. Or maybe another example would be that of a women is who more muscular and toned that the average healthy-weight man who doesn't lift weights regularly.
Do you believe that women with at least this level of development are mainstream? Or at least far, far more compared to previous decades?
A yes or a no is a pretty black-and-white poll option, but I'm curious to get the opinion out here (on this highly biased forum).
I'm of the opinion that the answer is generally yes, at least in regards to millennials and younger generations. Sydney Sweeney's recent transformation for her upcoming boxing movie prompted this post, but the transformations of other celebrities for buffed-up female roles, the celebration of muscular athletes like Simone Biles, and the social media presence of muscular women online ("muscle mommy" trend, etc.) also play a significant factor.
The first two factors of course existed for decades now, but I feel that there much more common and intense now. I don't believe a movie like "Love Lies Bleeding" couldn't have seen a wide release outside of the past few years for examples.
Feel free to dissent with nuances in the comments below.