Why Muscles Are Not Disgusting

That used to be my back. Formerly. In the past. Not currently.

Once upon a time I went formal dress shopping with my roommate and good friend (who also happens to be an Olympic gold medalist…you guessed it! Alyssa Anderson). We were in search of elegance worthy of the Golden Goggles, the USA Swimming’s annual awards banquet. Tucson’s selection of formal wear is sub par, so we were scouring the area and willing to dive into the ugliest racks of dresses hoping there would be one out-of-place gem. We found ourselves in Maya Palace, a place that seemingly catered to quinceaneras and Indian weddings. But we gave the place a whirl…

A store clerk spoke to us from the other side of our dressing room’s velvet curtain:

Internally, I wanted to aggressively reach through the curtain, grab her shoulders and demand why she didn’t like female swimmer physiques, but she has the right to her own opinion. I say that, but as we drove away, I was really offended by her statement.

I spent thousands of hours honing my craft. I left buckets of my sweat in the pool, the weight room, the stadium steps, and the hottest pavement; all in the name of swimming faster. Byproducts of this regimen are: broad shoulders, heightened traps, pronounced biceps and triceps, massive lats, no butt, protrusive thighs, killer abs, straw-like hair, and ridiculous tan lines. I did not choose to swim because I wanted to be mistaken for a body builder. I chose to swim because I was good at it, and I wanted to be better.

The CrossFit Games are happening as I type. Take a gander at some of those girls… they are ripped! As are the dudes. I do not do CrossFit, nor do I endorse it, but some of the physiques out there make me feel like I’m looking at an anatomy textbook. One in-competition photo of a gal, who has worked her booty off (but not really, it’s perky and muscular), was getting a lot of hate for being so bulky. So “disgusting.”

We’re living in a so-called age of tolerance. But women who put on too much muscle are disgusting. It’s as if people think this woman came out of the womb with hulking muscles and is an untouchable. Let’s look at the means to that end….she has spent years crafting her body into a machine capable of all of the crazy feats CrossFitters must do at the games.

Here are the contradictory voices I’m hearing everywhere:

Maybe you’ve heard of the out-of-touch blog created by Gwyneth Paltrow called goop. There’s a hilarious commentary of Gwynnie’s cleanse out there, which you should read if you’ve got time to belly laugh.

While on goop I ran across a Q & A from Gwyneth’s trainer Tracy Anderson. Tracy lost most of my respect within a few moments of scanning her answers:

Tracy is quick to be the judge of which muscles look good and which look bad. I take a personal interest in muscle mass because I have quite a lot of it, thanks to my strong Swedish mama and my built-like-an-ox, linebacker daddy. In order for me to “design feminine muscles” I would need to run marathons, survive on a liquid diet, and try not to pick up anything heavier than 5 pounds because my biceps are excitable. 

Yes, I’m being defensive because for years and years I was ashamed of my muscles. My arms flexed when I put a pen to paper and my classmates never failed to make a verbal jab.  I know, you’re saying “rough life, Annie,” but being a gawky, yet muscular girl in middle school really sucked. I stuck out, which is the last thing you want to do in middle school. 

One regret from my swimming days is being self-conscious of muscles that developed to capacity because I was working so dang hard. You should never have to defend yourself for becoming stronger as you work toward a goal. I love the shift our generation is making from “feminine” soft lines to defined, hard bodies. Although I’m not a CrossFitter myself, I am authentically grateful for what the CrossFit community has done for female empowerment. It feels so good to be strong. The more women discover that, the less society will be horrified by a girl toting evidence of hard work. I would rather have big biceps than lunch lady arms any day.