Kellie Everts brought forth Female Bodybuilding by taking the idea to the mainstream media, where it entered into our culture permanently; women will never be the same. Kellie Everts was honored in 2007 as The Progenitor of Female Body Building, the one who got Modern Competitive Female Body Building started, by the World Body Building Guild, (founded by Dan Lurie.)

Females with large muscles evoke strong reactions from men and women, often involving disgust, discomfort, anger and threat. The controversial nature of female bodybuilding has caused a significant rupture on feminist ground. Whilst proponents claim that female bodybuilding is a way of empowering and liberating women, others see it as a form of corporeal entrapment. This book investigates the controversy. Do women who pump iron resist physical restrictions of imposed femininity, or are they engaged in an ultimately oppressive quest for ‘perfect bodies’? In an original two year ethnographic study based in the South of England, Tanya Bunsell immersed herself into the world of female bodybuilders. By mapping these extraordinary women’s lives, the research illuminates the pivotal spaces and essential lived experiences that make up the female bodybuilder. Whilst the women appear to be embarking on an ‘empowering’ radical body project for themselves, the consequences of their activity remains culturally ambivalent. This research exposes the ‘Janus-faced’ nature of female bodybuilding, exploring the ways in which the women negotiate, accommodate and resist pressures to engage in more orthodox and feminine activities and appearances. This book will be of interest to academics and students in the fields of gender studies, the sociology of sport, the body and research methodology.

Women with muscles are a recent phenomenon. While generating a good deal of interest, both positive and negative, their importance to the cultural landscape has yet to be acknowledged. Leslie Heywood looks at female body building as a metaphor for how women fare in our current political and cultural climate. BODYMAKERS reveals how female bodybuilders find themselves both trapped and empowered by their sport. 14 illustrations.

GOD SAID TO MOSES, YOU CANNOT SEE ME & LIVE- BUT GURU RASA VON WERDER SAW GOD & LIVED, AS GOD'S MEANING IS YOU CANNOT LIVE TO FLESH & SEE ME AS I AM, FACE TO FACE, YOU MUST GIVE UP ALL ATTACHMENT TO FLESH & THEN YOU CAN SEE ME- & SO RASA EXPLAINS IN DETAIL THE PROCESS OF PRAYER & EMPTINESS WHICH LEADS TO THIS REALIZATION -- THIS STATE IS THE MOST SUBLIME HUMAN CAN REACH AS NOT ONLY MUST ONE RISE ABOVE THE FLESH, BUT ALSO, MUST BE CLOTHED IN GLORY AS MARY OF AGREDA EXPLAINS IN THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD

The Enigma of a Grace Which Means Martyrdom...If there's any grace understood the least, it's the Divine Stigmata.Why would it be understood so little? Perhaps because there are so few recipients, & most of them are from the middle ages-In a word, I'll tell you what it is: Martyrdom. If you can understand voluntary martyrdom, then you know what Divine Stigmata means, stands for, & why IT IS GIVEN. A recent symbol of martyrdom has been St Maximilian Kolbe, who volunteered death in place of another. It does irk me that "scholars" rivet on physical wounds, as if the qualities there hold the answers. How can study of the wounds of Christ explain his psychological, mental & emotional dimensions; the Love therein, the willingness to DIE FOR LOVE. Therefore, the secret & the key to understanding DIVINE STIGMATA is the WILLINGNESS TO SUFFER, TO GIVE UP ALL, TO DIE FOR LOVE; FOR THE SAKE OF SAVING ANOTHER. If you can fathom this, you have the answer.

“Map[s] the shifting definitions of gender and masculinity . . . provides the rare insight into the world of bodybuilding that only an insider could offer.” —Sport in American History For most of the twentieth century, the “Mr. America” image epitomized muscular manhood. From humble beginnings in 1939 at a small gym in Schenectady, New York, the Mr. America Contest became the world’s premier bodybuilding event over the next thirty years. Rooted in ancient Greek virtues of health, fitness, beauty, and athleticism, it showcased some of the finest specimens of American masculinity. Interviewing nearly one hundred major figures in the physical culture movement (including twenty-five Mr. Americas) and incorporating copious printed and manuscript sources, John D. Fair has created the definitive study of this iconic phenomenon. Revealing the ways in which the contest provided a model of functional and fit manhood, Mr. America captures the event’s path to idealism and its slow descent into obscurity. As the 1960s marked a turbulent transition in American society—from the civil rights movement to the rise of feminism and increasing acceptance of homosexuality—Mr. America changed as well. Exploring the influence of other bodily displays, such as the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia contests and the Miss America Pageant, Fair focuses on commercialism, size obsession, and drugs that corrupted the competition’s original intent. Accessible and engaging, Mr. America is a compelling portrayal of the glory days of American muscle. “An entertaining narrative of the bodybuilding subculture in America.” —Kirkus Reviews “Deftly written and superbly researched.” —Journal of Sport History