{"id":41870,"date":"2011-12-04T12:49:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-04T17:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=41870"},"modified":"2015-09-19T23:24:50","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T04:24:50","slug":"behind-the-perfect-body-models-and-bodybuilders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2011\/12\/04\/behind-the-perfect-body-models-and-bodybuilders\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the &#8220;Perfect&#8221; Body: Models and BodyBuilders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In a link sent in by Anjan G., Victoria&#8217;s Secret model\u00a0Adriana Lima explains what she does in the months prior to walking the catwalk (<a href=\"http:\/\/fashion.telegraph.co.uk\/news-features\/TMG8872623\/Victorias-Secret-show-What-does-it-take-to-be-a-Victorias-Secret-Angel.html\" target=\"_blank\">source<\/a>). \u00a0 Here&#8217;s a summary:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>For months before the show, she works out every day with a personal trainer; for the three weeks before, she works out twice a day.<\/li>\n<li>A nutritionist gives her\u00a0protein shakes, vitamins and supplements to help her body cope with the work out schedule.<\/li>\n<li>She drinks a gallon of water a day.<\/li>\n<li>For the final nine days before the show, she consumes only protein shakes.<\/li>\n<li>Two days before the show, she begins drinking water at a normal rate; for the final 12 hours, she drinks no water at all. \u00a0She loses up to eight pounds during this time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <a href=\"http:\/\/fashion.telegraph.co.uk\/news-features\/TMG8872623\/Victorias-Secret-show-What-does-it-take-to-be-a-Victorias-Secret-Angel.html\" target=\"_blank\">result<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Lima&#8217;s training and nutrition regimen reveal that the look that is believed by some to be the epitome of feminine accomplishment &#8212; the look required to be a Victoria&#8217;s Secret Angel &#8212; is accompanied by significant physical strain. \u00a0Lima <em>looks <\/em>as she is supposed to on the runway, but she is also dehydrated and hungry.<\/p>\n<p>The story reminded me of this photograph, taken by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.zednelson.com\/?LoveMe:31\" target=\"_blank\">Zed Nelson<\/a>. \u00a0It shows Ronnie Coleman, immediately after walking off the stage at the Mr. Olympia competition, breathing through an oxygen mask. \u00a0He would take first place. \u00a0Explaining the photograph, Nelson writes:<\/p>\n<div>\n<blockquote><p>Oxygen administered to exhausted contestants during \ufb01nal round of judging. The strain of intense dieting, dehydration and muscle-\ufb02exing, places high levels of strain on the heart and lungs, rendering many contestants dizzy, light-headed and weak.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<p>Bodybuilders often have extreme and rigid exercise and diet plans in the months preceding a contest. \u00a0In those months, a male bodybuilder&#8217;s goal is to make himself <em>appear <\/em>as strong as possible. He must balance his body&#8217;s functional needs with his aesthetic goals, and sometimes the latter wins over the former.<\/p>\n<p>Male bodybuilders and female models, then, represent aesthetic extremes of masculinity and femininity, but their bodies aren&#8217;t the natural extension of male and female physicalities. Instead, achieving the look require significant <em>sacrifice <\/em>of one&#8217;s body. \u00a0In other words, they look fit and strong, but looks can be deceiving.<\/p>\n<p>See also: \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2008\/11\/29\/an-entitlement-to-the-right-to-define-and-consume-female-beauty\/\">criticism of female body builders and the right to consume women&#8217;s beauty<\/a>.<\/p>\n<span class=\"ft_signature\"><em><a href=\"http:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/\">Lisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/American-Hookup-New-Culture-Campus\/dp\/039328509X?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">American Hookup<\/a><em>, a book about college sexual culture; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Gender-Interactions-Institutions-Lisa-Wade\/dp\/0393931072?ie=UTF8&amp;*Version*=1&amp;*entries*=0\">textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/lisa-wade.com\/intro\/\">Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a><em>.\u00a0You can follow her on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lisawade\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisawadephd\/\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a link sent in by Anjan G., Victoria&#8217;s Secret model\u00a0Adriana Lima explains what she does in the months prior to walking the catwalk (source). \u00a0 Here&#8217;s a summary: For months before the show, she works out every day with a personal trainer; for the three weeks before, she works out twice a day. A [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[218,2103,2096,2087],"class_list":["post-41870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bodies","tag-gender-bodies","tag-gender-femininity","tag-gender-masculinity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41870"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67912,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41870\/revisions\/67912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}