Chick on chicks

Flex, Sept, 2005 by Julian Schmidt

Be careful what you wish for, or you might get it. You wanted BOB CICHERILLO to serve as an athletes representative who speaks out. Now live with him. Not a month goes by that Bob the Bold doesn't look down the barrel of his eyes and pick off another sacred cow with his special brand of cuddly diplomacy: this time, it's women's bodybuilding.

Cicherillo explains, "It has never been viable. Year after year, women's bodybuilding has consistently lost money. One year, the Ms. Olympia sold 38 tickets ... 38! So the fans have spoken: from a business perspective, it doesn't make sense, because it doesn't survive; nor can it survive.

"'It's a niche market,' say its advocates. No, men's bodybuilding has its niche market; women's bodybuilding has no market; what little market it has is made up of schmoes and fetishists. Women's bodybuilding is an oxymoron. Nothing in the term or the concept matches up. Beautiful, sexy and muscular do not make a harmonious package. Notice the hopeless desperate trend: when women's bodybuilding became bestial and alienated all interest, women's fitness had to be created to fill the gap. When that became too muscular and abandoned its audience, it had to be replaced with figure. What's next, bikini contests?

"There's something to be said when Ms. Olympia herself, Lenda Murray--a lovely feminine lady--drops out of the sport because it has become ugly. Sure, they train hard, but they should be trying to become better women, not better men. End it, once and for all. It's dragging down the entire sport."