Fashioning the Body: Versions of the Citizen, the Self, and the Subject

One of the things I found interesting about Pumping Iron was the sort of preservation of femininity contrasting with masculine imagery.  By this I mean the way most of the women wore their bright blush and vivid shimmery eyeshadow and had pearly-pink long nails, while also exhibiting taut muscles and strong, structured legs.  Some of the times when the camera would be slowly panning up to the face of one of the female bodybuilders, I would admittedly mistake the legs for a man's.  Femininity was never clearly defined in this film, but some of the things I associate with femininity were present; the aforementioned use of cosmetics, as well as hairsprays, jewelery, bikinis, and excited chatter about getting married all surfaced in this film.  Taking these things into account, Bev Francis was the most unfeminine of the female bodybuilders.  The majority of the judges were too threatened by the level to which she had taken her muscles and form.  The other girls were safer alternatives, with pretty faces and less-masculine profiles than Bev.  The facial expressions of some of the judges implied that there is a point that female body-builders can reach before they are no longer seen as female; they are no longer feminine "enough."  They've gone "too far."