Who Killed Women's Bodybuilding?
Source: Article Source

FLEX Magazine – March 2003
FEMALE TROUBLE

The most positive force in the global bodybuilding community just may be its women. Too bad they aren't treated that way.

Consider this exchange between magazine editors in the offices of Weider Publications.

Editor 1: "Who killed women's bodybuilding?"

Editor 2: "Women bodybuilders"

While this snide conversational snippet is noticeable for its condescending, dismissive attitude towards its subject, what's fascinating about this put-down of women's bodybuilding is the year it took place: 1993. The editors quoted anonymously above no longer work for Weider and are actually out of the sport altogether. Women's bodybuilding, on the other hand, is still very much with us. Despite dwindling opportunities for IFBB professional women bodybuilders onstage and in print, the numbers of female competitors on the NPC level remain consistently strong. This year, 66 women bodybuilders competed in the USA Championships, 18 more than the number of USA fitness competitors. Not that the doomsayers of the sport haven't had reason to call in Dr. Kevorkian to finish it off.

In 1999, the Ms. Olympia, the sport's premiere contest, was suddenly cancelled, then hastily resurrected two weeks later in New Jersey. The crisis hastened the retirement of four-time Ms. Olympia Kim Chizevsky, perhaps the greatest female bodybuilder of all time. Chizevsky, as fans of the sport know, now competes in fitness contests. This near-death experience prompted the IFBB to implement drastic changes to all professional women's bodybuilding shows. Beginning in 2000, all contests would be required to feature weight classes, and the Ms. Olympia was to be bundled in with the Olympia Weekend to avoid it from withering on the vine alone. More tellingly, new guidelines for athlete presentation were introduced, including attention to makeup, hair and other aesthetic considerations considered to be traditionally feminine.