WHAT WOMEN WANT

Canadian pro Lisa Bavington is an emerging voice in the female bodybuilding community, who is seeking to intensify the debate over the foibles and fortunes of her sport. The 29-year-old Toronto resident penned a hard-hitting editorial last fall that appeared on several Web sites and in print, taking a particular corner of the bodybuilding media to task for degrading representations of women in her sport. The positive response from other female bodybuilders was overwhelming, she says."To me it's about sport, about training, about being a competitive athlete. Women want to participate in a sport as athletes and just want to be respected for what they do," says Bavington. "I don't think that's too much to ask for."

While she's quick to point out that she doesn't speak for all female bodybuilders, Bavington wants to help the women in her sport unify and develop a game plan to increase their opportunities. She has set up a networking system on her Web site (www.lisabavington.net), which she hopes will lead to a more supportive atmosphere for female bodybuilders. "The network on my site is an attempt to get us all on the same page, acting as a resource for other women who are looking to develop and support their own future," says Bavington, who runs a mentoring and counseling department at a college in suburban Toronto. "Ultimately, I think we need to form a women's committee within the federation and create a common vision for the sport."

The issues are many. Female bodybuilders feel boxed in by an industry that doesn't know what to do with them. Now with fewer shows on the IFBB schedule, women bodybuilders already must compete against the lure of fitness shows and soon will contend with the clickity-clip of more high heels in the upcoming figure circuit. "Women are being set up against one another," she contends. "Each competition may have different a audience and different opportunities, but we all deserve the same amount of respect. There is an audience for female bodybuilding. It may not be as big as the men, but there are more female bodybuilders and women training with weights than there ever has been in history. We need to take advantage of that." Bavington feels the women should work within the IFBB to strengthen their position
and exert some control over their representation.

Again, it comes back to being judged as athletes and not on traditional standards of attractiveness. "You're going to get great looking girls and you're going to get not so great looking girls, but you can't put a limit on women's physical development," she says. The key to the future of the sport is to tap into the empowerment that's always been a promise of women's bodybuilding. "We get into this sport to develop our physiques and reach our potential as athletes," asserts Bavington, an unapologetic feminist. "Nobody's going to tell me what I'm going to do with my body. It's about having the freedom to choose which physique I want and the opportunity to be able to do it. The problem is that female bodybuilders are letting these negative things happen to our sport. It all starts with a vision and until we determine one, we're going nowhere fast." To contact Lisa Bavington, visit www.lisabavington.net