A Novel Attempt

Anyone who has done P90X knows who Dreya Weber is — for those of you who don’t, here’s a pic:

Now, I realize the “blonde in a bikini pic” can be perceived as a cheap way to get male attention, but you *need* a mental image of Dreya’s (f-AB-ulous) physique to get the full effect of today’s post.

Saturday was my first aerial silk class, after which I informed my still-groggy hubby that we should squeeze a couple extra bucks out of our monthly budget to feed my growing addictions (“Please!  I’ll do anything you want!  I’ll, I’ll… I’ll cook dinner in my undies!  A STEAK dinner!  Pleasepleasepleasepleeeeease?!”).

During class we laughed, we climbed, we covered our hands with sticky “Gorilla Snot” and ewwed off the name with a shake of our fingers before climbing some more — I even got to hang upside down!  After half an hour of this, my rarely-used forearms were quite fatigued, but much of my upper arms and shoulders were still ready for more.  It’s an understatement to say I was pleased with my top half for performing so well, since two months ago I would have tapped out in the first five minutes, if I got that far.

I shared my elation with a few friends, sure we would exchange high-fives and “woot!”s, but was instead surprised by a theme in their reactions: “You keep working out like that, and you’re gonna look like a man.”

Come again?

I’ve gone through several body phases: “Stick-Girl” (grades K-8), “Tall and Busty” (grades 9-13), and “Model Thin” — other’s description, not mine! — (age 19-25).  Each phase, though awkward for me, was deemed a blessing by many of my peers; I always felt a bit guilty for being “thin” without having to try, and plenty of people would inadvertently (I hope) reinforce that guilt by shoving extra servings of cake and pizza at me, chiding that I obviously didn’t eat enough.  But this isn’t about the skinny “curse,” it’s about my confusion as to 1) why having a muscularly fit physique means you “look like a man,” and 2) if having strong shoulders makes you look like a dude, why is that a negative if it allows you to do things that make you happy?

My current body is probably the only one I’ve ever really “worked” for, but it’s getting me more flack from some corners than the ones that just “happened.”  How socially acceptable would it be for people to make fun of an obese person for losing weight?  It’s hard to knock off those pounds, to resist food urges and get out to exercise on a daily basis, so those disciplines should be applauded.  Why then, would someone frown at my physical disciplines and suggest I just do cardio instead of pull-ups?  Cardio is great — I do that too — but it will do little to help me heft my body off the ground and into the air.

And who decided that a body like Dreya’s makes you look like a man?  I mean, really, see hot blonde pic above.  (Perhaps it was the same people who dubbed Sarah Jessica Parker as unforgivably ugly.)  Conversely, if a man *doesn’t* have the upper body strength to hoist himself through the air on colourful fabric, does he look like a woman?

If beauty is only skin deep, then apparently X-ray vision is copyrighted by Superman, and he’s not sharing it enough.

Our bodies are a manifestation of the goals we pursue in life.  I’m proud that my body is finally, after 26 years, reflecting my love for a physical activity (or, I should say, activit-ies), because it’s proof I’ve found something I truly enjoy.  Life is about finding your Bliss; if my Bliss makes me look like a man, well, at least that might explain my enjoyment of the ever-androgynous David Bowie.