I cannot stop thinking about this 2009 survey about women's bodies

What does "bulky" mean, anyway?

Jessica Biel—36% of respondents said she defined “bulky” in 2009.

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I’m working on a larger piece about celebrities right now, so I guess I’ve got famous people on the brain. I stumbled upon this article recently, and it’s been cozied up by the fireplace in my head since. Writer Leigh Peele took a poll of 2,000 women in 2009 asking them whether they lift weights, if they think muscles on women are attractive, and which celebrity bodies they like looking at the most.

Asked, “Of these women, who do you feel defines muscular/bulky?”, 36% of women said Jessica Biel, and 43% said Hilary Swank.

Hilary Swank—43% of respondents said she defined “bulky” in 2009.

Some other takeaways:

Is it possible to sigh with enough intensity to crack a rib?

Also, when asked, “Whose body do you like looking at the most?” a plurality of women (35%) said Jessica Alba. Circa 2009, Jessica Alba looked like this:

Jessica Biel and Jessica Alba probably could have shared clothes. They’re both straight-size, slender women who were at the top of all the aughts Hot Girl lists. That Jessica Biel had some shoulder and bicep definition and the tiniest shade of a V-cut was enough to land her in the “bulky” category in 2009, back when 41% of women in that survey said they “never” think muscles are attractive on women. Another heaving sigh.

Why is this so wild to me? Here’s what we’ve going on in the “women with muscles” conversation these days:

Nicole Kidman just covered Perfect magazine at age 55, and she brought weapons:

It’s truly the Age of Arms in Hollywood, isn’t it?:

Mikala Jamison @notjameson

Can't tell you how stoked I am on the "muscular arms" development for women in cinéma

When “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” was unveiled, some clamored for her to bigger, for God’s sake.

She’s just, like…a small woman with nice triceps!?!

(I agree, but as a powerlifter, I don’t necessarily think she should look like a powerlifter. She should look like a classic Bodybuilding stage competitor.)

Mikala Jamison @notjameson

Let's clear something up about #SheHulk: No, she shouldn't look like a powerlifter, necessarily. Lots of powerlifters move huge numbers but aren't huge. They made her look like a Bikini division competitor (L) & she should look more like a Bodybuilding division competitor (R)

We’ve got Adele telling Oprah she deadlifts. All the artist girlies are deadlifting! [If you don’t read the She’s A Beast newsletter there, run don’t walk.] Women having muscles is cool now, it’s hot now. We’ve come a long way in 13 years. I shudder to imagine what those 2009 women would think of, for instance, a woman like six-time CrossFit Games winner Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr:

Run me over with your car, etc., etc.

Now, a few things: I personally think it’s fabulous that women with muscles are more widely accepted now than in 2009. I’m a muscular woman myself. But just as I don’t think it’s psychologically healthy to idolize thin bodies, I don’t think it is to idolize muscular ones, even if I’m guilty of it. Famous women like Nicole Kidman and professional athletes like Tia-Claire have abundant resources, support, money-based motivations, and time to devote to shredding up; looking like Nicole, for example, still requires a person to have very low body fat. A lot of professional athletes and movie stars bulking up for the Marvel Cinematic Universe are likely on performance and physique-enhancing drugs (you still have to work really hard in the gym to look like Thor, even if you’ve got some gym juice helping you out). I’ve shifted from wanting to look thin to wanting to look muscular, but I still place a lot of value on what my body looks like either way. That’s something I’m working on.

Further, that the culture is shifting right now to a “women with muscles are cool, actually” place does not suggest a permanent change. (It’s simultaneously shifting back into an early-aughts obsession with thinness, we’re seeing, so this is all rather maddening.) Body types and shapes are unfortunately treated as trends, and I believe that this muscle moment is going to shift soon enough into some other body shape moment that will cause a lot of us to feel badly about ourselves for being unable to achieve a particular look without surgery or physical and mental duress.

“Bulky” in 2009 clearly meant something like “Has any muscular definition whatsoever.” Now, with the ascendance of women with muscles in mainstream media and the popularity of weight-training among women on the rise, I don’t know what a poll of 2,000 women in 2022 would say “bulky” looks like. It also doesn’t matter. Being a very muscular woman is fine, just as being a fat or thin one or tall one is. A fear of “bulk” is driven by the idea that women should be dainty wisps who shouldn’t have muscles because muscles are for men. This is where the idea of “toning” muscles comes from — toning is not actually a thing. If you’re “toning” your muscles, you are growing your muscles (and probably losing body fat). But marketers were hip to the notion that building muscle was something that freaked women out, so toning was born. To hell with all that.

The bottom line, as always: Do whatever you want with and to your own body. Jump on the muscular woman moment if you please, not because it’s on-trend. It’ll probably become passé at some point, and who cares, but at least you could be left with all the non-aesthetic benefits strength training provides.

Leigh’s survey was, after all, mostly about aesthetics — who women like to look at, how they like to look, whether men like looking at certain body types. We’re all entitled to our own looks-based preferences for our bodies, but looks fade. I’m excited about a muscular woman moment because I like to think that means more women are experiencing the joys and daily living applications of strength training. In your old age, how you cared for your own body is going to matter a hell of a lot more than what percentage of people liked to look at you.