Living the paradox: female athletes negotiate femininity and muscularity

Sex Roles: A Journal of Research,  March, 2004  by Vikki Krane,  Precilla Y.L. Choi,  Shannon M. Baird,  Christine M. Aimar,  Kerrie J. Kauer

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In addition to being conscious of how much muscle mass they were building, the women were concerned with their body weight. Not only did they perceive themselves as too muscular, they interpreted their body weight negatively regardless of their low body fat. When describing her first reaction to her weight gain from muscle development Tennis Player 3 said:

      When I came in my freshman year and started lifting, it was weird
      because then you develop and you're like 'whoa!' You're very
      self-conscious about getting bigger and 'oh, I'm getting fat or
      I'm getting too big there.'

The following interaction shows how the athletes sometimes misinterpreted body weight:

VB/Hockey Player: Me being 5'11", I weight 187 and so I look at the
  number of the scale and I'm like 'holy crap I'm fat,' but then
  [laughter] we get our fat tested and we find out you're like 15,16,17
  percent body fat and you're like 'oh, okay maybe I'm not that fat.'
  Sometimes you just need that reinforcement, you know that
  reinforcement behind it just to be like 'okay, I'm not fat' right,
  cause you look at the numbers and you're like 'Oh God.'
Swimmer: I agree with her [Laughing].
Rugby Player: You pretty much summed it up [laughing].

The athletes in this study initially felt that their increased body weight was traumatic. They didn't like getting bigger because it detracted from femininity and contradicted the cultural ideal body.

Uniform Concerns

Uniform concerns emerged as a unique category for those athletes who wore "revealing" uniforms (e.g., track, gymnastics, swimming, and volleyball). Uniforms were considered revealing when they were tight and exposed the shape of the women's bodies. These athletes were concerned with how they looked in revealing uniforms, and two different perspectives emerged: (a) they looked too big and (b) they were sexualized in their uniforms.

Athletes described their revealing uniforms in a variety of ways. The runners described their uniform as "butt-huggers, like basically underwear. And then like, a real tight tank top." Gymnast 2 explained that their uniforms were like bathing suits. The tennis players described one of their uniforms as:

Tennis Player 3: Like a miniskirt
Tennis Player 2: 8 inches above your knees, like barely covering your
  butt.

The volley team wore spandex shorts and "short sleeve jerseys which they're starting to get tighter as the years go on."

In these tight and revealing uniforms, the athletes felt "exposed." Distance Runner 2 said: "I was so scared when I saw them. Ours is like a one-piece swimsuit. I was so scared the first time I wore this, I'm like, 'my butt's gonna be jiggling all over the place.'" Similarly, VB/Hockey Player said:

      First day of practice, my coach hands me this pair of spandex
      about this big [indicating very small] and she's like, 'here fit
      your butt into those.' And I'm like, 'I can't even fit my hand
      into those let alone my entire butt.' [laughing] Okay, and I
      almost cried and I put those things on, I walked out, and I'm
      like, 'I don't feel comfortable at all.'