"A feer question, and one that in recent weeks has been much on muy muynd."
-Monty Python's Flying Circus
One of the stories I remember reading about why the movie Star Wars was made said that George Lucas and his friend, producer Gary Kurtz, both fans of "Flash Gordon"-style space adventure movies, noticed that no one was making such movies; they naturally decided to make one themselves. If it was at all successful, they reasoned, they could then enjoy watching all the imitations and rip-offs that were sure to follow. How much truth that story actually contained I can't vouch for (the Hollywood hype machine being what it is), but that's the basic reason I created the characters I have, including Satin Steele.
I am a fan of women's bodybuilding, and of women bodybuilders. I can't explain what attracts me to them, any more than anyone can "explain" anything as subjective as what one person finds attractive about another. All I know is, a woman with large, strong, well-developed muscles (especially biceps) is just as attractive and sexy to me as a woman with large breasts is to most other guys. Don't get me wrong, I like the big bosoms too; but (in case you haven't noticed) comics, movies and TV are already well-supplied with women that fit that narrow fashion-model/Playboy-playmate definition of female beauty, while women that sport bodybuilder-quality muscle get short shrift. (And here's what really galls me: actresses like Linda Hamilton are given excited coverage of the workout regimens that allow them to get a little bit "buffed" for an action-movie role like "Sarah Connor" in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, while women like six-time Ms. Olympia winner Cory Everson, with acting credits like "Atalanta" in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys are ignored by the same entertainment reporters.) And when a true muscle-woman does get a movie or TV role, it's usually as an unsavory character: a villain's henchwoman (Cory Everson again, in the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle Double Impact), killer android, "ex-girlfriend from hell", that sort of thing.
[To my mind, the best role a woman bodybuilder has ever had in movies or TV is Raye Hollitt's "Lonnie Jones" in Blake Edward's movie Skin Deep starring John Ritter as "Zach". Lonnie was one of Zach's lovers, and one of the few women in the movie that wasn't trying to either kill or ruin him (quite the opposite, in fact). (The movie itself plays like it was supposed to be a sequel to 10, but got rewritten because they couldn't get Dudley Moore or Bo Derek to reprise their roles. For me, Raye Hollitt was one of the few reasons I'd want to watch Skin Deep again.]
The situation is starting to improve in comics. More and more artists are "fleshing out" their female characters with hints of at least "fitness"-level muscle; Alex Ross gave Wonder Woman and (especially) Power Woman believably muscular physiques in Kingdom Come; Gen13's Fairchild sports thicky muscled arms (sometimes, depending on who's drawing her); Arthur Adams gives Ann O'Brien in Monkeyman and O'Brien a spectacular physique, to name a few.
But then again, the paucity of such women in entertainment media is probably only representative of their presence (or lack thereof) in the general population.
The problem I have with muscular women is, that there aren't enough of them around!
I could go on for another few thousand words about my frustration with the hostility and hatred with which bodybuilder women (and we fans of same) are confronted by the public... but I won't. Unless you reallywant to hear it.
For now, if you'd like to find out more about the characters I've created (and am (still) in the process of producing stories about), click on the name from the list below.
©1998 David C. Matthews