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Bodybuilding professor reshapes body for research

 

EDMONTON — A University of Alberta professor who teaches the history of art, design and visual culture took her academic research to physical extremes this month as she covered her body in hemorrhoid ointment and bound her legs in plastic wrap.

The bodybuilders’ trick to make muscles stand out is one of the final and drastic measures Lianne McTavish took this past year as she lived out her research into competitive bodybuilding.

The already-fit 43-year-old professor started her intense training last August to compete in the “women’s figure” category of the Northern Alberta Bodybuilding Championships, held in Edmonton earlier this month. At the same time, she documented her physical transformation under the name Feminist Figure Girl on a funny and cheeky blog peppered with profanity.

“Look hot while you fight the patriarchy,” is her tongue-in-cheek advice at the top of the blog.

Two days after McTavish posed on stage in a tiny bikini, big, blond hair extensions, gel nails and a spray-on tan, it was time for her blog’s big reveal — Feminist Figure Girl is also a university professor who decided to combine her identities as a scholar and “gym rat” and analyze the results.

McTavish is now writing a book about her experience.

“People have written about female bodybuilding, but rarely from the inside, from the experience of it,” McTavish said.

“So I decided to see what this body will do if I eat clean, take all my vitamins . . . and turn myself into a spectacle in a way I had never done before.”

McTavish has long studied how women’s bodies have been perceived throughout history and across cultures. She teaches classes and has written books and papers on the history of the body, the history of childbirth, reproductive rights, and how culture affects what people see.

Her experience in the figure competition — in which women develop wide shoulders, a small waist and defined quads — affected her own perception of the body.

After 17 years as a vegetarian, McTavish started eating meat. The foodie who cooks and bakes daily and loves Ethiopian and Lebanese meals began to see food as fuel. Her body became a collection of separate parts — quads, lats, glutes.

“There’s mirrors everywhere. I’ve never looked at myself more than I have in the past five months.”

McTavish said she feels out of shape since the “ritualized test” of the figure competition. She’s been eating constantly and thoroughly enjoying it.

McTavish started “hard-core” dieting in January and said it was awful. She slept about five hours a night, woke up famished around 5 a.m. and usually ate a “protein pancake” — egg whites with spices and wheat bran mixed in — for breakfast. McTavish had to launch straight into her academic work in the morning while she could still think clearly because she wasn’t eating any fat.

She worked out more than 30 hours a week and ate six small meals a day, everything meticulously weighed and measured.On a trip to speak at the University of Ottawa, McTavish watched other academics enjoying fancy dinners while she unpacked pre-measured containers of chicken and sweet potatoes from her purse.

“It’s so strict and you can’t cheat,” she said.

As the competition drew closer, preparations became more onerous and McTavish felt terrible but persevered.Finally it was time to compete. McTavish invited colleagues from the university to watch her take the stage in four-inch-heels and a bling-covered bikini.

“There were a bunch of professors in the audience who had never been to a bodybuilding show,” she said.

“I was tired. I had not got much sleep at all the whole week. I was totally thirsty and dehydrated, I was covered in this tan stuff. I had these hair extensions that were really quite heavy and my feet were killing me.”

At the same time though, McTavish liked feeling strong and the sense of accomplishment she got from doing something so incredibly difficult, knowing she might not succeed. She said she is impressed Edmonton’s bodybuilding community is so welcoming and supportive, full of smart and driven people. McTavish said bodybuilding is about the uniqueness of each body — how each body can be trained but has its own limitations. It’s about “balance, proportion and shape.”

“You have to recognize what your body will do and not do,” she said. “I learned a lot about my body . . . I’ll never do it again.”McTavish was a “dream client” who did everything right, said personal trainer Audrey Shepherd.

“I actually trained for a figure competition and pulled out three weeks out because I couldn’t handle it anymore. It’s just so tiring,” Shepherd said. “Not a lot of people can do that and I’m really proud of her.”

Anne Whitelaw, one of McTavish’s university colleagues, said it’s been fascinating to watch McTavish launch herself into the figure girl competition despite its “over-the-top” image of women wearing bikinis, heavy makeup and fake nails.

“I think what makes it a really feminist approach is the seriousness with which she took the commitment of other figure girls. She values the work that other women are doing and have done to participate in this competition and I appreciate that seriousness, because I think it would be very easy, from a feminist standpoint, to just dismiss it as adopting and perpetuating a stereotype.”

McTavish will continue her blog, aiming to produce feminist writing that is open, accessible and fun for readers. Feminism is about removing limitations for women and girls, she said.

“Part of my goal here is to show what a feminist is and what a feminist can be and look like,” she said. “It’s not about being preachy and making rules.”

McTavish now intends to become a personal trainer so she can volunteer to help people get fit who can’t afford a gym, maybe at a women’s shelter.

“Something more feminist than standing on a stage,” she said.

Edmonton Journal


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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 25th, 2011 and is filed under Healthy Food Online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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