Talking Bodies: Female Bodybuilders Colonize a Male Preserve

This essay is based on a series of conversations with female bodybuilders. Our focus is on their efforts to make a place for themselves in a “male” sport. The paper analyzes their efforts to renegotiate the dominant masculine meanings of bodybuilding, thereby asserting their right to occupy this culturally contested terrain. It explores the ways in which women's culturally derived expertise in bodywork can be used as a political tool for the colonization of a male preserve.