The ongoing battle between women in powerlifting

Probably not what you think I'm going to write about from that title, but it is a battle, and it is between women and it is in powerlifting. It does not seem to be in all strength sport as I have not seen the same things happening in strongwoman, though as that sport continues to gain popularity it still might. What battle am I talking about? The battle between "it's what my body can do" vs "my body looks so good". It's how some newer women into powerlifting are trying to pull it down from where it has been to a place where it's not about what you can do but how you look.

Let me get this out of the way - I'll be the first to acknowledge the importance of appearance. How we look every day matters because the world treats us differently based on how we appear. There's a reason my coworkers and I don't wear jeans and sweatshirts every day. There's a reason I colour my hair (I love fun colours but also hides the grey because growing old is not considered okay socially) and a reason I wear make up. I'm all about trying to meet basic social standards of attractiveness. That is not what I'm talking here. I will even acknowledge that once, after a fierce weight cut (the worst and something I never intend to do again), when I looked ragged having been in a hot bath for hours with my hair in 77 directions, I did my hair and basic make up in the bathroom after weigh ins. I wear make up to meets because I wear make up. I do my hair when it's too short for a ponytail because that's how I tame the chaos. Again, I'm not talking about the basics of looking decent. I'm talking about something bigger... I'm talking about the culture of this sport I love.

Culture is defined as the beliefs, customs, way of life of a certain group. Workplaces have cultures. Sports have cultures. It's not just about a nation or an ethnic group. In powerlifting, there is an attempt to shift the culture in some ways. We see this in the equipped vs raw debate a bit, where the culture used to be one of simply "lift more", it's now shifting to accommodate a new culture where it's not just purely "lift more". That's okay. Cultures shift and change. When it's for the good of the group, then it's great. When a workplace shifts the culture of being cutthroat with coworkers to one of more respect, that's a great shift. But, when the cultural shift seems to be negative in the eyes of many, then it's not so welcome. Again, let's imagine a workplace where there was a culture of teamwork and then a bunch of new people get hired and they try and bring in this new culture of being independent and competitive with each other, that will not go over smoothly with the existing team. One of the things that is fantastic about the culture in powerlifting is that despite it being an individual sport, the lifters are by and large there and cheering for each other. It's not uncommon at all to see two lifters, in the same weight class, going head to head, both wanting to win but both legitimately cheering each other on. When new lifters come to the sport, they see this and so far there is little issue with people assuming this and becoming a part of the existing culture related to this.

Where we are seeing some upheaval is in the sexualization and appearance based importance of the sport in women. Now, one of the things I have said since I got into this sport almost a decade ago was that it took me from a place where I was consumed by how I looked related to fitness and it shot me into a sport with a culture where no one cared how I looked, it was all about what I could do on that platform. No one cares what you weigh because weight has no intrinsic value. It simply categorizes you into a class for matched competition. This was one of the biggest draws to the sport for me. It's quite funny when I go back to a regular gym now, because even my "nice" gym clothes make me stand out like a sore thumb. A sports bra is a bra... and a bra is made to be worn under a shirt... which I wear when I am in public and the gym is public ;) I joke, but there is a little truth in that for me, at least. Although I joked with some of the ladies around the time of nationals about their fingernails getting done, there was a little truth in that jest as well. My sister paints her toenails ridiculous colours for her major crazy runs... but that's a superstition not because she needs her nails to be super "fleek". I commented on a post about ladies getting these beautiful gel nails and said I was going to nationals to lift and as a result of tearing my natural nail off on my quad the week prior, I would actually be trimming my nails because beautiful nails are not worth losing a deadlift. BECAUSE THAT IS THE CULTURE!!! It does not matter how I LOOK, it's what I can DO!

Ultimately this isn't about fingernails or a sports bra. Heck, if you can pull heavy deadlifts with gorgeous nails, sweet! Here's what it comes down to. There are a lot of "us"... by us I mean women who've been around this game for awhile now. Y'know, powerlifting since before it was cool. And most of us have a strong attachment to this sport and the culture in it. The culture of it being more important what we do on the platform than how we look, how nice our butt is or whether we have abs. Y'know, that culture that allows every one of us to say to new lifters "no one cares how you look in that singlet... trust me!" What this means is that we are going to kick up a bit of a stink when we see new lifters coming in and trying to make it about something else. Figure gets to be about looks. Leave that there. I have nothing against figure, because that's what their sport is about. Powerlifting is about what you put up on a platform. Whether powerlifting "built that body" or gave you a "squat booty" really doesn't matter because you might have a wonderfully round butt, but if you can't out total the other people in your weight class, no one cares. Let me say that again - at the end of the day, NO ONE CARES! I have watched beautiful women over and over win and lose on the platform, and not once did a watch a World Record squat and think "but her ass is so flat" or a World Record bench and think "she should've done her hair differently"... or a World Record deadlift and think "but her nails are not fleek". And I definitely never watched someone lose and thought "if only she'd looked better". Those of us who have been around for a decade or more, we are not just going to let this culture we love be steam rolled. You can do what you want to do, but we will continue to strive to maintain the culture in our sport, because culture is THAT important to groups of people. Culture is our common understanding. I'm not "judging" you. I'd be remiss to think I'm somehow holier than thou and should be in a position of judgement. If I were judging, I'd be spending my time figuring out what about this bugs me. I've done that already - what bugs me is an attempt to shift the culture. A culture that I love and has become an integral part of me and my self image.

It makes women in the sport a "joke" when everything we do on the platform comes down to how much your butt sticks out of your shorts or whether your latest IG photo of "side boob" got 4x more likes than your squat video, and you happened to hashtag #powerlifting and #girlswhopowerlift in both the picture and the video. Although those new to the sport might not know this, but a few years ago the IPF tried to have a "ballgown" competition between the women at the banquet. Now, I think they were trying to say "powerlifters can be beautiful... don't stereotype us" but what happened is that many of the women who had qualified for Worlds kicked up a fuss and said "our sport isn't about beauty, judge us on the platform." Plus, have you ever thought, man, it might be nice to be respected for what I can DO and maybe not have the bulk of my self worth based on how compliant I am with the current social standards of beauty?? Huh... Give that some thought...