Ms. Muscle

Look at those bulging biceps!

Wait a second, are those breasts?!

Ms. Muscle leading a walking tour. Photo by Paul Takeuchi. Courtesy of Barbara Lubliner.

Barbara Lubliner is a visual and performance artist who goes by the moniker Ms. Muscle. As an artist she flexes her creative muscles to pay homage to the strength and prowess of femininity. She also flexes her actual muscles, revealing a pair of sculpted breasts on top of her biceps.

Ms. Muscle’s persona is an amalgamation of symbolic iconography. The aforementioned breast biceps, a long sheath gown, tiara and a pageant sash that reads “Ms. Muscle,” express beauty, brains and brawn through a feminist lens.

By means of public performances and interventions, Ms. Muscle emphasizes strong women from the past and present. In celebration of Women’s History Month, she led a six mile walk across Manhattan to visit monuments depicting historical women (Gertrude Stein, Golda Meir, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Harriet Tubman).

She’s also posed, muscles flexed, alongside paintings by women artists. In a series of performative photographs, called Making Their Mark, Ms. Muscle juxtaposes herself among paintings, sculpture and installation art by female modern and contemporary artists such as Joan Mitchell, Howardena Pindell, Tschabalala Self and Simone Leigh.

Ms. Muscle being enveloped by Cecily Brown's painting titled The Demon Menagerie. Photo by Paul Takeuchi. Courtesy of Barbara Lubliner.

Ms. Muscle also provides a platform for women to participate in her art. She’s led singalongs of Helen Reddy’s feminist anthem, I am Woman (1972):

I am woman, hear me roar
In numbers too big to ignore
And I know too much to go back an' pretend
'Cause I've heard it all before
And I've been down there on the floor
And no one's ever gonna keep me down again

In her participatory performance, Roar with Ms. Muscle, she walked along 14th Street in Manhattan, approaching women of all ages who join her in a sing along of the song’s first line.

Lubliner explains that the focus was on “ROARING and channeling ‘Hulk-like’ energy for what participants wanted to proclaim.”

Throughout modern United States history, allegorical figures like Rosie the Riveter, an artistic rendering of a factory worker, have stood as symbols for women's independence and equality across culture. Rosie became a feminist icon by rolling up her sleeves, flexing her biceps and exclaiming, "We Can Do It!" She’s a shining example of art’s ability to spur a cultural revolution. As is Ms. Muscle, who prompts us to consider the various meanings and representations of feminine strength. In her words, she “wants to empower everyone to be their Biggest and Breast self!”

Muscles are still an unfortunate point of contention when discussing women’s physiques and athletic performances. Even in the contemporary era, the portrayal of women is prejudiced by the male gaze and chauvinistic ideologies. This objectification of women’s appearance has influenced how women’s bodies are idealized in mass media, art and athletics (to name a few disciplines where women’s bodies are heavily scrutinized and controlled by public opinion). In his 1972 book, Ways of Seeing, art critic, John Berger wrote, “Men survey women before treating them. Consequently how a woman appears to a man can determine how she will be treated.”

While muscles are associated with athleticism, female athletes have been ridiculed if they are perceived as “too muscular,” and are subjected to public bias and smear campaigns due to their physique. They’re often inequitably compared to their male counterparts. This unjustly attempts to negate what they have accomplished in their sport, and is shattering to all individuals who are told they’re abnormal because of their physical body type.

themsmuscle

A post shared by @themsmuscle

As is evident from Ms. Muscle’s work, artists are doing their part to eschew this false perception.

Another example is Shel Silverstein, the late poet and musician who utilized poetry and song to express his cultural observations. I previously wrote about Silverstein’s poem, Weightliftress, which takes on gender bias in athletics and fitness (see: “Poetry in Motion: Weightliftress by Shel Silverstein”).

We’re still living in an era of the male gaze and masculine hegemony, which means that the cliché “men lift weights and women do cardio” is a statement that some people still uphold; even when studies show that the differences between elite male and female weightlifters in terms of muscle fiber and training is trivial.

A 2018 study determined that women have the same amount of fast-twitch muscle fibers as their male counterparts. One of the study's co-authors, James R. Bagley explains, "These findings suggest athlete caliber, training experience and body mass determine the percentage of fast-twitch fiber more than gender."

To paraphrase Rosie the Riveter, “We can all do it” when it comes to our abilities in strength training and feats of strength.

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