I receive updates from bodybuilding photographer Bill Dobbins every now and again and I wanted to post portions of his latest but changed my mind. I will post a link to his entire update instead as he deserves the full article being read.

It is in regards to the state of professional bodybuilding for women. It seems that despite being encouraged to become bigger and more muscular with each passing year by the authorities, the once extremely popular Ms. Olympia contest is treated like a circus sideshow.

That is correct, it began as a credible contest but once there, treated like a stepchild. The IFBB wants to replace it with of all things, a beauty contest (if I understand correctly - I am of course trying to lead you into reading Bill's article - hint, hint).

While "muscular beauty" is technically how the sport started, if you think back upon it all, there was more intrigue for Bev Francis (who was labeled as a man in a bikini for her physique) than for the over exposed Rachel McLish who was reigning Ms. Olympia at the time.

I agree there should be a separation and each division seems to grow into the category ahead of them but I feel there is room for all things.

There should be not only a "Men's Day" and a "Women's Day" at the Olympia conventions, but also room for each of the distinctively different levels of women's competition.

• Beauty (for soft but elegant swimsuit type models)
• Figure (for the fitter than average models, minimal muscle) 
• Fitness (for more muscular competitors, athletes if you will, but not bodybuilders, the muscle mass needs toned down) 
• Two divisions for female bodybuilding (those above a certain weight and those below it, much like the old days).

If anything, the IFBB should think about moving the Ms. Olympia to the "Men's Day" which would be broken down into a couple of weight classes as not to put the women on display in the convention hall like a bunch of power lifters being compared to cheerleader types. I consider that an insult .

EDITOR: This came in from Bill Dobbins shortly after posting...

"I advocate three weight divisions for women - since the beautiful but small women under 130 pounds can't compete against real middleweights. It should be something like lightweight - 132 lbs and under, middleweight over 132 pounds to 144 lbs, heavyweight over 144 pounds. Or something like that. I just wrote up my latest industry report in which I point out how sad it was seeing some of the girls in the figure contest. Now they can't go back into bodybuilding since some of them have become too small. The federations are complaining that females are getting too big and muscular and then they change the rules to encourage them to do just that. I think the officials came to the sport when they lost their last jobs - iceberg watch on the Titanic!"

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