Pumping Iron II: The Women

This was the wail of one of the competitor's trainers, and he was defining the prime theme of this movie. For people who have a real problem looking at `masculine' women, the theme of this film will sure be `what a freak show'. When I first saw this movie eighteen years ago it took nearly an hour for me to pick my jaw off the ground due to how stunned I was to see women who looked like this. But I let myself get into the head of these women since as a movie lover, that's what I love doing most: trying to walk inside the souls of the people onscreen. I did say souls. It IS difficult to relate to the bodies depicted in this film, but that's not what the film is asking us to do.

There's no doubt that the way these women look is not conventional. Unfortunately, there will always be people who believe that `unconventional' is bad because that makes us uncomfortable. It's very obvious though that when people start calling those who are different `freaks', it's because they're feeling a deep need to cover their discomfort with a feeling of superiority. That's why I love movies about people who are different. Whether it's `The Elephant Man' or `Paris is Burning' or `Live Nude Girls Unite', the ultimate focus is on US. These films challenge us examine how we feel about ‘odd' people and to ask ourselves why the hell we're so uncomfortable anyway. There's always a choice: one can revel in disgust, or one can get over it and try to embrace a concept that is new.

Well, since this film's release, the city I live in now has almost as many gyms as restaurants, and there are hundreds of women who look like most of the bodybuilders in this film. I've gotten over the ‘weirdness' of how they look and except them as women who like the empowerment they feel from turning their bodies into sculptures. From what I understand, the masculine looking bodybuilder Bev, is now pretty much the standard for female bodybuilding competition. And who's to say she shouldn't be? If the qualifications for male bodybuilding are for each competitor to achieve the utmost of his muscular form and potential, why do women have to lower their standard? The men aren't judged by their sexiness (unless the male judges who judge them are all gay, which I doubt). I personally find them quite unattractive, but they are not supposed to be the male's version of Miss America. They are there to present the human physique in its most extreme `glory'. One can quibble about what the criteria for glory is, but once it was established, it's shameful that a double standard existed for women. At least at the time this film was made, women were still supposed retain the standard that they always have first and foremost been judged for: their sex appeal.

But enough of philosophizing. This movie is a fun documentary, showing both the camaraderie and bitching that goes on between some contestants, and giving us an understanding of how each of them define themselves. It's also a lot of fun when the film shows the confusion of the judges, whether they're trying to agree on the hypocrisy they plan on using, or trying to tally up the score (very funny scene, that!). It's a perfect analogy of the old school white male mentality that at least in this field, has thankfully faded away over the past eighteen years. With things more fair and equal now, I'd be very interested in seeing a `Pumping Iron Part 3'.

Bodybuilding for women is "something new under the sun," something as Charles Gaines, the writer of Pumping Iron pointed out, has no precedent in all of history. Pumping Iron II is a documentary made about the very earliest years of women's bodybuilding as a sanctioned sport. As a documentary, it has its failings. But as a look at who the women were participating in bodybuilding in the mid 1980s, how they looked and what they had to say, it is unique. Of course, women doing bodybuilding at all is still controversial and some people have trouble accepting it. One of the other reviews of this film makes that plain, written by somebody who hates the idea of muscular women to such a degree he is hardly any judge of the quality of the film. Obviously, somebody who is that angered and disgusted by women with muscles should not bother to watch a documentary about them. But for those who like "buff" women or who are at least curious about them, Pumping Iron II is an important film and shouldn't be missed. And as women's bodybuilding becomes more and more accepted and popular, the film will become even more significant.

helpless_dancer illustrates how incapable most of us are at actually looking into complex issues and understanding people other than ourselves. The women in Pumping Iron 2 are confusing at times, and a couple of them do seem more than a bit nutty, but reducing the issues at hand to the kind of ignorant, simple-minded derision that helpless_dancer deals in, is unfair to the women in the film and female bodybuilders in general. I don't understand them either, but calling them freaks is grade-school bigotry. The film itself is also, unfortunately, not up to the task, and spends much of its time trying to squeeze out some T&A from them. It does give the women an opportunity to speak for themselves from time to time, and their articulacy is often illuminating.

I managed to catch this movie on cinemax or something one day at a weird time. It is awful (in a very addictive, bad 80's movie type of way) for the following reasons:

1) See Rachel McLish (sp?), the most self centered, arrogant egotist in the world caught on film talking about the Bible and Jesus constantly while she uses sex to win judges' votes. This woman is just too bizarre for words.

2) See some poor steroid addled woman talk about how she is redefining feminity with her huge (and I mean gigantic) manly shape and facial acne (no doubt caused by excessive use of steroids)!

3) See bad 80's workout gear! :o

3) See the touching supportive relationship between one of these women (name forgotten) whose husband works as a male dancer to support her budding bodybuilding career!

There is so much wrong with this movie you just can't tear yourself away (sort of like watching a car accident in progress). Particularly amusing is the combination workout/shower scene with Rachel and her "posse" - it verges on soft porn.

But in the end you realize just how sad all of these women are, and you try to stop laughing - though it doesn't work. It really is Spinal Tap in a Gym. I thought the movie was a comedy when I first started watching it.

I taped this movie not too long after it was released on a Beta videotape. So I have available a peek back to the mid-1980's via my sister's Beta player.

I can't remember what motivated me to tape "Pumping Iron II" in the first place. I'm pretty sure it wasn't for posterity's sake. Most likely it was that female bodybuilding presented a new culture I was totally unaware. And I had an intuition that the presence of Bev Francis was going to revolutionize that culture from the "feminine ideal" to pure muscle tone.

Or maybe it was the scenes. The hilarious one with the judges trying to tabulate the score. The tender one with the implied marriage proposal. Or Carla Dunlap's comforting conversation to Bev. While some scenes have participants act like they are aware of the camera, overall the film has enough real human drama to be worth you while.

Plus there's the bonus of the cheesy 80's music. Only songs from Art of Noise and Grace Jones stand the test of time.