Strength and Beauty in Female Type Castings

 

Bodybuilder Relna Brewer showing her strength by ripping a phone book apart, 1938

Relna Brewer stood at 5'2 with a weight of 115 pounds, but she was very strong and sported some big muscles. At one point she was dubbed "The Strongest Woman of the World", but at the same time her feminine beauty didn't go unnoticed: In 1939 she won the Miss Venetia beauty pageant. Also she was the stunt double for Marilyn Monroe. All of this means that she wasn't fended off as the female cliché "a strong, but ugly woman". Usually that cliché has been a stop in the career and private lives of many women who have been afraid to lose out in the usual type casting of women that goes more after what's considered "beautiful" than inherent or aquired strength. However, there is no way that kind of social femininity controls might work with someone like Relna Brewer. She is both a very strong and very beautiful woman and nobody can deny it, not even today.

Relna was able to lift four people at the same time, rip telephone books, etc., etc. without losing her feminine grace. That meant that she was someone who surpassed the stereotyped women who were popular at the time. She was no "Sleeping Beauty waiting for the Prince", but an active and strong woman. Her body builder type, so to speak, wasn't the most popular one, namely the "Good Girl", who ended up a housewife and mother. This type didn't in any ways compete with the stereotyped male which was what most men wanted. 

Should women do body building? Well, should men?

 https://www.girlsgonestrong.com/blog/articles/the-original-girl-gone-strong-part-2-relna-brewer-mcrae/ 

https://thedailycrisp.com/a-therapist-tells-us-the-11-types-of-women-and-how-to-deal-with-them/ 

https://thoughtcatalog.com/luke-bennington/2015/03/10-types-of-women-who-make-the-best-wives/ 

https://liveboldandbloom.com/12/relationships/qualities-good-woman