"It's not about becoming masculine" said female Arab bodybuilder Dorra Zaier to Sonia Ounissi of Reuters.

(Photo courtesy of Reuters)

I can't tell you how many articles THIS MONTH alone I've read where some person (usually some ill-informed male blogger or journalist, not all of them, but some of them) talks about female pro athletes looking like a man, wanting to be like a man, or wanting to get paid like a man.  I haven't come across any articles talking about male pro athletes trying to play, or shoot, or kick, or hit like a woman.  It's obvious why the latter arguments don't really exist: typically in modern-day society most people deem sports as part of the male domain.  Anytime women step into this male-dominated zone they tend to face criticism for trying to be (or look) too much like a man.

Granted, some arguments are warranted; particularly those that address the physical impact participating in sports can have on women and young girls.  But when a woman is told that she should not be participating in athletic competition because she’s a woman, I have a huge problem with that logic – and so does Zaier.

Zaier resides in one of the most progressive nations in North Africa, Tunisia.  However, she's had to face challenges as one of a few female bodybuilders in the country.  Though her father supports her ambitions, her mother continues to tell her to hide her broad muscular shoulders by wearing her hair down. 

But Zaier isn't the only woman who has to grapple with the beauty ideal as a female athlete.  I was never petite by any means.  I still carry a muscular frame even after all these years of not competing in organized sports. 

Along with carrying a muscular frame, admittedly I also carry some insecurities about my body while looking at billboards, Internet ads, and television shows of thin-waisted women with bubble boobies.  I don't think any women in this day and age can escape the Western "beauty ideal" – or myth (popularized by author and intellectual, Naomi Wolf).

Though women like Amanda Beard, Anna Kournikova, and Ashley Harkelroad have used their athletic bodies to pose for Playboy, Maxim, FHM, blah . . blah . . blah . . most female athletes, particularly those participating in the 2008 Olympic Games, are most known for their brawn and not their (photoshopped) beauty.  Case in point, Austrailian swimmer Libby Trickett, pictured below.

So while most of us deal with the beauty ideal, some female athletes are speaking out about their own bodies – not to be seen necessarily as masculine, but as healthy, tone, fit, and ready for competition.

I applaud Zaier for speaking out (even though she did say in the interview that her fiancé will "allow" her to continue bodybuilding after they get married – mmmkay.)  But even still, I always like to come across stories about female athletes defying the odds, breaking gender roles, and most of all proving that sports can be a means through which we all can achieve physical greatness.