CNNSI.com - SI for Women - Strong Signals - Wednesday April 12, 2000 12:37 PM

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Strong Signals

Skinny is out, muscles are in. Today's female athletes are helping shape the way we feel about our bodies -- for the better

Chastain (center) is one of the athletes inspiring us all to take pride in our bodies. Robert Beck
Digital Illustration by Blink! Digital Studio

By Erika Rasmusson

If there's a poster girl for positive body image, it's Brandi Chastain, who achieved instant celebrity last summer when she made the winning penalty kick in the Women's World Cup, then whipped off her jersey and celebrated with abs bared and biceps cocked. Adding to the media frenzy was the fact that Chastain had just posed in Gear magazine, proudly baring her buffness in, well, the buff. Women aren't supposed to have muscles, are they? If they do, they aren't supposed to show them off, right?

Wrong. Today's female athletes are challenging society's perceptions of femininity and the ideal female body type. "Anybody in their right mind would rather be Mia Hamm than Barbie," says Emily Hancock, Ed.D., author of The Girl Within (Ballantine). "Girls these days realize that muscles are something to admire."

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall..
How healthy is your body image? Ask yourself the following questions. If any answers give you cause for concern, you may want to contact Eating Disorders Awareness and Prevention (800-931-2237; www.edap.org).
Do you like what you see in the mirror? If not, are there any parts of your body you like?
"A major warning sign is if you don't like anything at all -- if there's no small or insignificant part that pleases you," says Diane G. Sanford, Ph.D., president of the Women's Healthcare Partnership in St. Louis.
Is your self-worth dependent on how you look?
Focusing on your appearance because you want to be healthy is great, says Jan Ferris, Ph.D., a Los Angeles-based psychologist. Focusing on your appearance because you're concerned about what others think about the way you look is not.
Do you exercise obsessively to attain the ideal body?
This is another red flag, says Susan Kendig, a nurse practitioner at the Women's Healthcare Partnership. Trying to transform genetically heavy legs into willowy twigs is a waste of physical and mental energy.
How much time do you spend thinking about food?
"Food is nothing to obsess about," says Nancy Clark, author of Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook (Human Kinetics). Listen to your body: Eat when you're hungry, stop when you're full, and don't analyze every bite you take.
Does your body image match the one others have of you?
If you're constantly complaining about "extra pounds" while family and friends worry about your lack of them, you could be in a body-image danger zone, warns Kendig.
Do you weigh yourself every day?
Daily weigh-ins are obsessive, Clark says. Also, because muscle weighs more than fat, numbers on a scale can be a poor indicator of a healthy body.

As any athlete knows, muscular strength is crucial to on-the-field success. Speed skater Chris Witty wouldn't be an Olympic medalist if she'd worried about her thighs getting big; Serena Williams wouldn't hit her forehand with such power if she didn't have those massive shoulders. As Olympic gold-medal-winning skier Picabo Street says, "I can't walk by the mirror every day going, 'Oh, poor me, I'm a [size] 12, not a 4.'"

But even Street, at 28 one of the strongest and most self-confident female athletes on the planet, admits, "I spent the first half of my life feeling too muscular and afraid to wear clothes that would show my muscles." That changed when she attended a 1994 Women's Sports Foundation dinner, where she met other women athletes engaged in a "my arms are bigger than yours" competition. "I couldn't believe I was somewhere where my arm size was cherished," Street says.

Female athletes have reason to value their physiques. "Unless you've got some musculature, you can't make jump shots, you can't kick goals, you can't spike the ball," says Shari Kuchenbecker, Ph.D., a research psychologist at Loyola Marymount University. Athletes who realize that, she says, are more likely to have a healthy self-image because, for them, "performance becomes an important part of the image."

Sadly, many female athletes, especially teens, struggle with negative body image. Says Diane G. Sanford, Ph.D., president of the Women's Healthcare Partnership in St. Louis, "There's more pressure for them to focus on their appearance, in terms of how muscular they are and how much they weigh."

It's a paradox fraught with danger: Athletes must be in tune with their bodies, yet obsessing about appearance can lead to problems ranging from eating disorders to steroid abuse. A 1994 Norwegian study found that 29%-35% of female athletes in esthetic sports (such as gymnastics, figure skating and diving) have eating disorders. At the opposite end of the spectrum, use of steroids has doubled among teenage girls since 1991, reports the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Coaches, trainers and parents can play important roles in heading off trouble. Moms and dads can help by passing on self-esteem-boosting attitudes, valuing their child as a person first, athlete second. Coaches and trainers can offer reality checks: Because muscle weighs more than fat, for example, athletes should be dissuaded from measuring fitness by the scale.

Fortunately, attitudes are changing. Paige Derryberry, 21, a University of Oklahoma cheerleader, says she doesn't even own a scale: "That warps your body image." She began lifting weights to build strength and stamina, not to lose weight. While cheerleading can be a body-image minefield, Derryberry says the Sooners' squad is not pressured to get skinny. "The waif look is out," she says, "especially in athletics."

As for Chastain, 31, she admits she has come a long way from her junior prom, when she wouldn't dance because the sleeves of her dress kept falling down and exposing her big shoulders. "I'm much more comfortable because society has finally accepted the notion that women can be athletic and feminine," she says.

That positive feeling contributes to success on the field. "People should find confidence in their uniqueness," Chastain says. "My uniqueness just happens to be in my athleticism. I feel good when I go onto the field. I stand taller, I push myself more -- and I don't get knocked around."

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