While I was packing boxes for a recent move I ran across my old copy of Thorstein Veblen’s, “The Theory of the Leisure Class”.  While idly thumbing through it I ran across this passage in which Veblen talks about the ideal of feminine beauty.

“The ideal requires delicate and diminutive hands and feet and a slender waist.  These features, together with other related faults of structure that commonly go with them, go to show that the person so affected is incapable of useful effort and must therefore be supported in idleness by her owner.  She is useless and expensive, and she is consequently valuable evidence of pecuniary strength.”

Although Veblen wrote this in the 1890’s, he may as well be describing the trophy wife and super model of today.  One needs only five minutes in front of the television to see that our society’s feminine beauty ideal seems to  promote smallness, softness, and weakness.  How sad that our society still infantilizes women this way.

One of the things I love about CrossFit is that our culture holds everyone to the same high standards. Women are expected to do pull-ups, push-ups and muscle-ups.  Women are expected to lift heavy things and to run fast.  We don’t subvert women’s potential by holding them to a lower standard.

Regardless of gender, to CrossFitters, weakness is repellent.  Strength is beautiful.

The feminine beauty ideal of the future? CrossFit games finalists Annie Thorisdottir and Lindsey Smith. Image courtesy of CrossFit