first paper

Adam Bargnesi

Whether our goal is spiritual, educational or physical, we all have a desire for which we will push our limits. In class, we’ve been discussing what a healthy human is considered to be; generally, I believe a human, at his or her maximum potential, should not only be healthy in the physical aspect but also in a stable mental state. Roxanne Edwards and Kathy Akers are two women whose minds and bodies coalesce in order to work like machines- perfect and at peak performance; they are exemplary people in expressing my opinion of health.

The covergirl for bodybuilders, an international sensation, Roxanne Edwards stands proud at five foot three inches with little to no body fat- driven by the sole purpose of feeling good in her own skin; her fitness regime consists of frequent visits to the gym, a diet rich in protein and absent of fats, the occasional steroid and a positive outlook on life. Roxanne started bodybuilding at the age of 30 and joined the IFBB, an organization that holds hundreds of fitness competitions, soon after (Roxanne Edwards is Superhuman). She describes herself as peeled, meaning with every movement you can see her muscles working as each individual fiber pulls together at Roxanne’s will. She is not ashamed of her body and understands that her muscles don’t take anything away from her femininity. Being a woman is not about how you look, but how you carry yourself and your choice in actions. Roxanne describes the obstacles she had to overcome being dark-skinned; society often overlooks black people because of the systemic racism imbedded deep in our culture. White women are seen as more marketable, likely candidates for photo shoots and the front covers of magazines, while black women are delegated to the back burner, shadowed by their peers.

Starting as a self-discovery project, Ms. Acker, the novelist, began her rigorous exercise to experience the extremities of the human body; Kathy’s routine was a stark contrast to the standards placed on her by society- she encountered the oppression women beared at a very young age, believing femininity was a pitfall that kept her from accomplishing her dreams. During her career, Kathy was given the opportunity to write an essay about fitness; she found this difficult, and ended up taking ten years to finish the prompt. She frequented the gym three to four days per week, and placed herself outside of reality to completely immerse herself in bodybuilding (Acker,21). Kathy found the failure aspect of training the most essential part; in her essay she constantly alludes exercising to life itself. As muscles are utilized, they undergo constant trauma, but when you take a break, and relinquish yourself from bodybuilding, during those moments, your muscle fibers repair themselves, becoming thicker in the process and essentially stronger than ever before. In life, she believes defeat is an important learning experience that will inevitably make a person better. Kathy Acker considers bodybuilding to be a form of meditation in which she can reduce herself to art and a few simple words, bringing herself closer to the essentials of life.

These two women strived for good health, not only to improve their bodies but their self-image as well. In their pursuits, they learned femininity is a very fluid thing that can be interpreted in many different ways. Society places people under rigid labels in order to facilitate making assumptions: women are soft and men are strong. Their athleticism not only allowed them to prove these stereotypes wrong but to also embrace their gender. In my opinion, health means being aligned with oneself in mind and body; Edwards and Acker were people who felt comfortable in being themselves while pushing their bodies to undergo and conquer failure.