So frequent poster here but I could be easily identified by this...

I've mentioned on here the 2 types of Mormon women (especially in the Morridor where I live). The frumpy and/or fat ones, and the fake ones, plastic surgery and obsessed with being skinny. And they loathe each other.

Anyway, there is this new phenomenon amongst my age group Mormon SAHM...the bikini competition. It's a fairly new division in the bodybuilding world (NPC, OCB, etc federations) and they make a shit ton of money off these women.

So someone I'm close with has entered this bikini world. She's always been super vain, but now has taken things to a whole new level. Starving herself, wearing a corset because her trainer said her abs were too thick, taking all these supplements and fat burners, working out 2x a day...to compete in these bikini competitions. And she has spent all the family's summer vacation money and money she was supposed to use to send her son to summer camp, for these bikini competitions (she told me it's costing $2000 per competition with all the fees, tanning, makeup, competition bikinis. I was like holy shit! That is ridiculous.)

Now, to each their own, but it's super annoying to me that she keeps saying she is all about health and fitness when this has nothing to do with health and fitness. It's about vanity. And from my understanding, judging is completely subjective and largely political. I've been an athlete my entire life and I just don't consider this a sport (the bikini division anyway).

What I also noticed is that everyone she trains with are Mormon SAHM. I asked if there were any working or professional women who trained with her and of course the answer was no.

I just think this is a bunch of sexually repressed Mormon women who want to strut around pretty much naked under the guise of a sport. I find nothing empowering about bending over for strangers and sticking my ass out like I'm ready to take it from the back.

Anyway, lots of Mormons are getting into this in my area.

What about wearin her garmies? Ain't she gonna get blasted for being immodest and walkin pornography and all that stuff??

with the focus on appearances ... I'm not surprised!

Oh my gosh! I feel like I know who you are talking about! I didn't know this was a trend. I thought the person I know was the only one doing this. It's crazy to me because she goes to the temple every week (or used to) and also does this bikini body building competitions with bikinis that are barely there.

It'd be so weird if you're talking about the person I know. The person I know lives in the east valley in arizona. Which area are you in where this is popular? It'd be interesting if this is spread all over the morridor.

It's definitely a crazy trend. Very odd to me.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2014 05:00PM by almost.

All have left the church and one left her husband because of the church, that and she found new interest in having casual sex with jus about everyone.

They should take pole fitness. It's a full body workout, they get to strut around half nekkid, and might even learn some new moves their men might appreciate. It makes you completely ripped and it's a great combination of cardio and resistance training, so it burns fat as well. I lost 40 pounds and built up six-pack abs.

Also, there are several pole fitness studios in the SLC region. There are competitions as well, so if they wanna be all competitive, there you go.

My wife is a competitor and an exmo. She never would have done it as a TBM because of all the ridiculous talk about modesty.

She has fallen in love with working out, eats healthier, takes supplements that she researches and now lifting is a hobby we can share together. I love that she competes and I support her 100%.

Also, it can be expensive but not $2000. My wife spent $100 for her NPC card(good all year), $80 for the show, $100 for the tan and $100 for the suit(that you can wear to every show).

I am sure some of these women are very vain and are looking for attention in all the wrong places but your post was terribly judgmental. You don't know the motivations for each of these individual women. So they are tired of doing the same old Mormon housewife shit, big deal! Let them have some fun and show some ass. What skin is it off your nose?

+1 I think it's great when people find something they are passionate about..... to each her own!

Now they wear bikini's and drink Coke! I had to sneak Coke and wear a one piece with a skirt!

I know someone who is doing this now too! She lives in Utah County, but I don't actually think she's TBM anymore. When she posted pictures of it on fb I didn't even recognize her. Not because of how in shape she is, but because she seriously looks 20 years older. I mean, I'm all for staying for and being healthy, but yeesh! Not an attractive look.

Desperate and pathetic?

That's sad that we all left the church because (among other reasons) the Judgey McJudgesters out there making us feel like crap about ourselves and then we just sit here on the internet and do it ourselves.

I think it's great when people work hard on fitness and competitions are a great way to stay motivated and get some accolades and support for all that hard work. Maybe it's a bit hypocritical of a mormon with respect to all their lip service toward modesty, but I wouldn't go so far as to call another person desperate and pathetic.

+1000

Fair enough.

I'm just baffled at the hypocrisy and mental compartmentalization of Mormons doing this. Especially when I get dirty looks for wearing a sleeveless blouse.

+1

I'm happy to see Mormons break the mold, get out and do what they want. It helps make the culture less boring, and gives them an identity separate from I'm-a-Mormon. Bikini competitions can be empowering if they're doing it because they personally really want to, and not to impress guys or out of social pressure.

As a guy, I think the most important thing is to not judge women based on appearance or make them feel like they need to do stuff like extreme dieting or whatever. But if they want to do it on their own, for their own reasons, we should just be supportive.

I could think of worse hobbies. I know some people in their late 40s and fifties who do this sort of thing, It takes a lot of work and discipline, I have never seen a show, and didn't know about the bend over and take it from behind thing. Oh well, lots of people have different ways of letting their freak flag fly

Repression breeds obsession. Make them all wear garments and hide their bodies. Life finds a way. It is ok to not wear your garments during sporting activities, so wear your workout gear all day long. If you are a fitness competitor, thongs are ok. Oh, if you go to a fertility clinic, the husband is ok to masturbate to porn in the doctor's office because, you know, medical.

The church is staggeringly stupid in their doctrine and policies because apparently they have never heard the term "unintended consequences" but we certainly are seeing them.

OP sounds like he only wants to women in "modest" clothing.

Surface to
Air
Heat-seeking
Mistress


Bikini-clad?
Do go on

Frequent poster Wrote:
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> this has nothing to do with
> health and fitness. It's about vanity.

And about validation. "Am I worthy of approval yet? How about now?"

I lived in the "hot-girl" dorm at BYU. There were hometown beauty queens, high school queens, BYU Homecoming Queen, Belle of the Y, Formal Queen, BYU cheerleaders, flag twirlers, Courgarettes, etc.

What matters is how each individual deals with such competitions. Every night, ten girls on our floor would run laps and vomit on the softball field behind our dorm. They would brag about it. A few of the girls would hold "truth sessions," and would tell each other their faults. A group of girls from Utah would gossip cruelly about the less-attractive, shyer girls.

Yet--One cheerleader/Queen took a semester off to give her kidney to her sister. Another cheerleader was in the Honors Program. One of the girls who was disliked became First Runner-Up in the National Miss America competition--the real thing. This girl was always nice, and was not bulimic or narcissistic. One girl sang beautifully, and got a music scholarship to UCLA after she graduated. One girl got a real gig on a TV variety show.

My friends and I were from California, and the Utah girls used to tease us, because we could eat anything we wanted, and never get fat. Actually, we couldn't afford to eat extra food out of the machines and at the fast food places. We had early classes, and ate breakfast and dinner together and with our boyfriends in the cafeteria. Some of us were on the ski team. Some had athletic scholarships in tennis, swimming, volleyball. I would ski three times a week, and run up and down the Fieldhouse stairs, dance, hike, and mountain bike, and was burning more calories having fun, than the girls who ran around the baseball field at night.

It is pure jealousy to look at someone who is thin because they are having fun and love to be active, because they know about good nutrition, because they actually love health food. Lifting weights is fun for some people. Maybe fit people have a healthier ego, but is that a bad thing? Look at the healthy kids that are raised to be athletic. They do better in school. Mental "geniuses" tend to be more physically coordinated, and physically advanced, as well as mentally competent. The "flabby, pale nerd" stereotype is wrong. There are a few famous nerds, but the majority of geniuses are living well-rounded lives, coaching soccer teams, playing musical instruments, eating organic food, climbing Mt. McKinley, skiing and mountain biking with fancy equipment for the kids, and a backpack to carry their baby. (Not a TBM lifestyle.)

Why is everything "either-or"? Beautiful women are usually kinder than the norm. That is my experience. Fit, healthy people are usually happier, IMO. Psychologists say that people who love themselves can better love others.

Admit it. Who's the most fun to be around? The bikini lady swimming in the water, or the lady sitting on the sand and doing nothing. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? I think that a lot of people exercise to achieve their level of fitness. Except for some unfortunate sick people, humans aren't just born fit. Maybe they're born beautiful, but not born fit. Fat Americans are proof of that, because most of us are a mixture of different genetic groups, not just one hopelessly fat genetic group. Different things make different people fat--so they can't be criticized, either. Most of the overweight women I know are also overworked and under-rested, and tend to be depressed. They care for others, but not themselves. Overweight nurses are an example. These are not SAHM's. There are also some gorgeous nurses, like my cousins who are pushing 40, and look like they are 20. Shocker. There is no mold.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/03/2014 02:36PM by forestpal.

"Now, to each their own, but it's super annoying to me that she
keeps saying she is all about health and fitness when this has
nothing to do with health and fitness."

I remember when Sharlene Wells won the Miss America pagent. She
was the daughter of a Robert E. Wells, of the First Quorum of
Seventy--a GA. In discussing the "swimsuit competition," she
referred to it as the "physical fitness" part of the pagent.

Right, they had them all see who could last longest on a
treadmill.

In Mormonism it's all about the words you use.

Yup. Easy valley AZ. Super trendy right now among the Mormon SAHMs. It all seems desperate and pathetic to me.

Different strokes for different folks. You are sounding awfully TBM at the moment. Maybe talk to someone that does it. Ask questions about how it works, their motivation, diet and otherwise. You might learn a thing or two.You are assuming way too much.

Or you can just chill on the sidelines of cynicism and be a hater.

Clearly you did not read the first sentence of my post. I know about this because someone I'm close to is doing it. Yes I know all about the diet, how much she works out, the corsets, the extreme measures to attain a stage ready body, how much it costs, the suggestive posing...it is all she talks about.

Sorry you feel the need to be defensive because your wife does it. You are correct, different strokes for different folks, but I'm talking about why it is a trend among Mormon SAHM here.

Just because you are close to someone that does it doesn't mean you get it--you obviously don't. Of course I'm going to get defensive, you are painting with an incredibly broad brush and making character assumptions. We know plenty of people in the industry and I have never heard of or seen anyone else use a corset. I'm sure it happens, but it isn't a standard thing. You can be competitive without going to the "extremes" you speak of. My wife has only fluctuated between 110 and 120 lbs, she didn't cut water and placed 5th out of 40. In fact, the bikini division is the least extreme when compared to figure and physique. It just sucks hearing people hate on something that they don't understand and that has been a positive thing for a lot of people.

Why assume that someone doesn't understand it just because they hate it? That is a big leap.

Personally I don't have a dog in the fight. The competitions bore the hell out of me but I do appreciate women wearing next to nothing. Maybe if they made it a topless event I could get more into it.

jesuswantsme4asucker Wrote:
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> Why assume that someone doesn't understand it just
> because they hate it? That is a big leap.

Exactly.

But because your wife does it that means you get it 100%? Ok. You're being quite the hypocrite yourself painting bikini competitions like they are all butterflies and roses. The vast majority of the competitors exit with eating disorders, depression, and metabolic damage. It's not healthy or positive in MY opinion (which I have every right to have). But let's not talk about that because YOUR wife has fallen in love with exercise and eating healthy.

Again, I feel these Mormon SAHM are getting into this because let's face it, in the church, women are only good for one thing. And appearances are valued above anything else.

You can have your opinion but you are making statements of fact. >"The vast majority of the competitors exit with eating disorders, depression, and metabolic damage." Got a source for that?

It has done more for the women I know to get out of the traditional mindset of stay at home and get fat and lazy and wonder why my husband doesn't desire me anymore

What a stupid thing to say. Yeah, the only reason women wouldn't approve of this is because they are fat and lazy. You are a chauvinist misogynist pig.

One more thing to note, bodybuilding and figure competitions are inherently narcissistic. I was into bodybuilding as a teen. I didn't compete but I wanted to have big muscles so I could awe people. I wanted people to look at me. When you strip down to your undies and coat yourself with oil you clearly want people to stare. Its not evil and it doesn't make people who do it monsters or anything but I can say there are valid reasons why people would dislike it.

Please tell me about a competition that isn't narcissistic.

I couldn't care less if people don't like it but when someone says "it isn't healthy" that is a statement of fact.

michaelgbluth Wrote:
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> Please tell me about a competition that isn't
> narcissistic.

I think MANY competitions are not narcissistic in nature (though there may well be narcissists competing).

I'm thinking of the high-IQ/very high ability kinds of competitions among both children and adults, where--among many or most of the competitors--the personal goal is NOT personal glory, but creative fulfillment, meeting one's OWN personal standards of achievement, and things like getting full freight scholarships to the best universities so that THEY can go to college (because otherwise they couldn't), and so that their FAMILIES (nuclear family/siblings/extended family) can have better lives (as is common among immigrant and low-income families).

I would expect that the competitors in any of the most important math, science, etc. competitions would include far LESS a percentage of narcissists than exists in the population at large. Most of these kinds of people don't care about public or social adulation, but they DO care (enormously!) about being well regarded (as skilled, etc.) among their peers and the connected networks of VIP-types that will govern their futures (and, often, the futures of their families of birth).

This would also apply to many music and dance (like ballet) competitions, art competitions, writing projects, film projects, musical composition, etc.--anything where talent and skill and VERY hard work (in the, literally, THOUSANDS of hours range) determine the outcome. Many or most of these kinds of people are primarily concerned with meeting their OWN standards of performance, and actually care hardly at all about what "outsiders" may think (other than the newspaper clips, etc. make good inclusions in college and grad school applications).

This is sometimes true even of beauty competitions of various types (I don't know about fitness competitions). At least a significant percentage (I don't know how to calculate this) of competitors in beauty and some, in effect, entertainment industry competitions are actually very humble people. They are well aware that they won the beauty lottery...and they are also aware that this is because their bone structure is exactly "right" for what they want to achieve, and that their eyes are placed precisely--to the correct degree--apart, and also in relation to the rest of their face, that their head is visibly larger than would be expected on someone else with their body (this is most especially true for film; it is almost a requirement for top film actors), that their eyes and lips can be blown up forty or more times and look breathtaking on the screen. It's all a matter of winning an obscure natal mathematical lottery, and they KNOW it...and so, although they are objectively aware of their beauty (and they do conserve it), it is NOT "them," and it is not all that personally important to them. It is a way of earning a good living and securing their lifetime future, and it is at the opposite end of the narcissism spectrum from any actual narcissist.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/2014 05:31PM by tevai.