Muscular builds and strength change the message

It was hard to miss Ilona Maher at the Olympics in Paris this year. If she wasn’t wowing the crowd with her rugby tackles, she was making them laugh with her Snoop Dogg and cardboard bed TikToks. Since leaving France, however, the 28-year-old has gone viral for something other than her athleticism and wit.

Since July, Maher has been modeling for Sports Illustrated Swimsuitcompeted on Dancing with the stars and posed on the Emmys red carpet, all while steadily increasing her following, which now exceeds 4.3 million on Instagram and 3.1 million on TikTok. While her humor is certainly part of the appeal, it’s her stance on body image and beauty standards that has turned her into a household name.

“All body types matter, all body types are worthy,” she said in one TikTok in July. “From the smallest gymnast to the tallest volleyball player, from a rugby player to a shot putter and sprinter, all body types are beautiful and capable of amazing things. Really see yourself in these athletes and know that you can do it too.”

This video was viewed more than 6 million times. Much of Maher’s body image content, much of which is accompanied by the hashtag “Beast Beauty Brains,” gains similar traction, including one video where she corrects a user’s inaccurate understanding of BMI. This has had 8.4 million views and counting.

Maher’s burgeoning success reflects broader shifts in the beauty field, says health psychology researcher and associate professor at Flinders University Ivanka Prichard.

“There is more awareness around celebrating the body for what it can do rather than what it looks like. Athletes like Ilona help with this,” says Prichard. “Ilona’s success on the track shows the functionality of her body and highlights the importance of ​​to see beyond a person’s appearance.”

Dr. Sarah Bonell, a psychology lecturer at RMIT, says this could be evidence of a departure from the secretly insidious “wellness talk” of the past decade.

“Fatphobia and appearance-related stigmas have often been shrouded in wellness talk. People would say, ‘we’re worried about her health, that’s why we’re shaming her’. Athletes obviously can’t fit into it because they are super healthy but usually look bigger, strong, almost traditionally masculine. They challenge that narrative.”

Other female athletes who share a similar message include Australian swimmer Libby Trickett and Australian Rules footballer Sarah Perkins, both of whom have worked with health-promoting charities such as Embrace Collective. Elsewhere, the American gymnast Simone Biles stood as a model Sports Illustrated Swimsuit twice (2017 and 2019) and members of the Matildas lined up Vogue‘s Nike shoot last year.

Thanks to these kinds of initiatives and the online presence of certain female athletes, athletics is increasingly associated with beauty, says Melbourne fashion stylist Christina Robert.

“Physical strength is now considered sexy. So clothing brands are selling this back to women with muscle-enhancing clothing such as racer-back tank tops and the trend of wearing bike shorts as mainstream fashion items. Even gym clothes are becoming more revealing.”

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This is closely related to the rise of athleisure, a sector that grew by 42 percent over the past seven years. By 2026, Robert says, the segment is expected to reach a value of $386 billion or more.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we see fashion campaigns and catwalks with more models like Ilona with visible musculature,” says Robert.

As perceptions shift, more women are turning to strength-based sports. Powerlifting coach Thomas Lilley says 36.5 per cent of members of the Australian Powerlifting League were women in 2022. Now it’s 42 per cent.

“Many of our female athletes have gotten into the sport after being inspired by female strength athletes they’ve followed on social media,” says Lilley. “This has been reinforced by more gyms offering female-only powerlifting competitions, showing that powerlifting is not an exclusively male sport.”

In addition to the health benefits of strength-based sports, such as improved bone density, muscle quality and prevention of type 2 diabetes, exercise scientist and national champion Olympic weightlifter Dr. Mandy Hagstrom says that strength sports made her feel more confident as a woman.

“I became most comfortable with my body after becoming a competitive lifter,” says Hagstrom. “I knew I was strong; I felt strong and this strengthened me everywhere. I work hard for my muscles. If it makes someone uncomfortable, they probably need to look internally as to why.”

As promising as it is to see muscular women like Maher on the cover of Sports IllustratedBonell says there is still progress to be made.

“Athlete women are still quite jarring to people,” she says. “We have in many ways equalized the sexes, but one thing men still have is generally being physically bigger and stronger. We need to create spaces where they realize they don’t need it as gender. Then women can move into that space without it being inherently threatening.”

“Fitspiration” content can also be just as harmful as “thinspo” content, says emeritus professor of psychology at Flinders University Marika Tiggemann.

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“Beauty ideals are shifting a bit to allow for bigger bums and thighs, being toned all over and no longer being skeleton thin, but it’s actually just as hard for women to be. It takes a lot of work in the gym. And unfortunately, people still often think about looking strong instead of being strong.”

Dr. Emily Matheson, associate consultant at Everybody Consulting, spearheaded the development of Body Confident Sport and says we may be moving toward healthier body image messages online, but much of the content can still reinforce body image concerns.

“In 2022, the Dove Self-Esteem Project found that 90 percent of girls followed at least one social media account that made them feel less beautiful,” says Matheson.

“And it’s still very common for thinness to be associated with overall health and performance, and for girls and women to be body-shamed, especially those who live in larger bodies.”

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