Author Archives: feministfiguregirl

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About feministfiguregirl

I am a 51-year-old professor named Lianne McTavish who receives as much satisfaction from working out at the gym as from publishing my academic research. About eight years ago, I decided to combine my two primary identities (scholar/gym rat) to create "Feminist Figure Girl," a fictional character who both analyzes and participates in bodybuilding. I competed in my first figure show in June of 2011, and then wrote a book inspired by the process, published by SUNY Press in February 2015. In this blog I will write about and consider my ongoing research on the body, while regularly making fun of myself. I recommend that you start reading my first post from August 2010 (available on the home page), instead of backwards from the most recent one, in order to get the full FFG effect.

Body Shame

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si-mammomat“I am now going to gather up the breast tissue from under your arm and push it onto the tray,” says Ana as she transforms my body into a scientific specimen. I am literally squeezed into place by the mammography machine, which feels smooth and cool as I lean in to embrace it. I look down in amazement at my right breast, now pancaked between two glass slides. At the same time, I am intellectually riveted, thinking about my relationship to technology and the Canadian health care system, especially my recent promotion to the age-related category considered “at risk” for breast cancer.  Continue reading →

The Body as an Ecosystem

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From the treatise on tapeworms by Marcus Bloch, 1782 (Courtesy Wellcome Library)

From the treatise on tapeworms by Marcus Bloch, 1782 (Courtesy Wellcome Library)

I first set eyes on the original version of this engraving while seated on a hard wooden chair—was it from the middle ages?—at the Université Montpellier in southern France. “Worm heads so cute,” I wrote in my notes, sure that I would be able to use the information later. At last that time has come. All week I have been working on a chapter for a book about eighteenth-century reproduction. When the editor asked me to write something related to my specialization in the history of childbirth, I refused. “I want to wax poetic about worms and dead body parts instead. Take it or leave it.” Luckily, he took it, for my research on tapeworms ultimately led me to the topic of this post: the idea that the human body is an ecosystem. Continue reading →

Cereal Wars: The Battle for Your Bowels

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41g4Z9oudkLCereal wars were commonplace when I was a kid. Whoever shovelled crispy Corn Flakes into their gob the fastest got to eat the most. Don’t even ask what happened during those rare camping trips when my mother foolishly bought the variety pack of small cereal boxes that travelled well and could be ripped open to produce mini wax-lined bowls.  Continue reading →

Sweat

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front-new“What happened to you?” my mother asks, turning around to look at the dusty farmer now sitting beside me in the back seat of the blue Valiant. The man is hunched over and emitting small gasps of pain. Raising frightened eyes, he slowly unwinds a stained cloth to reveal his right hand. As the farmer starts to shake and sweat, I catch a glimpse of two severed fingers, covered in blood. I am surprised by how small they are. The man then gathers the stumps back into his handkerchief, and presses the injured parts to his chest. I am not quite six years old. Continue reading →

The Tanned and Butt Ugly: Photos I Cannot Resist Showing You

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This gallery contains 32 photos.

After finishing my book, which is now in the hands of external referees, I realized that many photographs—taken by the incomparable artist and designer Patrick J. Reed—could not be included in it. I think his images offer feminist interventions in the often heteronormative, … Continue reading →