Usually when women speak of empowerment, we males shudder for the wrong reasons, but one look at the empowered physique of ripped and ripe Rachel McLish and the shudder that courses from spine to lizard mind is a shiver of hot delight. Female bodybuilders were generally dismissed as mannish freaks until the release of Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985). Over night, Rachel McLish became a national sex symbol and transformed the perceptions and goals of female fitness freaks. With a pouty-lipped mug that might easily grace a Playboy cover, buoyant breasts the size and roundness of softballs, muscles blasted out like a svelte Schwarzenegger, but with comely curves intact, Rachel was crowned Ms. Olympia again and again for multiple reigns as the public face of women’s weightlifting. And also the public butt and bust.
