Forum
>
General / Nonfiction
>
Thread
Log in |
Register
Social media is primed for anger and outrage. Comments expressing negative emotions will get more attention, which is the name of the game for increasing clicks and brand recognition.
I don't usually post here, but yeah, I've absolutely noticed this. The haters seem to get a ton more oxygen than supporters. I chalk it up to the incentives created by social media: putting a spotlight on a hater and dunking on them gets you more engagement on average than interacting with people who are already being polite to you. If you're looking to grow your reach, haters are just easy fodder too good to ignore. Kind of annoying, but it's the nature of the beast.
I don't usually post here, but yeah, I've absolutely noticed this. The haters seem to get a ton more oxygen than supporters. I chalk it up to the incentives created by social media: putting a spotlight on a hater and dunking on them gets you more engagement on average than interacting with people who are already being polite to you. If you're looking to grow your reach, haters are just easy fodder too good to ignore. Kind of annoying, but it's the nature of the beast.
This. Lighting up the "mysogynistic asshole" gets a lot more attention than spotlighting the dude that wants to buy her gym socks. They're both mysogynistic assholes, but one is perceived as an aggressive jerk while the other is perceived as a lame weirdo.
It's also now popular fashion to out commentors that are hateful, bullying, and etc...For many reasons.
Social media is primed for anger and outrage. Comments expressing negative emotions will get more attention, which is the name of the game for increasing clicks and brand recognition.
When a muscle girl start to receive comments are "you are a man, trans, horrible" or " Why the hell Instagram recommend this shit to me" means that the post are becomimg viral and everyone look it.
Haters generate more interaction, only positive comments don't help a post.
Gatsby, I think your observation is fair. There is still a strange resentment of female muscle, and their fans. I've been talking about this for years.. almost any and every form of fetish & alternative sexuality have become accepted (or at least more tolerated). But women building muscle is still a "bridge too far" for the American psyche.
Hatred of female muscle is hard to reconcile with all the other cultural developments in sexual tolerance. And it's especially dumb to me, because for the most part bodybuilding is a healthy habit. Where some other (now) accepted sexual habits/fetishes are more dangerous, sickly, etc.
When a muscle girl start to receive comments are "you are a man, trans, horrible" or " Why the hell Instagram recommend this shit to me" means that the post are becomimg viral and everyone look it.
Haters generate more interaction, only positive comments don't help a post.
I never understood why people take the time to comment shit like that. If you don't like it, keep scrolling. I don't comment nasty things on fat people's post that I find repulsive. Just move on and watch another video
I am not sure I guess there just aren't a lot of men like us. online it can seem like there are many and fbbs get a decent amount of views. but their most popular videos get a lot of dumb comments from normies. but irl it's a lot rarer for them to meet shmoes we are spread around the world. like I often wonder how men can even look at fbbs without going crazy with lust. but most men don't think she is attractive or at least not above average.
Hatred of female muscle is hard to reconcile with all the other cultural developments in sexual tolerance. And it's especially dumb to me, because for the most part bodybuilding is a healthy habit. Where some other (now) accepted sexual habits/fetishes are more dangerous, sickly, etc.
I disagree that there is a general hatred of female muscle in society. Of course the overly roided women with obvious male characteristics are an easy target. However, gyms are filled with women lifting weights to get more buff, MMA and WWE are as popular as ever. IG is filled with beautiful buff influencers. The misogynistic comments come from men who are insecure and intimidated by buff women and may even desire them but have no hope meeting one.
It's also the algo. A hate comment will get a lot of likes and is more visible compared to a comment that is positive. So they respond to those more frequently.
Plus we are a very small minority. Also I think men who like gqm are perceived to be weak and small and most gwm want big strong bodybuilders. They don't want someone who is smaller then them. That's why they don't promote them.
I edited because my first response was dumb, but I like the question:
I think content providers are no different from any other type of performer. They produce their content with the expectation and hope that it pleases their audience. When the content achieves the desired response, the performer may be appreciative en masse to that audience, but not one by one. Like a comedian who doesn't thank each person's laughter individually, but they must address attention-seeking hecklers when they disrupt the performance. The difference between an audience and internet users is that the users can leave comments, of course. And if a content provider were expected to address each one, she might not have time for anything else, depending on her popularity. It's pretty normal to actively and vehemently address the disruptive voices while being more passive in accepting appreciation. I'm sure that users' approval is appreciated by the content provider, but as it is also considered normal, it isn't a topic of discussion.
This is also an observation of a self-selected group. Not all FBBs do this. Only a certain subset of them behave this way. People who rely on social media are on a spectrum of “look at me“ intensity. Folks at the upper end of that spectrum tend to seek ridiculous and dramatic reasons to get click/views/follows. I’m sure OP’s observation is one of those dramatic reasons.
I like ch44’s characterization above 👆
I disagree that there is a general hatred of female muscle in society. Of course the overly roided women with obvious male characteristics are an easy target. However, gyms are filled with women lifting weights to get more buff, MMA and WWE are as popular as ever. IG is filled with beautiful buff influencers. The misogynistic comments come from men who are insecure and intimidated by buff women and may even desire them but have no hope meeting one.
Agreed. Muscular women are more accepted than ever before. VERY muscular women (the ones clearly on steroids and start to look manly) are not.
End of the day: we're boring.
Talking about us doesn't move the meter in a sustainable manner. Our shit is only interesting to US and even then...
They talk about us amongst themselves when they meet. Trust me. I know many who shared their feelings on it. Most was negative because it is kind of ugly to ask about sessions and things like that to many women. It used to be more of a thing, but with social media now being the most common way they post it is not. Two girls who do sessions and like fans will talk about it in a positive and negative light depending on their experience. Social media is a haven for haters. That is why it seems more slanted now. Idiots say things they would never say with their keyboard.
The girls do talk about it if they both have similar interests outside of contests....even about companies like HBC and others. They have opinions too. Tre is right in that they generally don't care so much for the fan as for the money. They are rarely excited about their fans unless money is involved. The better looking fans (to the fbb) might be discussed on occasion too.
This is also an observation of a self-selected group. Not all FBBs do this. Only a certain subset of them behave this way. People who rely on social media are on a spectrum of “look at me“ intensity. Folks at the upper end of that spectrum tend to seek ridiculous and dramatic reasons to get click/views/follows. I’m sure OP’s observation is one of those dramatic reasons.
I like ch44’s characterization above 👆
You and cj44 make great points. I stopped following a lot of bodybuilders and fitness influencers because their content seemed more "performative" than authentic. While yes, I'm not naive by thinking that social media used to authentic, it seems that it's becoming even more performative and clickbaity than it was, say, ten years ago.
Still, a part of me wishes that more bodybuilders would talk about this subset of us. While I agree to an extent with Tre that we are boring to them, I still think there could be some interesting topics that they could cover: like talking about communities like this, or advice to schmoes on how to talk to them, etc. I see a lot of myths about muscular women, and how to interact with them, ranging from naive to downright cringy perpetuated by guys here, and I think having actual bodybuilders and athletic women debunk them could go a long way.
Because most fbbs are egomaniacs in the purest form, many have heavy pschological issues. Just think about why many of the fbbs start bodybuilding, and what is the reason why they go beyond every "normal" level! So it is highly naive to think such persons are interested in random fans or extreme fans (schmoes). They see them as the centre of the universe and they see you as a satellite lightyears away.
It's a great point actually. I have two thoughts:
1) Women On Social Media Be Like This Women on social media who are followed by men for their looks are innundated with compliments and positive reinforcement. I think it simply becomes routine and expected for them. This isn't just BBers... this is the case for girls in bikinis and curvy hot wives and Asian feet tease girls... basically any woman who has a mostly male viewer base. All of them tend to take positive comments as a given and complain about the negative ones.
2) Imposter Syndrome and Social Awkwardness Being a female bodybuilder is REALLY counterculture. It's costly, it has health implications, and it flies in the face of society's expectations. These women do it for a whole range of reasons, and I think that many of them truly cannot believe that certain men find them extremely attractive for it. Really.. this comes through when you talk to them. They are uncomfortable with it, and not in a bad way. They don't look down on their fans per se, but they have a hard time seeing themselves as that same "goddess."
Women get compliments all the time, in public and online, so when someone criticizes them (especially if it's a man) they obsess over it and internalize the comments or look for validation from other women about how those guys were wrong.
This isn't just a muscular women phenomenon, but a women in general thing.
I think fans give 2 types of compliments:
Type A (the average fan): "Looking great! 🔥💪"
Type B (the average schmoe): "Amazing sexy supreme alpha goddess!!! ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💍💍💍💍💍💍"
Most likely glance over Type A's comments and while they appreciate those, they don't really stand out enough to be remarkable. And Type B's comments are more likely to be a turn off for them, and therefore they'd rather just ignore/forget about them.
Please note that my observations come from what I see on social media, and while might not be representative of "the real world," I am curious about something I have noticed on a lot of social media pages from female bodybuilders and muscular athletes/influencers:
They will often post about dudes who message or comment on their posts saying things like "oh you look like a man," "that's not attractive," and so on as a means to clap back at them and/or gain support from their fans. While that is true that unfortunately, buff women will always get dumb comments like that, they also get a LOT of messages from "schmoes" who really like muscular women. However, you will rarely see posts about those, and you'll rarely see posts or hear interviews from buff women about the guys who find them attractive, or even downright fetishize muscular women. The only recent exception I could think of is Hunter Henderson in a YouTube video where she talks to some influencer at a bodybuilding gym in Las Vegas and mentions that there is a subset of guys who "are really into" muscular women, and even with that, it was really only a passing comment and she and the interviewer didn't really go too much in depth.
Why do you think that is? Why do you think there is relatively little discourse about a community like ours from muscular women? I think it would be fascinating to hear bodybuilders' and strength athletes' perspectives and maybe even advice towards guys like us? And why do you think, at least in social media, they highlight the "you look like a dude" comments, and not the "fetishizing" comments like "can you wrestle me?" I'm sure they hate both extremes almost equally, so why more emphasis towards one side?