This Is How Women Bodybuilders Are Sexually Exploited in America

A press investigation conducted by The Washington Post revealed shocking secrets about the sexual exploitation of women in bodybuilding in the United States.

Officials of the two leading bodybuilding federations have sexually exploited female athletes for decades, forcing them to take nude pictures to post them to soft-core pornography sites as they. Sometimes, they manipulate the results of competitions in favor of cooperative competitors, the investigation has found.

For more than 15 years, JM Manion, whose father Jim has run amateur and professional bodybuilding competitions for decades, has filmed and operated a network of light-content porn sites that at one point advertised "more than 30,000 photos" of competitors in this sport.

A published review of the website's archive identified more than 200 female athletes in images of casual bikini shots to sexual images, including images of nude women lying together in beds and bathtubs.

 

Widespread Exploitation

The Washington Post conducted an investigation into claims of widespread sexual exploitation of female athletes. The newspaper interviewed dozens of competitors and those connected to the sport revealing the systematic exploitation of female bodybuilders subjected to "extreme dieting and workouts, lack of financial stability and a drive to win." Those women admitted their scores depended on whether they accepted shooting for sexual photos and pleasing the sport's leading judges and managers or not.

Jane Gates, who won an award at the prestigious Olympia competition, was among those interviewed by Washington Post; she said her manager, Manion, asked her once to "take off her bikini top and bottom for pictures," and she refused.

However, the athlete was surprised by posting her swimwear pictures during topless competitions on one of J.M.'s pornography sites.

Gates said during an interview that she "never consented to having my pictures put on a soft-porn site."

No more than three years after winning the Olympia in 2008, the athlete gave up the sport "in disgust."

J.M. did not respond to questions about the allegations, but Rob Rosetti, a popular trainer who sometimes attended the photo shoots for J.M.'s pornography websites, said that women had totally agreed, and nothing was imposed.

"In the very few photo shoots I was asked to attend, I witnessed no athlete being forced, pressured, persuaded, intimidated or coerced into posing nude by J.M. or any other individual assisting in the photo shoot," Rosetti texted Washington Post.

"It was done completely on the athlete's own free will," he said.

 

It Depends on Sexual Shots

The thing was far beyond taking nude photos or being subjected to cruel and inhuman training conditions; it was about changing the results of important competitions and depriving some prominent athletes of winning after refusing to spend the night with important figures and officials.

The Washington Post quoted Mandy Henderson, a former sheriff's deputy in Santa Clara County, California, detailing how the pressure was exerted on women. Henderson agreed at some level to nude photography in order to win a pro card and move to the professional league.

She came fourth in 2009 at an amateur contest and was surprised that it was taking so long for her to earn her pro card.

When asked about the reason, she figured out that she did not come to a prominent judge's room last night.

A bikini competitor, Aly Garcia, said she refused to shoot nude photos and had to be nice and smiling to not destroy her career. Like Gates, she gave up the sport in 2017 when she really knew that she would never get a top win if she "didn't have sex with the power brokers."

"This is the only way I'm going to hit my goal?" she thought. "Guess I'm not going to hit my goal."

Another athlete, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, described during the interview a "humiliating" experience with J.M.

He told her to take off her clothes and enter a shower with two other women to shoot for photographs despite previously refusing to pose nude. "I cannot tell you how terrible of an experience it was."

 

What Does J.M Said?

Washington Post quoted many women describing their personal problems and vulnerabilities that made them easily affected by posing nude as if they had no other option if they wanted to succeed in the sport.

They said nude photo shoots were often held two days before the competitions, and whether they won or not depended on their state of "undress."

Jim Manion, J.M.'s father, a 78-year-old ex-bodybuilder, runs the amateur and professional federations and presides over the amateur National Physique Committee (NPC) and the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Pro League, which is the IFBB Pro League.

NPC and IFBB did not respond directly to any of the Washington Post questions sent to Jim Manion but issued a statement saying: "As part of our efforts to grow the sport, we have expanded events and opportunities for all competitors, grown prize purses for female athletes, and improved communications for our competitors to raise any concerns they may have with an event or their experience," the statement said. "We address all concerns raised with the utmost care, concern, and timeliness."