Skip to main contentWhen Portland-based author and performer Kristin Kaye got the opportunity to direct a one-night-only New York theater extravaganza featuring a cadre of professional female bodybuilders, she knew she was in for a wild ride. But Kaye had no idea that her Broadway debut would turn into the muscle- and hairspray-filled drama she chronicled in her new book, Iron Maidens: The Celebration of the Most Awesome Female Muscle in the World.
The memoir, which hit bookstore shelves this past September, weaves together the story of her bittersweet directorial debut/meltdown with a darkly humorous look into the world of female bodybuilding, from steroid use to competition jitters. In the process, Kaye, the first graduate from Portland State University's master's writing program to have a book published, also ended up creating the most up-to-date journalistic history of the sport available.
With Kaye in town for a Maidens reading next Tuesday, WW charged one of Oregon's own lady bodybuilders, Kat Ricker, a.k.a. "The Mighty Kat," with the job of quizzing Kaye on body image, writing muscles and the author's own reaction to a subculture of iron-pumping females.
The Mighty Kat: A lot of people are intimidated by bodybuilders. You weren't. I was impressed by how you walked smack into a village of Amazonian vixens and behaved as you would surrounded by people you're accustomed to. Was it uncomfortable?
Kristin Kaye: I went to a school for the arts for my undergraduate studies, so I had been around my fair share of arty types and extreme freaks. As a result, the bodybuilding world was not that much of a stretch. A part of me was just curious. I was also very busy trying to direct this monster of a show and was more concerned about how I was going to pull it off than I was about how weird the whole scene was. Yet there were definitely moments in the middle of rehearsal when I would look around and be stunned by the collection of women before me. It verged on the surreal.
The "builders" you worked with are a specific breed—professionals who devote their lives to the discipline and use steroids and growth hormones. As a "natural" bodybuilder, I'm fascinated by your descriptions of the psychological fallout of this hormone-tampering. Did you feel like you had to deal with these women in a unique way because of their altered brains?
At the time I was not aware of the effects of steroids, nor did I know what the "signs" were of people taking steroids. Only upon reflecting on some of the behavior did I realize what it was I was actually dealing with.
At one point in Iron Maidens, the leader of the bodybuilders breaks down. She cries out that you don't understand what it's like, how people laugh at bodybuilders on the street. How did your idea of builders change throughout your experience?
What I discovered was that a number of these women were extremely insecure and vulnerable at their core. Their muscles are an attempt to protect themselves, mask their vulnerability and overcome their insecurities. Yet it takes an enormous amount of focus and determination, even confidence, to build bodies like they have.... Their bodies say, "Please look at me, I need to know someone is paying attention" as well as, "Damn, look at what I did!" In many ways, I feel that bodybuilding is a positive way of dealing with the conflict they live with. They literally "embody" their contradiction.
You're right, bodybuilding takes an enormous amount of focus, discipline and work. How does it compare to the craft of writing?
Not being a bodybuilder, I can only speculate, but I think writing parallels the experience of crafting your body. You are shaping a story, much the same way you shape muscles. Writing a book takes focus, perseverance and a willingness to constantly refine. It requires that you put in a lot of hours. It asks for your complete attention. You can definitely feel where the "fat" is. I feel uncomfortable until an idea, a sentence, the story as a whole, has been whittled down to exactly what I mean for it to say. I am grateful, however, that writing does not require that you give up chocolate! I couldn't do that.
Successful celebrity bodybuilders are as much marketers as athletes. At the end of the show, you wanted to kick back with the builders, but they were busy "working"—promoting themselves. What did that mean to you? Have you learned any self-promotional tips from them for your book tour?
It reminded me that I was not a part of that world and that the values were different from my own. There was a not an interest in sharing the experience of The Celebration, but only in basking in the glow of their fans. The business of marketing superseded the wish to be with the people with whom they'd just made it through a harrowing and exciting experience. I can't say that I learned any specific tips.
Do you have any connection with the bodybuilding scene still?
I will stay in touch with those who I made connections with on a personal level, but I am heartbroken that the sport is treating their female athletes so poorly [many major bodybuilding organizations are canceling their female competitions]. I don't know that I can support the sport. It destroys people, and I don't like to watch that. It's like watching a friend in an abusive relationship; you support the person you care for, but can't support the situation that you feel is hurtful to them.
Iron Maidens (Thunder's Mouth Press, 236 pages, $15.95). Kristin Kaye reads at Broadway Books, 1714 NE Broadway, 284-1726. 7 pm Tuesday, Nov. 22. Free.
Journalist and creative writer Kat Ricker, www.mightykat.net , has been pumping iron for 15 years and competes with drug-free bodybuilding organizations at the amateur level.
WWeek 2015