It’s a depressing but well-documented truth that women get a rough deal when it comes to sports. At the top end of the sporting world, female athletes are paid less and routinely subject to sexism. At the amateur end, almost half of women drop out of any kind of sports after the age of thirteen, and 61% of women who have children reported feeling too guilty about taking the time out to exercise. All in all, a pretty depressing state of affairs.
I remember moving house and being able to lift boxes and pieces of furniture, which some of the men helping us were struggling with, and I genuinely felt like a superwoman. Not because being strong is ‘beautiful’, but because it’s, well, strong. So yes, strong women can be conventionally, traditionally beautiful, but the two things do not have to go together, and even if they don’t, that isn’t important.