Trans*, female bodybuilding and racial equality: narratives from a Hong Kong Chinese gender-fluid bodybuilder

ABSTRACT

This article examines the construction of femininity and sexuality, specifically as trans* intersect with race/ethnicity, in sport. The third author (S.F.’s) lived experiences as a Hong Kong Chinese gender-fluid bodybuilder who competes in international women’s bodybuilding contests serve as an impetus to examine cultural norming and marginalization in professional sport. Narrative analysis and autobiographical memory are used to understand SF’s construction of identities in relation to her¹ sociocultural environment and as a political process that alerts us to the power structures that permit certain stories to be told while silencing others. Specifically, this article problematizes how professional women bodybuilders are being constructed as objects that are expected to embody Whiteness and ‘authentic heightened femininity’. It highlights how the intersection of genderfluidity, race/ethnicity and bodybuilding defy dominant understandings of what is aesthetically, experientially and physically acceptable within the ‘norm’ in both ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’, and masculine and feminine worlds. The discussion aims to provide implications to moving beyond the enduring binary gendered, racialized and sexual assumptions in women sport.

KEYWORDS:

• Trans*
• bodybuilding
• Chinese genderfluid
• narratives
• women sport

Introduction

Exploring the voices of the other and non-normative identities have always been in the forefront of the social justice agenda in the inter-related fields of sport, health and PE (H/PE) and physical education teacher education (PETE) (Cunningham, 2011; Fitzpatrick, 2013; Spaaij et al., 2019; Sykes, 2011). What is relatively well understood in these academic fields is how critical scholars talked about body appearances and performances in relation to otherness. Identity markers such as Whiteness (Azzarito, 2009), slenderness (Rich, 2010), muscularity (Lee et al., 2009), ability (Hay & Lisahunter, 2006), youthfulness and pain-free culture (Phoenix & Sparkes, 2006) and pleasure (Gerdin & Pringle, 2015) are dominant embodied experiences in contemporary Western societies. Despite these contributions, there remains a limited understanding of the voices of queer bodies in sport (see for example, Caudwell, 2016; Storr et al., 2021), and H/PE and PETE (see for example, Drury et al., 2017; Landi et al., 2020; lisahunter, 2019). ‘Queer’ refers to an identity of group of identities, such as gay, lesbians, trans* and intersexuals. It is first used by De Lauretis (1991) to make sense of established normality and naturalized accounts of gender and sexuality. Among the studies about queer bodies in sport, trans* embodied experiences remain largely undermined (e.g. Bianchi, 2017; Caudwell, 2014). The asterisk in trans* establishes the meaning of transgender and includes not only identities such as ‘transgender, transsexual, trans man, and trans woman’ but also those such as ‘genderqueer, neutrois, intersex, agender, two-spirit, cross-dresser and genderfluid’ (Tompkins, 2014, p. 27). In broad terms, trans* refers to individuals whose gender identity does not correspond with ‘their gender assignment or phenotypic sex, either because one identifies as the “opposite” sex, or because one’s gender identity defies [the male/female] binaristic classification’ (Dea, 2016, p. 101). They may define their gender beyond man or woman, as between man and woman, sometimes man and sometimes woman, or neither man nor woman. In this article, genderfluid is a term that falls under the trans* umbrella term.

Trans* and sport have received limited coverage in the literature on gender and sexualities and even less when they intersect with race and ethnicity. Current studies related to trans* in sport mostly focused on competitive sport policies with debates around sex testing (e.g. Sailors, 2020; Symons & Hemphill, 2006). The current academic landscape also indicates a limited understanding of the lived experiences of trans* young men (Caudwell, 2014) and women (Bianchi, 2017) in physical activity and sport, and specifically on trans* transition and their bodily changes and performance effects in sport (Klein et al., 2018). Torres et al. (2020) argued a phenomenological approach for extending current physiological debates in trans* sporting experience is much needed to understand athletes’ lived experiences.

The city of Hong Kong has often appeared to be progressive and liberal in its image as a hybridized Chinese city with British colonial influences and its status as a global financial centre. Yet, there are no anti-discrimination legislation or gender recognition laws protecting LGBTQ+ communities from everyday discrimination in education, employment, healthcare, and other public facilities. Past studies on Hong Kong trans* communities have primarily focused on clinical measures to assess mental health wellness, public attitudes towards trans* (King et al., 2009) or to provide a legal framework for human rights (Emerton, 2006). While existing studies are helpful to understand Hong Kong trans* people’s practices, they are mostly quantitative research and focused on their discrimination experiences in education, housing, employment, goods and services (e.g. Suen et al., 2016; Suen et al., 2018) and mental health issues such as depression and suicidal rate (e.g. Suen et al., 2021). A trans* person often faces scrutiny from family members, friends and work colleagues. The terms ‘bin tai’ (變態) and ‘yan yiu’ (人妖) are heard and used in media circulation regarding trans* persons. ‘Bin tai’ is a derogative term pointing to sexual perversion and deviation from ‘reproductive heterosexual family-centred normativity’ (Erni, 2013, p. 148). ‘Yan yiu’ is interpreted as a ‘human monster or freak’ (Erni, 2013, p. 149). Both culturally adopted terms is a result of transphobia in the city (King et al., 2009). Ng and Ma allude conservatism in Hong Kong society as a result of ‘Taoist-Confucian, Neo-Confucian, Christian, male-dominated, and Liberalist’ influences. Genderism and heterosexism within Confucianism has been cited as key factors in transphobia (Chen & Anderson, 2017). The stronghold of Christianity in Hong Kong schools has also contributed to a conservative sex education curriculum devoid of discussion on gender diversity and sexual orientations (Kwok, 2018; Winter & Mark, 2010). As a result, conservative moral and religious beliefs have cultivated a Hong Kong Chinese environment where filial piety and family ‘face’ intertwine, sex essentialism and Chinese cultures intersects. This article aims to explore SF’s unique experiences as a Chinese gender-fluid bodybuilder as it intersects with Hong Kong’s contemporary sociocultural backdrop in relation to trans* and sport.

Since Renee Richards, a transsexual woman in America, sued the Women’s Tennis Association for barring her participation in 1977, trans* athletes in both amateur and professional level of sport (such as Caster Semenya and Fallon Fox, and more, see Anderson & Travers, 2017) have challenged simplified notions of binary-based sport categories that emphasize on biological sex difference (Travers & Deri, 2010). Expanding academic scholarship such as Anderson and Travers’ Transgender Athletes in Competitive Sport (2017), Gleaves and Lehrbach (2016), Fischer and McClearen’s article on Fallon Fox (2020) and Nyong’o’s discussion on Caster Semenya (2016) have aimed to disentangle the complexity of trans* and sport, in particular, trans* and intersex women’s participation in sport category of woman. Trans* people, particularly those who fall outside a binary trans identity (meaning they do not identify with the opposite gender but embody a wide spectrum of gender identity), are arguably the least understood among the queer community in sport. Trans* people do not fit into gender binarism which moulds hegemonic ideology of hetero-cis-normativity, a hierarchical system that privileges cisgender people over non-cisgender people, and normalizes heterosexuality as the only acceptable or natural sexuality, such that any attempt to challenge the dominant patriarchal ideals or to cross the gender boundaries (Anderson, 2011; Griffin, 1998; Worthen, 2016) can bring about serious consequences that would induce discrimination and exclusion in sport. Under the umbrella term of trans*, people who identify as genderqueer, genderfluid and non-binary experience even more subtle invisibility, misgendering and transphobia than trans* people who identify with binary gender (Nicholas, 2019). The significance of research in trans* and sport with a Chinese gender-fluid athlete, the focus of this article, highlights the taken-for-granted assumption that a coherent LGBTQ+ collective exists and that trans* is a fixed, definable, and agreed-upon category (Caudwell, 2014). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no academic studies in Western literatures that have examined the intersection of trans*, sport and Chinese women’s experiences, only those related to the general queer sporting communities from non-white backgrounds (Carter & Baliko, 2017; Kim & Park, 2017; Mann & Krane, 2018).

Queer theory and sport

One crucial aspect that binds together the current studies in queer and sport in Western literatures is how they argued that sport has long been utilized to reinforce traditional gender roles and sexuality, and normative ideologies such that masculinity/femininity, and heterosexuality/homosexuality are consistently positioned as binaries. Critically, they play an important role in the process of social classification, regulation and control (Foucault, 1978). This meant that one of the pair is privileged and legitimized: such as hegemonic masculinity is most valued in men while emphasized femininity is valued in women, and heterosexuality is valued over homosexuality.

Essentialist understanding of gender categories are prevalent in Hong Kong’s society and education curriculum despite improved status for women in the last two decades (Gender Research Centre, 2005). For example, research on the representation of women in primary education textbooks showed an awareness of gender equity in terms of increased representation of women in story narratives and images. Yet gender stereotypes continue as women are less depicted in professional occupations associated with law and order and still more associated with caring roles in domestic contexts (Lee, 2014). Research into the development of PE in Hong Kong found that despite the perception of the city as modern and a hybrid-city of East–West cultural influences, patriarchal Chinese norms surrounding the female body and poorer intellectual values assigned to PE persist (Pang, 2014; Vertinsky et al., 2005). As a result, girls are particularly affected with lesser options of sports activities and more rigid regulation of female bodies. Based on this gender order (Connell, 1992), sport and PE have resulted in the exclusion of men/boys who do not exemplify hegemonic forms of masculinity, and the marginalization of women/girls overall. This social construction perspective of gendered experiences is further entwined with homophobia in sport and PE (Clarke, 1998; Griffin, 1998), and yet limited discussion was found in better supporting queer students/athletes and equipping preservice teachers to combat homophobia in PE and sport context (Berg & Kokkonen, 2021; Flintoff, 1994; Landi, 2018).

To move beyond the binaries, studies in trans* and sport (in the West) have mainly focused on a post-structuralist and queer theoretical perspective (Elling-Machartzki, 2017) that draws upon power and resistance to move beyond established binary structures in gender and sexuality. This line of research raises questions about how trans* people negotiate gender in relation to the shame of not ‘passing’ the hegemonic binary sex/gender gaze (Probyn, 2000) or the fear of being ‘unmasked’ by others as their bodies cannot ‘measure up’ to cisgender’s bodies dominant in the sporting spaces (Connell, 2013). Passing refers to a person’s ability to be regarded as a person whose biological gender of birth matches their gender identity (cisgender people) (Elling-Machartzki, 2017). As Ahmed pointed out in The Cultural Politics of Emotions (2014), queer lives are uncomfortable as they must bear structures whose contours they misfit and live by narratives whose scripts they fail to reproduce. Studies have later used Queer of colour theory (Ferguson, 2004) to challenge and inform hegemonic process of knowledge production in relation to non-White Others (e.g. Brockenbrough, 2013; Duran, 2019; Manalansan, 2018). Sykes (2014) further used self-reflexive narratives to problematize Western colonial thinking and theoretical perspectives such as poststructuralism, queer theories about sexualities in sport and PE.

Yet, as Erni (2003) reminded us, there is a yearning to de-westernize theoretical tools instructed by Western thinkers among queer communities. This desire lies in the realization that many queers in non-Western contexts have emerged in ways that could not be adequately explained by Western theories and research paradigms. An urgent call for queer Asian regional studies has then culminated across different fields after the meeting of queer Asian scholars at Sexualities, Genders, and Rights in Asia: The First International Conference of Asian Queer Studies held in 2005 (Jackson et al., 2008; Welker & Kam, 2006). An inter-Asia approach to understanding diverse categories of gender and sexualities sheds light on the cross-regional circulations of meanings and subjectivities while contextualizing analysis in local societies. The category of trans* and its attendant trans* bodies need to be examined both regionally and locally.

In broadening the intellectual landscape, Wieringa et al. (2007) argue that LGBTQ+ subjectivities cannot be dichotomized as East / West, local/non-local but rather should be taken as reconstitutions of knowledges and gender practices embedded within complex social locations. Furthermore, both the use of English as dominant scholarly language and the Euro-American queer theorization on sexual subjects in Asia have prompted global south sexuality studies scholars to critically assess knowledge production within academia (Yau, 2010). The field of queer Asian studies has also seen more scholarship on Chinese, Thai, Filipino and Indian communities in comparison with Cambodian and Vietnamese communities (Tang, 2011). Chiang (2012) points out that early focus of trans* studies has been on Anglo-American societies with Southeast Asian and Native American research limited to anthropological studies. In response to these recent developments of queer Asian studies, this article explores further how Chinese contexts, specifically in Hong Kong provides such a Sinophonic lens to explore trans* issues in sport.

The current understanding of trans* and sport research clearly points to a lack of understanding of non-White (women) experiences, and there is a need to extend the established social justice agenda in giving voices to these others in sport. The article’s contribution is therefore threefold: First, it privileges the experiences of a Hong Kong Chinese trans* woman (SF) who participates in international bodybuilding competitions. Her unique narratives raise significant questions about essentialism, the silenced trans* and racial/ethnic women’s experiences in sport. Second, it addresses the limited autobiographic work in sport with (Chinese) queer communities demonstrating how an analysis of personal experiences can contribute to queer research and debunk binary gender categories. Third, the article outlines East Asian/Chinese scholarship in gender and sexuality that aims to underpin how Chinese trans* bodies can be understood and can extend current debates in the West specifically in competitive bodybuilding. In doing so, this article now discusses trans* studies in Chinese societies, with a focus on Hong Kong to illustrate a Sinophonic influence (Chiang, 2012) on its attitudes and values related to trans* and sport. The examination of a Chinese gender-fluid bodybuilder’s experiences alongside the nexus of trans* and sporting bodies extends current literatures in queer and sport.

Methods

Narrative inquiry of bodybuilding experiences

This article employed an oral narrative of personal experience to explore the third author, SF’s stories as a professional bodybuilder. SF was assigned female at birth, socially male and competes as a female athlete. SF is a Hong Kong Chinese gender-fluid bodybuilder, researcher, and gender-fluid activist. Seeing herself as neither completely as a man nor a woman, this article shares her experiences in being and becoming a gender-fluid bodybuilder through a narrative inquiry approach.

A narrative inquiry approach is a form of qualitative research that aims to explore a person’s life. As Smith and Sparkes (2009) noted, ‘we live in, through, and out of narratives’ (p. 3). Narratives serve as important source of psycho-sociocultural development and shape who we were, we are, and might become. This article draws on a narrative inquiry approach as it aims to focus on SF’s life experiences and the stories she tells, and thus enables us to ‘situate discursive constructions’ of sport and gender/sexuality within ‘individual life stories as well as in broader social conditions of heterosexism and cis-gender norms’ (Carter & Baliko, 2017, p. 698). The potential for narrative studies to explore the links between identities and culture has been recognized in the field of social justice research in sport, H/PE and PETE (e.g. Carless & Douglas, 2008; Dowling et al., 2012).

Data collection and analysis

The first step included SF engaging in a self-reflexive biographic account of her experiences as a Chinese gender-fluid bodybuilder. The biographic account was then shared among the authors for a first reading. The second step was a verbal story-telling (Smith, 2016) of SF’s experiences with the authors in a one-hour online interview. All the authors are an ‘insider’ (identified as Chinese and LGBTQ+) to the focus of study, and this increased the depth of conversations and also assisted SF to feel secure enough to be candid in the stories she shared. While listening to SF’s stories, the first and second authors engaged in the conversation to clarify, contrast, or prompt further narrative development. The first and second authors are ‘outsider’ to international bodybuilding competitions, as such they complement and bear an alternative perspective to the analysis and interpretation. The dialogues between SF and the two authors: one as a Hong Kong Chinese Australian academic based in the UK with expertise in Chinese diaspora’s health, sport, and educational experiences; and another a Hong Kong Chinese Canadian academic who worked in North American non-profit organizations on LGBTQ+ issues, HIV/AIDS, First Nations and aboriginal rights for over a decade. As both an insider and outsider, the three authors bring valuable insights to understanding the nuances of gendered experiences in sport and sexuality as they intersect with race/ethnicity.

After an understanding of SF’s biographic account and further immersing in the data through reading and re-reading the transcripts, the authors collaborated in the processes of analysis and interpretation. The analysis comprised an autobiographic memory approach. Autobiography gives access to the complexity of social life ‘from within’, uncovering the meaning that people attribute to their actions (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). Autobiographical memory served as an analytic framework for this study (Conway & Rubin, 1993) as we explore how SF’s experiences are connected to specific places and times in her life and consequently are of immense personal significance (Tulving, 2002). Specifically, this article, through the vignettes, demonstrates how her personal and professional sporting journey evolved across time (whens) and space (wheres) (Holstein & Gubrium, 2004). In doing so, we follow Conway and Pleydell-Pearce’s (2000) three levels of autobiographical memory framework: the first level is ‘lifetime periods’ which we explored SF’s memories about significant life events in relation to sexuality and bodybuilding that lasted for several years. The second level is ‘general events’ which included SF’s memories about bodybuilding trainings and competitions, and these experiences usually lasted from a few days to several months. The third level is ‘event-specific knowledge’ level of SF’s memories which detailed one specific event of instance in time. After this analytical stage, we presented the stories in three vignettes that weaved SF’s experiences of negotiations of gender and sexuality normalities across cultural contexts and her autobiographical memories in bodybuilding contextually situated in time and space. The first vignette described SF’s memorable bodybuilding experiences in relation to gender and sexual identity; the second vignette is about her everyday bodybuilding practices and relationship with her coaches; and the third vignette discussed her experiences in specific international bodybuilding competitions.

Narratives: listening to SF’s trans* experiences

Memorable experiences: was I a lesbian or trans*?

I started going to a weight training arena managed by the government six times a week when I was 18. I signed up for a weight training course but after the first lesson I quitted because the trainer told me, as a woman, I should not lift and thus I was not allowed to lift more than 5 lbs. for bench press. He said my breasts would disappear if I trained too much. After that encounter, I made sure I dressed up masculine enough to be seen as a boy. For instance, I no longer wore a sports bra to the gym so I would not be seen as a tomboy. During my university as a sportsperson, I struggled with my lesbian identity, and I started to explore if I was a trans* man. I convinced myself I would be content to be a muscular girl/lesbian.

Unlike typical trans* men in Hong Kong, I never desire any sex reassignment surgeries. I thought it would be easier to be a muscular girl than to ‘cross’ the line and come out to my family. However, this state of mind did not last long until I saw a government advertisement on equality for trans* people, I could not help but cried uncontrollably. I began training seriously in bodybuilding when I met my weight training coach after university. He showed me how to appreciate the aesthetics of bodies in bodybuilding according to the muscle symmetry and proportion, as well as muscular shape and size. At the beginning, I thought those muscular men were ugly with their muscular trapezius and deltoid muscles. I also thought it was because the society has taught us to value male physique with six pack abs only, and anything beyond the ‘beach boy’ look (that is, male with six pack abs and muscle toning) would be too ‘extreme’ for my taste. Interestingly, I never have much appreciation with female bodybuilders’ physicality until I decided to compete in recent years.

Everyday practices: training coaches and changing rooms

Over the years, I have worked with several bodybuilding coaches. My first coach seemed sympathetic towards my gender identity until he pressurized me to join a gym with him which insisted me to ‘wear long sleeves’ during my workout, as I was considered too muscular as a woman and would ‘intimidate other personal trainers and clients’. My current coach is from Los Angeles, and he is quite open-minded. At first, he mistook me as a trans* man as he did not understand gender fluidity. He would interchangeably use male and female pronouns to address me in front of his friends at the gym. However, he would unintentionally give homophobic or transphobic comments, for instance, he talked about how transsexual sex worker make the streets messy, or that gay people would very often contract HIV.

I think my changing room experiences have a great impact on how I reflect upon strategies to tackle transphobic discrimination. The first incident happened when I first started working out in a mainstream gym in Hong Kong. I used the female changing rooms in gyms partly because I am legally a female, and partly because the bodybuilding community perceives me as a female athlete. For instance, I am often mistaken as a male and that my breasts were seen as a male’s chest. Often, I feel anxious and insecure whenever I have to use the female changing room. How others see me had affected me negatively and I wanted to find a solution that would not bring emotional pain. I am also self-conscious that I have a deeper voice than most women, and thus whenever I spoke and tried to defend myself in the changing rooms, it made things worse. I was frustrated and wanted to find a win-win situation. I realize if I took the initiative to speak up for myself first, it leaves little room for others to fantasize and formulate a version of myself in their minds. I would also show them my competition photos with pride to let them know my feminine side. In other words, it gave less interpretative space for these women to presume my gender or gender identity.

As a professional bodybuilder, a lot of young gym users look up to me and ask me for training advice. I am well respected within the bodybuilding community because I have won a prestigious professional title and I have beaten the ‘Western and white’ girls overseas. However, I often feel puzzled as they would rather hire a male trainer with no contest experience to help them prepare their contests. Although I am experienced in both male and female posing of all categories, male clients would prefer having a man to be their trainer, and women clients prefer to find a bikini competitor coach rather than me whom they see as a trans*. Within the bodybuilding community, I am usually seen as a female bodybuilder, and most of my male bodybuilder counterparts respect my masculine gender expression. These male bodybuilders often think that only lesbians would want to have big physique, while other ‘normal’ girls would prefer to compete in bikini category that expects less muscularity. I think their views also relate to Chinese traditional gender structure that conform to rigid gender expressions, in which women who desire to be muscular must be lesbians.

Specific events: international bodybuilding contests

One of the most memorable experiences was after I won my first international contest in Cebu, the Philippines, I was approached by 50 strangers (men mostly) who were bodybuilding enthusiasts and queued up to take photographs with me. Their positive admiration of my physique was a surprise to me as I often felt marginalized and was deemed as ‘ugly and too muscular’ in Hong Kong. In my second international contest, I competed in the female physique category, I deliberately dressed up as more ‘feminine’ by wearing more accessories (e.g. earrings and make-up) and a bikini. The process of learning to be ‘feminine’ on stage was interesting as well as challenging for me as there is no standard competition rules as to what is being feminine on stage. It seemed ‘natural’ for my female competitors to be a female on stage, but for me, I spent a long time studying overseas competitions, in particular, how female competitors in my category enter the stage. For instance, I learned about the body gestures—you have to kiss and say hi and goodbye, you have to pretend to be wearing heels although we compete bare foot, you have to show grace and femininity in your posing, you have to show your fingers instead of your fists when you pose, and so on. After the competition, the female competitors told me that I should not be competing in the women’s physique category because I was too muscular. Their advice was, for better marketability, I should consider shrinking my size or consider competing in the women’s bodybuilding category. According to the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Pro League (IFBB Pro League), the official difference between women’s physique and women’s bodybuilding is the different number of mandatory poses (5 vs 7). However, the unwritten judging criteria is that judges look for more muscularity and more conditioned physique in women’s bodybuilding than in women’s physique category (IFBB Pro League, Web). Thus, I decided to be the latter. One of the reasons is that I did not want to shrink my hard-earned physique just to fit into a competition category which did not embrace my muscularity. My muscular physique also aligned with my masculine gender expression. Recently, I competed in America in the female bodybuilding category. I was the only athlete from China (they refused to put Hong Kong as my country), and I did not feel welcomed by the officials. It was the first time I felt strongly that I was ignored because of my nationality, as a Chinese, as I believe they had no interest to invest in the Chinese market.

In 2018, I competed in a professional qualifier competition in Vancouver, and it was where I won in the open female bodybuilding category and became a professional athlete. During the contest, a female Canadian audience told me she hoped I could win despite she was a Canadian. After I won the contest, the bodybuilding world was shocked at how they could have let a ‘man’ compete in a female bodybuilding category. Their accusation was that I was assigned male at birth and competed as a woman. One of the accusers even defamed me on social media by randomly picking a Chinese male bodybuilder competitor in a mainland Chinese competition and claimed that it was me before surgery.

Overall, I think bodybuilding is a very subjective sport, and similar to other commercial sport, the audiences’ tastes and expectations, ticket sales, and marketability have an impact on who gets valued in the competitions. In some sense, I believe that my gender expression is not favoured in international bodybuilding contests governed by Wings of Strength (the sponsor and event organizer of Olympia, the biggest bodybuilding shows in the world), as their agenda is to promote a feminine image of bodybuilders in their contests. These international contests experiences made me feel that my chance in winning in the professional league is dim.

Discussion

Femininity code in international bodybuilding contests

The judging criteria of bodybuilding contests include the overall muscularity in a series of mandatory poses, muscle symmetry and proportion, and the presentation of muscles choreographed with music (Lowe, 1998). Since the judging criteria does not involve objective record of time or is not based on level of difficulty, it is a rather subjective sport in terms of the vague judging criteria (Lowe, 1998; Schippert, 2007). In particular, female bodybuilders are often expected to restrict their display of muscularity with heightened degree of femininity. The ‘femininity code’ involves coiffed hair, exaggerated make-up, jewelleries, or accessories, and bright-colour posing suits with rhinestones (Lowe, 1998; Schippert, 2007). With no standard competition rules on what is ‘feminine’ on stage, SF must learn to act feminine and to do and undo gender through studying other female competitors and reproducing their body gestures and outfit. This gendered bodywork on stage, akin to the ‘athletic labour of femininity’ (Thorpe et al., 2017), also responds to consumers’ and judges’ expectations that women bodybuilder demonstrates a successful feminine sporting persona including self-presentation and branding which attracts positive comments and likes from spectators, followers and fans.

Differ from most female bodybuilders who would continue to embody these femininity codes off stage such as at the gym and in daily social interactions, SF defies such expression by embodying a rather masculine outlook that is often being mistaken as a man (for instance, at the female changing room). The changing room is an everyday social space that intersects with emotions among the athletes. In SF’s experiences, social interactions within the space often create stress and anxieties as she is often required to use the female changing room as she competes in the women’s bodybuilding category. SF’s narratives indicated that the changing room is a strictly binary-focused and gendered space in the realm of sports, as indicated by early research on PE in Hong Kong. Gender roles are rigidly upheld in the use of this space and failure to perform appropriately within these roles are often met with hostility by other cisgender users. As Ellis et al. (2014) noted, trans* people are more likely to avoid public spaces such as gyms where they could be harassed and identified as trans* or ‘outed’. Similarly, MacKinnon (2017) found that many trans* people in Canada abstain from going to the gym, and in the United States, young trans* people have low levels of participation in sport. In negotiating with female members at the gym’s changing room, SF explores the possibility of a win-win situation – by manipulating the interpretative space and transforming it into a pedagogical space, displaying her feminine competition images while maintaining her masculine outlook, that enables the women to ‘accept [her] in the “woman” space but also to be conscious of [her] “difference”’.

Race/ethnicity intersects with genderfluidity in bodybuilding contests

When competing in international bodybuilding contests, SF’s genderfluidity further complicates the discourse on race and ethnicity. Being seen as a(n) Chinese/Asian in international contests, SF’s experience, to a certain degree, reflects the rather consistent cultural imagination of West versus East in the bodybuilding world. For example, the world’s largest and most prestigious bodybuilding contest and federation come from America. Most professional competitions take place in the West and academic scholarship on bodybuilding studies mainly focused on examining Western athletes, federations, and competitions. For instance, in 2021 IFBB Pro League contests, only 6 of 45 shows of men’s classic physique take place in non-Western areas. Only 1 of 24 shows of men’s open bodybuilding take place in non-Western places (IFBB Pro League, 2021a, 2021b). Specifically, building on the East–West dichotomy, ‘Oriental’ women are often represented as exotic, submissive, seductive and hyper-feminine (Kwan, 1998; Uchida, 1998; Wen, 2013). The maintenance of ‘Western femininity’ and the privilege of White, Western gender norms is exemplified in her international bodybuilding contests’ experiences. For example, SF’s victory in Vancouver challenged the racial and gendered biases on Asian women. To the accusers, perhaps it was impossible for them to acknowledge a Chinese woman could gain victory over Western women in bodybuilding contests. Arguably, some of the Western competitors that SF encountered were desperate to find ‘physical and scientific evidence’ to prove that SF was born a male as a response to defend their Western racial superiority. As such, reinforcing the racial logic of the ‘yellow peril’ that entail risks and fear/anger (Pang, 2021).

SF’s experiences with a competitor from Canada further demonstrates the possibility of transcending racial and gender boundaries. The competitor who acknowledges her own ethnic and racial superiority told SF that she would hope SF could win the contest even though she was not Canadian. Her response could imply that SF is racially inferior when compared to Canadians in physicality/bodybuilding. Yet, her admiration of SF’s physique outgrows the limited boundaries of racial stereotypes. SF’s physique and gender performance does not only challenge the cultural assumptions of Asian bodies but highlights the nature of bodybuilding: to test the limits of human performance (Liokaftos, 2014) by developing to the highest point of every separate muscle in the body (Adam, 1894; Turse, 2000), and to attain a ‘perfectible’ and aesthetic body that looks like a human statue (Richardson, 2011, p. 145), which is genderless and raceless.

The respect SF earned in local Hong Kong bodybuilding communities is mainly through her victory of a professional title and by beating ‘Western and White girls’. In Euro-Anglocentric competitions, Asian (bodies) are less valued due to the racial and cultural assumptions of their genetically less gifted bodies. According to SF, if Westerners compete in Asian competitions, even if they win, they would be looked down upon by fellow competitors from Western countries. Conversely, if Chinese or Asian people win in a Western competition by beating ‘Western and White’ opponents, they gain more respect in general than winning in an Asian competition. Although SF’s victory in beating ‘Western and White girls’ demonstrates her ability to subvert the cultural imagination of a ‘less able’ Asian body, it is inevitable that she has somehow internalized the East–West dichotomy and reproduced the perception of cultural inferiority imposed by the Western gaze (Pang, 2021). It also speaks to the difficulties of transgressing colonial imaginations that structure global sports events.

Conclusion

This article problematizes how a Hong Kong Chinese, non-white, gender-fluid, professional women bodybuilder is being constructed as an object that is expected to embody Whiteness and ‘authentic heightened femininity’ in local gym and international bodybuilding contests. The vignettes point to the centrality of both personal and collective forms of subjectivity and identification that are sometimes contradictory and the associated shift in personal values relating to bodily experiences, sexuality and (Chinese) ethnic identity. Although SF’s embodiment has created new space that subverts gender and racial boundaries, this does not come without conflicts and struggles. The feeling of SF being ‘stuck in between [gender]’ when she tries to provide professional training services demonstrates the importance of transforming bodybuilding space with more gender inclusion. Within the Hong Kong contexts, this could be achieved through, for example gender-inclusive spaces including gender-neutral changing rooms can be implemented in gyms; gym membership can allow one’s chosen pronouns instead of one’s gender; professional training services can offer specific programmes for gender minorities as trans* people often have issues of body dysphoria on certain body parts such as the chest. This article concludes by highlighting how the intersection of genderfluidity, bodybuilding and Chinese physicality defy dominant understandings of what is aesthetically, experientially and physically acceptable within the ‘norm’ in both ‘Eastern’ and ‘Western’ worlds, and feminine and masculine worlds in international bodybuilding contests.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work contributed by Dr Denise T-S. Tang was supported by Hong Kong SAR Government Research Grant Council [grant number 131107].

Notes

1 SF’s chosen pronouns are she/her in this paper.