Throughout the history of bodybuilding for women there have been attempts to alter the "direction" of the sport by changes in the judging rules and procedures. These have almost always had a negative effect on competition, and there is a simple reason why.

In the most basic sense, there are no rules for judging bodybuilding. There are only rules governing procedure. Bodybuilding judges are supposed to be able to identify a good bodybuilder when the see one. All references to such things as muscle shape, symmetry, proportion, definition and muscle separation in a bodybuilding rule book are DESCRIPTIONS of what the judges look for; EXPLANATIONS, not guidelines instructing them how to judge a bodybuilding contest. Experienced judges are supposed to be able to look at a lineup of competitors, watch them hit comparison poses, do their presentation and be able to come to a conclusion as to who is the best, the next best, the next and so on. Good judges should all see a contest relatively the same, which is why those who deviate too far from the consensus should be challenged. But because there will always be difference of opinion in these matters, a number of judges are used to score an event, and the high and low score(s) are dropped, to cancel out the possibility any undue bias or subjectivity on the part of any judge.

This CONSENSUS is what bodybuilding judging is all about. The sanctioning bodies select officials who demonstrate they understand the standards of what constitutes a good bodybuilder, standards that have evolved steadily over the past 60 years or so. So if a judge consistently has competitors in first place who everyone else has finishing 8th, or vice-versa, something is obviously wrong. It is often hard to know who will make a good judge or not. Some former competitors become excellent judges and some don’t; some first-rate judges have never competed at all. I have sat next to famous pro bodybuilders at contests, listened to their comments and wondered what show they were looking at – certainly not the one taking place on the stage! On the other hand, I remember a television commentator at a pro women’s show, a former beauty queen, who picked out the top five without hesitation, explaining "Well, it’s bodybuilding…not a beauty pageant."

Since an innate sense of what a bodybuilder is supposed to look like is what characterizes a good judge, you can’t successfully give the judges specific guidelines of what to look for. This was tried in 1992, when the IFBB was so concerned because Bev Francis almost won the Ms. Olympia. Guidelines were introduced featuring words like "femininity" and cautioning the judges that the women shouldn’t be "too big." Of course, what happened when the judges were not permitted to rely on their own perception and judgement amounted to a disaster. Anja Schreiner, very attractive but with only a "fitness" degree of development, won the Ms. International. Marie-Laure Mahabir, who had worked her way up into the top five at the Ms. Olympia, was placed 11th in the Jan Tana (when she should have been first or second). The fans reaction to this was so overwhelmingly negative that the IFBB had a terrible time selling tickets to the Ms. Olympia that year. Friends of Lenda Murray called her and said, "I’m not going to the contest this year, I hear they are turning it into a beauty contest."

This should be a lesson for all time that you can’t direct judges to select winners that the federation or the magazines think are "best for the sport" in terms of promotion and publicity. Bodybuilding is a real sport and in athletic competition the winner is the winner, and anything else destroys the integrity of the event. As I said, the "rules" of bodybuilding are procedural. This many rounds, scored this way, music or no music, a set group of compulsory poses, regulations regarding posing suits and so forth. You can organize and structure the contests various ways, but you can’t tell the judges how to judge. And if the judges follow some arbitrary set of guidelines and don’t select the really deserving winners, you end up losing the fans.

The difference in judging between bodybuilding and fitness clearly shows the nature of each of these types of competition. While there is a clear tradition of what constitutes a good bodybuilder (probably based in large part on innate human aesthetic perceptions), excellence in fitness is whatever the rules say it is. Fitness is totally the product of its rules and guidelines. This much muscle, that much muscle or no muscle at all; emphasis on gymnastic performance or obstacle course. As a result, the winner of an IFBB pro fitness contest is not likely to look like that of a Wally Boyco Ms. Fitness event. In fact, one of the problems with IFBB and NPC fitness has been a lack of clear understanding as to what the events are for. Boyco knows he is producing a syndicated TV show, and he creates his guidelines accordingly. But the IFBB and NPC have no such clear-cut vision. I have often recommended that fitness be viewed as a kind of highly-specialized and demanding beauty contest, the aim of which is to create champions who can work as spokesmodels for the health and fitness industry. Following that type of guideline you are most likely to end up with champions who can do something with their titles, rather than just fade away as do, for example, most Hawaiian Tropic Beauty Pageant winner.

One mistake fitness makes, in my opinion, is not placing enough emphasis on facial beauty. To be somewhat more specific, I define this as being attractive enough to be on the cover of magazines like Muscle & Fitness. Again, since fitness isn’t really a sport by any normal definition of the term (which is not to say that the women aren’t athletes or that the contests aren’t athletically demanding), the rules should be structured in such a way as to produce popular, marketable winners.

Bodybuilding is totally different. The suggestion has been made to introduce "face judging" into the women’s pro contests, and this is likely to lead to a disaster of 1992 proportions. We have seen how judges tend to go overboard when given these kind of inappropriate guidelines to follow. Tell them, "You should take into account whether the competitor’s face is overly drawn or looks too depleted" (which is a common result from severe dieting and dehydration) you open the way to judges changing their scores wildly based on how they happen to feel about the way a female bodybuilder’s face looks. That is, you introduce an unacceptable degree of unnecessary subjectivity.

My general rule of thumb has always been that you should make no rule for judging women that wouldn’t make sense, in one form or another, applied to the men. Bodybuilding for men and women is the same sport, just as is men’s and women’s tennis, golf or basketball. Some differences exist in these sports, but they are all based on some practical consideration. Women golfers hit from different tees because preserving the concept of "par" requires them to play shorter distances. Women’s tennis involves three set championships instead of five for the men because (as its been explained to me) the women volley more, the points are longer, and their three set matches often last as long as the five sets men play. Women bodybuilders wear two piece posing suits instead of one piece, simply because it is customary in our culture for women to cover their breasts in public. Other than that, there aren’t many differences in how the contests are conducted.

(The lack of the front and rear lat spreads as part of the women’s compulsories in IFBB contests is, of course, a glaring exception. These poses were removed in the early 1980s by a female bodybuilding official and have never been restored. This is, of course, wrong and should be changed.)

Whether or not the IFBB will continue to sanction pro bodybuilding for women in the future is evidently still up in the air. But there is a lot of discussion as to how to make women’s pro contests more entertaining and what to do to increase the overall appeal of the competitors. I suggest the organizers remember the old saying about those who don’t remember history being doomed to repeat it. Remember the disaster of 1992 and don’t make the same kind of mistake. Whatever is done to help promote and develop pro bodybuilding for winners, don’t include attempts to direct the judges to use subjective, inappropriate and ultimately ineffective guidelines to do something they are already supposed to know how to do – that, is know a good bodybuilder when they see one.