Female Muscle Curiosities: The Valkyries IronPrincess Battle Scenes Series

Hi again Female Muscle Fans. A new year begins and we hope you have enjoyed the December parties with all your dear beings. Now we are ready to face a new challenge in this new 365 days period, and as always, we are reaffirming our commitment with all of you our fans and our unconditional support for all Steel Goddesses that deserve our affection and respect because they are incredible women and they need to be recognized in the same way as male athletes.

Now in this time, we are dedicating this article for a website in which they are proposing a new approach with a thematic photographic session in which they want to honor the Female strenght with all their affection, devotion and respect. The site is called http://thevalkyries.com/ and now we are going to make a review in this moment.

The Valkyries

Website created for Charles Peeples of the United States. His admiration and respect for Steel Goddesses made him to create a space in which he could express his support for these powerful women, and he made a thematic photographic session in which he wanted to take the Valkyrie concept beyond of wagnerian legends, with a context landed on the present time. And this concept could create a comic book titled Iron Princess.

Concept: A series of photo sets staged to simulate “stills” from an action-film showcasing physique women attired as “warrior-women” in the vein of “Xena/Red Sonja,” and engaged in battle scenes against unspecified contemporary enemy soldiers armed with modern weapons, as an alternative to the “posing” photos done by virtually every “physique photographer.”

The warrior women are the central subject of this idea, and it was inspired in some productions like Red Sonja in movies, or Xena Warrior Princess on TV, but with the difference on the present time in this idea, so the barbarians are abandoned for a better time.

Background: While the warrior-woman archetype has existed since the dawn of civilization, most attempts to render her in popular culture have been largely restricted by societal standards of femininity. Some comic and fantasy artwork, like that of Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, etc. do celebrate the mesomorphic female. But on-screen depictions of action heroines are deliberately restricted to undeveloped (often skinny) female Hollywood starlets: Sandhl Bergman as “Valeria” (in Conan The Barbarian), Brigitte Nielsen as “Red Sonja,” Lucy Lawless as “Xena,” Angelina Jolie as “Lara Croft,” Keira Knightley as a “Woad” warrior, etc. Meanwhile, women who do have developed physiques are purposely excluded from the film world except as oddities -notably physique women (bodybuilders, Figure and Fitness competitors, etc) and strength/ power competitors. When these women are filmed, it’s in competition, training or “posing.” The last of these consists entirely of various self-conscious, deliberate poses in various outfits, against various backgrounds, which are normally the stage, gym, hotel room, studio backdrop (with or without props) or outdoor scene. In every instance, whether or not the woman is being directed to look into the camera, awareness of the camera/viewer’s presence is obvious and deliberate (in the cinematic world this is known as “breaking the fourth wall”). The sole focus is on her physical development, either for its inherent impressiveness or for sexual fetish purposes, and no attempt is made to disguise this. Even when the subject is wielding a tool, weapon or other prop, there is no real attempt to create the impression that she’s actually using it rather than merely posing with it. THE VALKYRIES IronPrincess Battle Scenes Series attempts to bridge the gap by rendering these women as “actors” in a simple pseudo-cinematic “narrative”: she’s fighting off well-armed, masked soldiers. Unlike physique photography, this is both drama and composition-oriented: while her physique development is deliberately highlighted to maximum effect, it is done within the context of the “scene.” Thus we see the musculature of the entire body engaged organically as it would be while drawing a bow to shoot arrows at an advancing enemy, swinging a sword or grappling at close quarters. Not only do we see her, but we see her adversaries, both living and dead, as well as other aspects of a battlefield setting. Unlike in physique photos, she will not necessarily be in the center of the photo, but often to one side of it, forming a composition that allows inclusion of the results of her “handiwork.” The purpose is to create a unique series of images that offers an alternative to “clinically-atrophied” Hollywood versions of woman-warriors and the “pose-for the camera” muscle-mannequins of the physique photographers, by melding the cinematic aspects of one with the visually-arresting physical aspects of the other. This can add another dimension to the photo portfolios of physique women, many of whom would welcome the chance to appear in films but will never have the opportunity. At the same time it offers a view of what the cinematic characters might look like with physiques appropriate to the roles. And the truth is that most admirers of muscular women are also fans of heroic female action-figures, and would hail this conjunction. Why have no physique photographers done this already? The short answer is that most physique photographers, many of whom are excellent at what they do, don’t think outside the box. But in all fairness, to be done right, such a shoot requires far more time, effort, resources, planning, coordination and expense than most photographers can justify commercially.

In this paragraph, the author is attacking the archetype of female warriors that is standard in Hollywood films, because the heroines don't have a muscular mass build on gym and diets. Commonly the heroine movies are always displayed with an undeveloped (often skinny) body like the actresses previously described, and as always, the comic books are always on the line with muscular mass on women.

Details: The IronPrincess is attired somewhat similarly to a Red Sonja/Xena character, not as an attempt to render those or any other specific fictional characters, but to reveal as much of her physique as possible within generally- accepted norms of “decency” (i.e. no frontal nudity) The only concession to physique display (vs “functional” warrior garb) is the wearing of a “thong” (camouflage or nature-toned) to allow gluteal development to be visible. Her weapons will never be firearms, but those requiring and displaying physical strength and skill: bows, blades and her limbs. Similarly, her adversaries are not Romans, Nazis, Telemarines, Orks, etc, but generic modern-day enemy soldiers in camouflage uniforms, armed with modern firepower (pistols, assault rifles, etc). They’re masked, not only for practical reasons (they’re mostly dummies!) but to depersonalize them as well as “villain-ize” them; in line with today’s headlines, they could be narco-terrorists, insurgents, militias, or any of the other multitudes of militarized thugs, like those who kidnapped 300 Nigerian schoolgirls, massacred entire villages or shot down a civilian airliner. No the need to invent truly detestable villains when the world is full of them -so take your pick. Add that as they always outnumber and out-arm the IronPrincess, everyone enjoys seeing her mow them down. There’s no specified “story” or setting other than a generic battlefield setting where Iron Princess is facing and defeating her enemy. While there will be some variety in the staging, there will be no emphasis on significantly changing the settings or tableaus for each shoot: there will be a basic list of poses/setups, the variable being the different physique-women portraying IronPrincess. In a way, these settings are being used much in way as the American Flag is for the official portrait is for all US military personnel and the standard “mandatory poses” are used in physique competitions; the setting may be similar but the individual brings the difference. In most cases the “mandatory poses” will be the IronPrincess depicted fighting off the last remaining adversary (a live person) while the rest (the dummies) lie vanquished in the background. Thus we see her muscular development in its full glory, looking the way it might if she were actually engaged in combat.

Although Iron Princess shares some similarities with characters like Red Sonja/Xena, the main character is completely different because the timeline is the present, with a military outfit, and she uses weapons like bow and arrows, blades and her limbs. The enemies are army men who are searching the world conquest, and also can enter another kind of villains like Al Qaeda, or Isis, the main terrorism organizations of Arab origin who want to impose their ideology full of hate and grudge. This is a way to mention what kind of enemies would be facing the heroine of this tale. And there are a lot of possibilities in this subject.

If you want to watch the photos, you can check the next link: http://thevalkyries.com/ironprincessbattleseries/hardwomangoodfind/iron-princess-battle-series/

This is one of the best examples of defense for all Steel Goddesses, and we have for sure many people like Charles will be fighting for respect for these amazing women who are making a role like superheroine fictional characters, but for real life. And we want to thank to Charles Peeples for sharing his site with us because we want to strenght this community for all Female Muscle Admirers in order to take down myths of hate, discrimination and sexism.

That's all for this article and we hope you have enjoyed this new focus with respect to this passion that deserves to be followed so close. Any subject related with Iron Goddessess you can write to the next e-mail address: femalemusclefanforever@gmail.com. See you next time Female Muscle Fans.