Have you noticed that the women around you are getting kind of…yoked? I myself am among those who have gotten into strength training in the last couple of years, lured by the promise of gainz and the ability to effortlessly heave my carry-on suitcase into the overhead bin.
In senior correspondent Constance Grady's latest piece for Next Page — her excellent newsletter on books and reading — Constance traces how we arrived at this moment of peak muscle, even for women who have historically been discouraged from being anything other than thin. What does it mean for women to, at long last, embrace strength? She finds that even as getting jacked can read as “subversive, feminist, and a rejection of the male gaze” for women, strength training can’t quite escape the wellness imperative that has infected so much of our culture.
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—Naureen Khan, senior editor
