Leni Riefenstahl y Robert Mapplethorpe: dos visiones distintas de objetivación del cuerpo de la mujer deportista = Leni Riefenstahl and Robert Mapplethorpe: two different ways of objectifying the sportswoman’s body
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The aim of this paper is to illustrate the ongoing
debate on the objectification of the
body of the muscular woman. It also poses
the question of whether after achieving redefinition
in an attempt to eschew the stereotypes
that have always been attributed to women by
men – the dominant and controlling perspective,
endowed with power – this woman has
managed to break free or, on the contrary, fallen
foul of yet another male categorization. To
perform this analysis, we have chosen two different
objects of study: on the one hand, stills
from Leni Riefenstahl’s film, Olympia (1938);
and on the other, Lady: Lisa Lyon (1980-82),
the series Robert Mapplethorpe dedicated to
the bodybuilder Lisa Lyon. These will allow us
to underscore two different ways of showing
the body of the “other”, inasmuch as the muscular
woman breaks with what is considered
“normal” by shifting away from conventional
canons of female aesthetics. Furthermore,
this will also allow us to address the problems
arising when trying to achieve this