The strange masculinization of American women

The United States is a wonderfully strange place that has entered a remarkably bizarre era.

The Wall Street Journal recently noted the growing appeal of big, muscular arms among women. On its own, it sounds like a harmless, somewhat ridiculous trend. But the veiny flexes are only the most visible part of a broader cultural shift.

The female body becomes another declaration of independence: stronger, harder, more imposing, less vulnerable.

Look around any busy gym in America, or spend five minutes scrolling Instagram, and the directives handed down to young women seem to have completely flipped. Women were once told they should no longer have to conform to male expectations to achieve genuine success. Internet culture somehow turned that promise inside out. Now the fashionable ideal increasingly resembles