Last month, Cosmopolitan featured a story on women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and how gaining 15 pounds made her “feel more beautiful.” It was a surprising editorial choice for Cosmo, yet one they have followed up on. In their latest MMA feature, the longstanding magazine spoke to Jessica Eye, who opened up about the body image issues that female fighters face on a daily basis.
According to Eye, she was always vividly aware that her body did not match society’s “norm,” which used to bother her to no avail.
“I’ve always had an athletic build, so sometimes I didn’t fill out tank tops the right way, or I couldn’t wear certain outfits because my legs were bigger, my calves were bigger, or my body was more athletic than your typical female, with a big chest and a giant butt and skinny legs,” Eye said in the Cosmo interview (h/t Fox Sports).
It was only as she matured that Eye realized that her athletic build was one to be admired, not ridiculed.
“To me, it took me getting older that I was like, ‘You know what, I like how I am.’ I like having big legs! I like having wide shoulders! I like those things now.”
Eye also drove home the point that female fighters may generally be violent competitors during their working hours, yet they still enjoy much of the same things as their non-athlete counterparts.
“I think the biggest misconception about female athletes is that we’re tomboys and that we’re not pretty, we’re not girls — we’re just like male figures in the sport. We’re not!” Eye said. “We’re females too. We still like to get dressed up, we still like to put makeup on, we still like to go out on dates and be treated like women.”
Transcription taken from Fox Sports.
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