09.28.2004:George Legeros on the Demise of Flex and Femme Column Flex Magazine

from Heather Foster, who sent to us this George Legeros editorial:

Editorial Comment

Women's bodybuilding???....hmmm....women's bodybuilding???....What else can happen to women's bodybuilding? This is a question I've been asking myself for several years now. The answer is very disturbing....Let's look back to some fairly recent events...First, there was last years GNC's so called "show of strength". They removed it and replaced it with figure?...oh yeah...that was real smart. Luckily they came to their senses and added the event this year. Then... Jan Tana gets cancelled for reasons unknown to people of my stature in the business... I don't know...sounded like politics not sports to me....Now what? FLEX magazine? The last bastion of what I used to consider a reputable monthly muscle magazine has gone and done it. It seems they have finally found the proverbial straw to break the camel's back. . FLEX Magazine (in all their wisdom) has decided to discontinue Steve Wennerstrom's measly four page (about .0133333% based on a 300 page magazine) section "Flex and Femme".

OK...so the REAL questions are ...WHO DONE IT..? and WHAT HOW WILL IT EFFECT THE SPORT NOW? Was it Editor Peter McGough? Some think Peter, along with Kenny <Kassel and Bob Bonham saved the Ms Olympia a few years back...so it wouldn't make much sense to think it was Peter's decision....or was it AMI... tabloid, king of the hill, magazine conglomerate? .....hmmmm I wonder????

Very tough question! Because the answer will reveal the person or persons who, by their actions, may have finally succeeded in destroying any chance of women's bodybuilding, along with fitness AND figure, from gaining the mainstream media recognition they have fought so hard for over the years!. It's been hard enough getting the women covered by the main stream media with all the scandals surrounding women's bodybuilding such as drugs, pornography, gender identification, and not to mention the totally unfair, inequitable, and down right disrespectful distribution of prize monies. If the ex Weider publications will no longer cover women's bodybuilding, fitness, and figure as a sport in general...I ask you...who then will?

This is not a blast at the NPC...but they haven't been much help either...The NPC has gone to a lot of trouble issuing memos relative to media coverage and press credentials. They only want "mainstream" magazine press to cover their events...well...now what?...It seems for some unknown reason they (NPC) don't really like the Internet or have been unwilling to embrace it as a tool of the future. Even though the cold hard facts are that some sites reach more people in a week than most magazine subscriptions can reach the entire year. (Did you know that femuscle.org now gets over 20Million hits a month?) Do they think coverage in their NPC magazine is sufficient media coverage for the women? It's just my opinion...but I think NOT! What of the Pros? Who/what will take up the slack? What entity can fill this newly created void? "It's the economy stupid" is not the answer this time...the answer is..."It's the Internet stupid"!

Lady athletes, AND YOU FANS....it's time....enough is enough...if ever there was a time for you all to put your collective heads and hearts together this is it...You ALL need to get involved in this...you ALL need to be heard on this one...you all need to spread the word to the guys too....DO WHAT EVER IT TAKES..."cut em' off if you have to...but DO SOMETHING NOW...or pretty soon you may want to think about putting away your posing suits taking up tidily winks...

Let FLEX and Muscle and Fitness magazine know what's on your mind...if YOU won't...no one else will and you will lose all that you've been fighting for over the years....acceptance by the mainstream media!

Ps<When does your subscription expire?

-just a thought