With the female bodybuilders becoming more and more extreme in their muscular appearance, a backlash of sorts occurred. It is unclear, if this reversal of trends was started by the women not wanting to be so outrageously muscled or whether the public at large was just not interested. Maybe a combination of the two. In any event, the novelty of the female bodybuilder was gone.   Some of the women who were champions in female bodybuilding world had switched to new classes of Fitness and Figure. A good example of this was Kim Chizevsky. Kim was a 4-time winner of the Ms. Olympia. Suddenly, the "rules" were rewritten so as to penalize the awesome muscularity that she possessed. Kim re-invented her shape and turned to fitness competitions. It became clear, the ruling powers of the "sport" were trying to force the women to tone-down their physiques. It appears as if the women's version of bodybuilding has almost come full circle to their glory days of the 80's when they were forced to wear high-heels and not allowed to clench a fist while hitting a bicep pose. Indeed, fitness and figure competitions are more of a beauty contest with gymnastic and dance routines. The size of their muscles is not only secondary, but possibly a liability. This change has both supporters and opponents. Supporters argue that it helps get the drugs such as steroids out of the sport and allows more women to compete. Opponents argue that the women should be encouraged to be as muscular as possible, after all, it's bodybuilding. Either way, it's clear that the debate about femininity is still raging. Also, it's important to note that there is no similar debate with the men becoming more extreme every year. It's definitely a double standard. All of this controversy makes it extremely difficult for the competitors to know what the judges want to see. It takes months of training and dieting for these women to get their bodies ready for the competitions. All of that hard work can be for nothing, if the judging criteria is not what they expected.