A Victorian female bodybuilder (4 photos + 1 video)
Today we open social networks and there is nothing but fitness, healthy lifestyle, pumped-up girls and advertisements for classes. It seems that this fitness fashion appeared relatively recently... But it is not. 
It was the 1890s. Spectators happily gathered for a circus show and here, a young girl comes out into the arena. An ordinary lady, similar to her spectators, in clothes corresponding to the Victorian era. But then she begins to gradually take off parts of her clothes and the shocked audience gasps - the woman's muscles are not at all girlish.
Her name was Lavery Vallee. 
Vallee was born in California in 1875. And her career, unique for those years, began quite by accident - Lavery saw an ad in the newspaper that one of the theaters was urgently looking for a girl for an acrobatic number. Whatever - Lavery went to the casting and passed it. Training began. And in just four months, the girl learned all the tricks, including on the horizontal bar and on the trapeze. She debuted on Christmas in 1897, and it was not only her agility that amazed the audience - Lavery was stripped down to her bodysuit and tights during the performance. 
Lavery took the stage name Charmion and began her brilliant career as a bodybuilder. She wrestled men, lifted all kinds of weights, bent iron bars in all directions. She also became one of the first women to publicly show off her muscular body. A kind of fitness influencer of that time. 
Charmion even managed to attract the attention of Thomas Edison. In 1901, he shot and released his own silent film (3 minutes long), in which the strongwoman demonstrated her abilities. In the frame, Charmion gradually took off her clothes, which were picked up by two men, who applauded the girl with admiration.
With this mini-film, Edison wanted to make it clear that viewers should not react to the pumped-up Charmion with disgust, as was required by the rules of decency of that time.
