"Strong is beautiful"

I was asked what "strong is beautiful" meant to me.. well here you go..

I grew up feeling this collective fear that we, as female athletes, will appear "manly" or "unattractive" because we exist outside the box of what it means to be a "woman" when we are strong, take up space, have muscles, and exhibit fierce competitiveness or anger. Which means I learned, on an unconscious level, that to be a woman means to be small, polite, agreeable and helpless. So although I understand "Strong is beautiful" is meant to be a reclamation of a taboo type of female body, the quote still sits heavy in my stomach. To me it feels like a consolation prize. Like, if we, as female athletes, can't be appreciated for anything but beauty, then we will at least reframe and advertise strength as beautiful.

My questions are... Why aren't women's bodies appreciated for anything but their attractiveness? Why must we be digestible by the public eye at all? Why when our jobs are to be excellent at the function of our bodies, are we judged and judge ourselves, for the appearance, especially allowing that at the cost of performance. Why must our bodies be placed on a scale relative to attractiveness at all? 

Strong to me is so much more than beautiful. Strong is also purposeful, strong is efficient, strong makes me feel good, strong is empowering, strong is healthy, why must we emphasize strong as beautiful? To choose "strong is beautiful" as the statement liberating women, is in my feeling, reiterating the same harmful stereotype that women's main function is to be attractive to others. As an athlete and as a woman, let me be in whatever form I come. Athletes come in all shapes, sizes, and strengths.