Tokyo Bar Celebrates Muscular Femininity, Defying Beauty Norms

In a bold move to redefine feminine beauty standards in Japan, a Tokyo bar called Muscle Girls is showcasing women with muscle-toned physiques. Opened in mid-2020, the fitness-themed bar features a dozen women in sports bras and tight shorts, crushing grapefruit with their bare hands as customers cheer and capture the ritual on their smartphones.

The bar's manager, Hitomi Harigae, says the establishment caters to a different clientele than those who typically find Japan's conventional ideals of feminine beauty—small breasts, slender backs, and skinny legs—attractive. With its neon-lit, hot-pink backdrop and blaring music, Muscle Girls has become a viral sensation, attracting about 100 customers daily, the majority of them foreign tourists.

For the 30-odd women who work at the bar, Muscle Girls is more than just a workplace. It fosters a sense of sisterhood, as they exchange diet and training tips, and even spend their days off together at all-you-can-eat buffets and nail salons. The bar's challenge to Japan's gender stereotypes has resonated with customers like Aubrey Lee, a tourist from Los Angeles, who says, "Femininity can be muscular and it doesn't have to be defined by being dainty and small and quiet and not taking up space."