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Sometimes I scroll past a post on Instagram or Facebook, find it interesting, and then continue scrolling rather than saving the post or writing down my thoughts as they happen. One such recent post showed a picture of Captain Kirk with his shirt off, asking why he was okay showing off his “love handles” on TV.

That picture, from “The Deadly Years”, was the one used. The author pointed out that, while Shatner wasn’t ripped, his body type at the time (the 1960s) was considered attractive and strong. Hell, it probably still is; if I had the figure of 1966 William Shatner I’d be thrilled. But these days, if you want to convey strength as a male character, you have to have someone be ripped, with every muscle showing — six pack of abs, well-defined pecs, very little body fat, that sort of thing.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the person is actually strong. Nor does it mean that a person without those things isn’t. My father, for instance, has always been a very physically-strong person, but it wasn’t until he was in his late 40s that he actually tried to look ripped (for a bodybuilding competition — winning one was a lifelong goal of his). If you’d seen my dad without his shirt in the 1980s you wouldn’t have thought “that is one of the strongest dudes I’ve ever met”. He got his strength from working a blue-collar job; he didn’t have time to exercise, to get sculpted and toned. Similarly, I could stand to lose a few pounds (okay, maybe more than a few), but I can still lift heavy things. Just because I don’t have a physique like Scott Steiner in his prime doesn’t mean I don’t still have good musculature. I’m sure Steiner could, even to this day, lift more than me, but he also worked out a lot more than I ever did.

When writing your characters, don’t automatically assume that just because they aren’t ripped it means they aren’t strong. You can show physical strength in other ways. Your characters can look like 1960s Captain Kirk and still be powerful; hell, they can look like Vince Wilfork, who’s someone that can definitely lift very heavy things despite not being ripped all over. (For those who don’t follow American football, Wilfork played defensive/nose tackle for several years, and that link shows what he looked like for most of it.) Your male readers who aren’t ripped all over will thank you.