Fit

From Driscollwiki

Block, L.S. (Director). (1991) Fit: Episodes in the history of the body [film]. United States: Straight Ahead Pictures.

• http://www.straightaheadpictures.org/sap/wwd_FIT.html
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0331493/

Contents 1 19th c. 2 Physical exercise 3 Sandow 4 Women's phys ed 5 Physical culture, 1890-1910 5.1 New leisure 5.2 Impulse to get strong 5.3 MacFadden 6 Race Suicide, 1905-1920 6.1 Brains over brawn 6.2 Jack Johnson 6.3 Physical exams in the army for WWI 7 Efficiency, 1920-1930 7.1 Posture 7.2 Control of germs 7.3 Eugenics 8 Strength and Beauty, 1930-1945 8.1 Competition 8.2 Advertising 8.3 Bodies shaped by labor 8.4 Charles Atlas era, Bodybuilding 8.5 Rosie the riveter era, Women in industry 8.6 Wonder Woman 9 Muscle gap, 1945- 9.1 Motherhood 9.2 Health post-war 9.3 Happiness thru chemistry 9.4 Women and body work 9.5 Sports, young people 9.6 1950s, men seen to be at special risk 9.7 Fears about national strength

19th c.

Belief that bodies have limited amount of energy. Dissipated by exertion, growth, menstruation, education.

• Life, death are everyday events in the home
• Women believed to die early because of childbirth
• "Wasting diseases" all over, "consumption"

Medicine identifies agents of disease

• Systems of exercise circulate
  • "Indian bars"
• Equipment that mimicked the movements of labor
• "Offset the [negative] effects of study"

Physical exercise

Harvard prof, Sargent

• Physical education
• "Fitness", physical, mental
  • Interrelationship between physical form, mental character

Sargent sought a model of the perfect human body

• Taking measurements all over
• Sought symmetry
• Believed the perfect body found in classical statuary

"Could a Christian value physical beauty for its own sake?"

• Pure, uplifting
• Full of disturbing erotic energy

Sandow

• Most famous strongman of his day
• "Frank physicality" permissible because clothes were direct references to classical statuary

Women's phys ed

• Also connected to classical ideals
• Find sanction for physical display
• Release from corset, "Christian mistrust of the body"
• "Aesthetic dance"
• Grace, beauty, "female"

Physical culture, 1890-1910

• "Fitness crusade"
• Discipline of exercise preparation for industrial machines
• Long hours in desk work, "brain work" used the body "unevenly"
  • Needed to reverse these effects with physical exercise

New leisure

Young working class people with money

• "mixed romance and recreation"
• dancehall, theaters
• "dating"

Impulse to get strong

• Visual culture represents physical culture
• Strength, muscular

MacFadden

• Magazine, Physical culture
• "There can be no beauty without muscles"
• Believed healthy sex life necessary
• Vice squad raided his offices after a body building contest

Race Suicide, 1905-1920

• Always fit "for something"
• Upper-class youth were involved in athletics because it was believed necessary for leadership, confidence
  • Reflected belief in biological, genetic superiority

Brains over brawn

• Belief that various ethnic groups represented races with immutable characteristics
• Measuring skulls, faces, brows
  • Anglo-saxon elite interpreted data to reach their preferred conclusion
• But elite concerned that they were failing
  • Men wasting energy in luxury, women working instead of bearing young
  • White "race suicide" in light of immigrant populations

Jack Johnson

• Finest boxer of his time
• Black but white elites refused to believe he was fit to be a champion
• Government banned boxing from the cinema

Physical exams in the army for WWI

• Social scientists used draft as an opportunity to run statistical tests
• Lower scores accredited to innate weakness rather than social, cultural
• Scores used to justify segregation, immigration quotas

Efficiency, 1920-1930

• Focus on function of the body
• Body like a machine

Posture

• Belief that good posture was essential
• Institutionalized in schools

Control of germs

• New rules of hygiene, sanitation
• "Germ theory of disease"

Eugenics

• Wished to promote marriage and mating of "supposedly superior" people
• "Race betterment" replaces "race suicide"
• Exaggerated role of "breeding", genetics

"...sane eugenics laws that would prevent the marrying of the unfit."

• Institutionalization, segregation of the "unfit", preventing "breeding"

Strength and Beauty, 1930-1945

• MacFadden's ideology is widespread
  • Sweat, sex, physical activity doesn't use men up, it keeps them young
• Meanwhile, "female physical life stagnated"

Competition

Track & Field, 1920s

• French sponsored
• Americans came in spite of domestic female phys ed leadership
  • "Fitness ended, they believed, where competition began"

"Most people remained spectators to the few"

• Assumptions about innate ability fell in spite of scoreboards, records, medals
• Popular athletes became celebrities

Advertising

• Beauty, glamor, upward mobility

Bodies shaped by labor

• Labor outcomes replicated by gym workouts
• Sandow's "classical" physique replaced by bigger muscles

Charles Atlas era, Bodybuilding

• Audience primarily male (gay, straight)
• Advertised as though it was a female audience
• Superheroes grew bigger and bigger muscles

Rosie the riveter era, Women in industry

• Initial concerns that women couldn't handle the industrial machines
• Lacking in role models

Wonder Woman

• Strong
• Tennis shorts replace skirts

Muscle gap, 1945-

Motherhood

• Life choice
• "Correct"
• A reason to give up your career, "to be a woman"

Health post-war

• Longer lives, less disease
• Attributed to medical profession
• Medicine is responsible for happiness

Happiness thru chemistry

• Ataraxic
• Tranqs

Women and body work

• Aerobics, home exercise

Sports, young people

• Girls didn't aspire to competitive sport
• Boys played, girls supported

1950s, men seen to be at special risk

• Shift from woman at risk
• Heart disease, heart attacks

Fears about national strength

• JFK presenting statistics regarding U.S. slipping in physical strength
• National program to "close the muscle gap"
• "Presidential fitness program"