Binding: Hardcover
Description: The strange and surprising history of the so - called epidemic of bad posture in modern America from eugenics and posture pageants to today's promoters of paleo posture In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that the Smithsonian possessed a century's worth of nude posture photos of college students. In this riveting history Beth Linker tells why these photos were only a small part of the incredible story of twentieth - century America's largely forgotten posture panic a decades - long episode in which it was widely accepted as scientific fact that Americans were suffering from an epidemic of bad posture with potentially catastrophic health consequences. Tracing the rise and fall of this socially manufactured epidemic Slouch also tells how this period continues to feed today's widespread anxieties about posture. In the early twentieth century the eugenics movement and fears of disability gave slouching a new scientific relevance. Bad posture came to be seen as an individual health threat an affront to conventional race hierarchies and a sign of American decline. What followed were massive efforts to measure track and prevent slouching and later back pain campaigns that reached schools workplaces and beyond from the creation of the American Posture League to posture pageants. The popularity of posture - enhancing products such as girdles and lumbar supports exploded as did new fitness programs focused on postural muscles such as Pilates and modern yoga. By 1970, student protests largely brought an end to school posture exams and photos but many efforts to fight bad posture continued despite a lack of scientific evidence. A compelling history that mixes seriousness and humor Slouch is a unique and provocative account of the unexpected origins of our largely unquestioned ideas about bad posture.
Title: Slouch Posture Panic In Modern America
Author(s): Linker Beth
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Barcode: 9780691235493
Pages: 392 Pages, 39 B/W Illus.
Publication Date: 4/9/2024
Category: History Of Science