Download or read book Women and Fitness in American Culture written by Sarah Hentges and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2013-11-19 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores common representations and experiences of American fitness. It takes women's experiences as the center of inquiry toward an understanding of the function of fitness in our lives and in our culture-at-large. Ranging from 1968 to the present, from Jane Fonda to WiiFit, from revolution to institutionalization, from personal to political, and beyond, this book considers a broad range of topics from an interdisciplinary perspective: generations, cultural appropriation, community development, choreography, methodology, healing, and social justice. Drawing on her experience as a cultural theorist, educator and fitness instructor, the author offers critical and creative approaches that reveal the limitations and possibilities of fitness. The book enables readers to think about their own relationship to fitness as well as the more abstract meanings of the term, and suggests the idea that fitness has some potential to transform our worlds--if we're willing to do the work(out).
Download or read book Getting Physical written by Shelly McKenzie and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Charles Atlas to Jane Fonda, the fitness movement has been a driving force in American culture for more than half a century. What started as a means of Cold War preparedness now sees 45 million Americans spend more than $20 billion a year on gym memberships, running shoes, and other fitness-related products. In this first book on the modern history of exercise in America, Shelly McKenzie chronicles the governmental, scientific, commercial, and cultural forces that united-sometimes unintentionally--to make exercise an all-American habit. She tracks the development of a new industry that gentrified exercise and made the pursuit of fitness the hallmark of a middle-class lifestyle. Along the way she scrutinizes a number of widely held beliefs about Americans and their exercise routines, such as the link between diet and exercise and the importance of workplace fitness programs. While Americans have always been keen on cultivating health and fitness, before the 1950s people who were preoccupied with their health or physique were often suspected of being homosexual or simply odd. As McKenzie reveals, it took a national panic about children's health to galvanize the populace and launch President Eisenhower's Council on Youth Fitness. She traces this newborn era through TV trailblazer Jack La Lanne's popularization of fitness in the '60s, the jogging craze of the '70s, and the transformation of the fitness movement in the '80s, when the emphasis shifted from the individual act of running to the shared health-club experience. She also considers the new popularity of yoga and Pilates, reflecting today's emphasis on leanness and flexibility in body image. In providing the first real cultural history of the fitness movement, McKenzie goes beyond simply recounting exercise trends to reveal what these choices say about the people who embrace them. Her examination also encompasses battles over food politics, nutrition problems like our current obesity epidemic, and people left behind by the fitness movement because they are too poor to afford gym memberships or basic equipment. In a country where most of us claim to be regular exercisers, McKenzie's study challenges us to look at why we exercise-or at least why we think we should-and shows how fitness has become a vitally important part of our American identity.
Download or read book Physical Culture and the Body Beautiful written by Jan Todd and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Todd (kinesiology and health education, U. of Texas, Austin) discusses the diverse spectrum of women's exercise in the antebellum era-- especially exercise systems related to an ideal of womanhood--and the ways that purposive training influenced American women physically, intellectually, and emotionally. She also considers the contributions of several physical education figures: Sarah Pierce, Mary Lyon, William Bentley Fowle, Catherine Beecher, David P. Butler, Dio Lewis, and the phrenologist Orson S. Fowler. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.
Download or read book Let s Get Physical written by Danielle Friedman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-01-03 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A captivating blend of reportage and personal narrative that explores the untold history of women’s exercise culture--from jogging and Jazzercise to Jane Fonda--and how women have parlayed physical strength into other forms of power. For much of the twentieth century, sweating was considered “unladylike” and girls grew up believing physical exertion would cause their uterus to “fall out.” It was only in the Sixties that, thanks to a few forward-thinking fitness pioneers, women began to move en masse. In Let's Get Physical, journalist Danielle Friedman reveals the fascinating untold history of contemporary fitness culture, chronicling in vivid, cinematic prose how exercise evolved from a beauty tool pitched almost exclusively as a way to “reduce” into one millions have harnessed as a path to mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Let’s Get Physical takes us into the workout studios and onto the mats to reclaim these forgotten origin stories—and shine a spotlight on the trailblazers who made it possible for women to move. Each chapter uncovers the birth of an fitness movement that laid the foundation for working out today: the invention of the barre method in the Swinging Sixties, jogging’s path to liberation in the Seventies, the explosion of aerobics and weight-training in the Eighties, the rise of yoga in the Nineties, and the ongoing push for a more socially inclusive fitness culture—one that celebrates every body. Ultimately, it tells the story of how women discovered the joy of physical competence and strength—and how, by moving together to transform fitness from a privilege into a right, we can create a more powerful sisterhood.
Download or read book Women and Exercise written by Eileen Kennedy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-01-12 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume examines women's contradictory experiences of their bodies, health and exercise within the cultural context of consumerism. Featuring contributions by leading scholars on women and exercise across North America and Europe, this timely examination of women, exercise and fitness will shape the international dialogue on these critical issues.
Download or read book Athletic Intruders written by Anne Bolin and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Informed by feminism and the fields of anthropology and sociology of sport, this anthology investigates women's place in sport and exercise from a sociocultural perspective, documenting women's struggle into the sports arenas of male hegemony. The nine ethnographic case studies explore issues of identity, embodiment, and meaning in various sports and exercise, including triathlons, aerobics, basketball, bodybuilding, weightlifting, motorcycle riding, softball, casual exercise, and rugby.
Download or read book Fit Citizens written by Ava Purkiss and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2023-03-14 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the turn of the twentieth century, as African Americans struggled against white social and political oppression, Black women devised novel approaches to the fight for full citizenship. In opposition to white-led efforts to restrict their freedom of movement, Black women used various exercises—calisthenics, gymnastics, athletics, and walking—to demonstrate their physical and moral fitness for citizenship. Black women's participation in the modern exercise movement grew exponentially in the first half of the twentieth century and became entwined with larger campaigns of racial uplift and Black self-determination. Black newspapers, magazines, advice literature, and public health reports all encouraged this emphasis on exercise as a reflection of civic virtue. In the first historical study of Black women's exercise, Ava Purkiss reveals that physical activity was not merely a path to self-improvement but also a means to expand notions of Black citizenship. Through this narrative of national belonging, Purkiss explores how exercise enabled Black women to reimagine Black bodies, health, beauty, and recreation in the twentieth century. Fit Citizens places Black women squarely within the history of American physical fitness and sheds light on how African Americans gave new meaning to the concept of exercising citizenship.
Download or read book Fitness Culture written by Roberta Sassatelli and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-08-16 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a sociological perspective on fitness culture as developed in commercial gyms, investigating the cultural relevance of gyms in terms of the history of the commercialization of body discipline, the negotiation of gender identities and distinction dynamics within contemporary cultures of consumption.
Download or read book Her Own Hero written by Wendy L Rouse and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2017-08-08 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising roots of the self-defense movement and the history of women’s empowerment. At the turn of the twentieth century, women famously organized to demand greater social and political freedoms like gaining the right to vote. However, few realize that the Progressive Era also witnessed the birth of the women’s self-defense movement. It is nearly impossible in today’s day and age to imagine a world without the concept of women’s self defense. Some women were inspired to take up boxing and jiu-jitsu for very personal reasons that ranged from protecting themselves from attacks by strangers on the street to rejecting gendered notions about feminine weakness and empowering themselves as their own protectors. Women’s training in self defense was both a reflection of and a response to the broader cultural issues of the time, including the women’s rights movement and the campaign for the vote. Perhaps more importantly, the discussion surrounding women’s self-defense revealed powerful myths about the source of violence against women and opened up conversations about the less visible violence that many women faced in their own homes. Through self-defense training, women debunked patriarchal myths about inherent feminine weakness, creating a new image of women as powerful and self-reliant. Whether or not women consciously pursued self-defense for these reasons, their actions embodied feminist politics. Although their individual motivations may have varied, their collective action echoed through the twentieth century, demanding emancipation from the constrictions that prevented women from exercising their full rights as citizens and human beings. This book is a fascinating and comprehensive introduction to one of the most important women’s issues of all time. This book will provoke good debate and offer distinct responses and solutions.
Download or read book Fitness as Cultural Phenomenon written by Karin A. E. Volkwein-Caplan, Karin A. E. Volkwein and published by Waxmann Verlag. This book was released on with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The roots of the ongoing fitness movement go back to the 1970s in the USA; at the end of the 20th century this movement has successfully spread to other highly industrialized nations in the world, including Germany. It is not simply a response to the current health crisis in highly industrialized societies, rather fitness has become an integral part of modern life style.
Download or read book Fitness in American Culture written by Kathryn Grover and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The quest for physical health and fitness has a long history in the United States. From spinach to shredded wheat to patent medicines, from calisthenics to bicycling to organized sports, Americans have searched vigorously and with great imagination for health, vitality, and physical perfection. Focusing on the period from 1830 to 1940, this collection of essays by six distinguished historians explores Americans' fascination with health and sport, a preoccupation that continues even today in the current diet and fitness craze. In his introduction, Harvey Green discusses one of the major ironies of this period: that the "progress" and achievements Americans sought in the economic and technological spheres were in fact endangering their health and weakening the entire body politic. The rapid technological changes taking place in the world forced many people to alter fundamentally their thinking about the importance of health and physical fitness not just for themselves as individuals but also for the good of society. Other topics explored include changing attitudes toward fitness and wellness, how advertising reflected health concerns, iron as a symbol of vitality and strength, the increasing specialization of foods, and the advent of organized and competitive sports.
Download or read book Active Bodies written by Martha H. Verbrugge and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-06-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the twentieth century, opportunities for exercise and sports grew significantly for girls and women in the United States. Among the key figures who influenced this revolution were female physical educators. Drawing on extensive archival research, Active Bodies examines the ideas, experiences, and instructional programs of white and black female physical educators who taught in public schools and diverse colleges and universities, including coed and single-sex, public and private, and predominantly white and historically black institutions. Working primarily with female students, women physical educators had to consider what an active female could and should do in comparison to boys and men. Applying concepts of sex differences, they debated the implications of female anatomy, physiology, reproductive functions, and psychosocial traits for achieving gender parity in the gym. Teachers' interpretations were conditioned by the places where they worked, as well as developments in education, feminism, and the law, society's changing attitudes about gender, race, and sexuality, and scientific controversies over the nature and significance of sex differences. While deliberating fairness for their students, women physical educators also pursued equity for themselves, as their workplaces and nascent profession often marginalized female and minority personnel. Questions of difference and equity divided the field throughout the century; while some teachers favored moderate views and incremental change, others promoted justice for their students and themselves by exerting authority at their schools, critiquing traditional concepts of "difference," and devising innovative curricula. Exploring physical education within and beyond the gym, Active Bodies sheds new light on the enduring complexities of difference and equity in American culture.
Download or read book Qualifying Times written by Jaime Schultz and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2014-03-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This perceptive, lively study explores U.S. women's sport through historical "points of change": particular products or trends that dramatically influenced both women's participation in sport and cultural responses to women athletes. Beginning with the seemingly innocent ponytail, the subject of the Introduction, scholar Jaime Schultz challenges the reader to look at the historical and sociological significance of now-common items such as sports bras and tampons and ideas such as sex testing and competitive cheerleading. Tennis wear, tampons, and sports bras all facilitated women’s participation in physical culture, while physical educators, the aesthetic fitness movement, and Title IX encouraged women to challenge (or confront) policy, financial, and cultural obstacles. While some of these points of change increased women's physical freedom and sporting participation, they also posed challenges. Tampons encouraged menstrual shame, sex testing (a tool never used with male athletes) perpetuated narrowly-defined cultural norms of femininity, and the late-twentieth-century aesthetic fitness movement fed into an unrealistic beauty ideal. Ultimately, Schultz finds that U.S. women's sport has progressed significantly but ambivalently. Although participation in sports is no longer uncommon for girls and women, Schultz argues that these "points of change" have contributed to a complex matrix of gender differentiation that marks the female athletic body as different than--as less than--the male body, despite the advantages it may confer.
Download or read book Let s Get Physical written by Danielle Friedman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2023-01-03 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A captivating blend of reportage and personal narrative that explores the untold history of women’s exercise culture--from jogging and Jazzercise to Jane Fonda--and how women have parlayed physical strength into other forms of power. For much of the twentieth century, sweating was considered “unladylike” and girls grew up believing physical exertion would cause their uterus to “fall out.” It was only in the Sixties that, thanks to a few forward-thinking fitness pioneers, women began to move en masse. In Let's Get Physical, journalist Danielle Friedman reveals the fascinating untold history of contemporary fitness culture, chronicling in vivid, cinematic prose how exercise evolved from a beauty tool pitched almost exclusively as a way to “reduce” into one millions have harnessed as a path to mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Let’s Get Physical takes us into the workout studios and onto the mats to reclaim these forgotten origin stories—and shine a spotlight on the trailblazers who made it possible for women to move. Each chapter uncovers the birth of an fitness movement that laid the foundation for working out today: the invention of the barre method in the Swinging Sixties, jogging’s path to liberation in the Seventies, the explosion of aerobics and weight-training in the Eighties, the rise of yoga in the Nineties, and the ongoing push for a more socially inclusive fitness culture—one that celebrates every body. Ultimately, it tells the story of how women discovered the joy of physical competence and strength—and how, by moving together to transform fitness from a privilege into a right, we can create a more powerful sisterhood.
Download or read book Women and Sports in the United States written by Jean O'Reilly and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only anthology available documenting 100 years of women in American sports
Download or read book Mind Soul Body and Race written by Ava Purkiss and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation investigates how and why physical exercise, and more generally physical culture, became constitutive of black womanhood in the early twentieth century. The modern physical culture movement was a mostly-white health campaign that began at the turn of the twentieth century and declined during the Great Depression. Physical culturists espoused a philosophy that individuals had full control over their bodies and that exercise enabled Americans to live long and robust lives. While the scholarship on American health, sport, and other kinds of physical culture is plentiful and the historiography on black women is rich, they both leave unanswered questions about black women’s interaction with the movement. This project unifies these two seemingly unrelated bodies of literature and shows that black women carved out their own space within Americans’ quest for physical perfection. It advances the literature by making three novel contentions: 1) physical culture intensified African American public health and eugenic discourse; 2) purposeful exercise served as the basis for black women’s stigmatization of fatness; and 3) physical education became integral to black civic education. As the movement grew nationwide, black women gained a keener understanding of the health, beauty, and recreational advantages of exercise, as well as the larger stakes of citizenship that coincided with black physical culture. Considering their investment in this fitness zeitgeist, this dissertation argues that black women used physical culture to literally and figuratively shape their bodies and thus, they created a new vision of fit black womanhood. Mind, Soul, Body, and Race demonstrates that despite racism, sexism, and exclusion from fitness institutions, black women actively participated in exercise programs at a time when physical fitness bore new socio-political meaning. Through public displays and private acts of purposeful exercise, black women contested widespread representations of themselves as lazy, disease-ridden, unattractive, and unfit for citizenship, and sought to define their bodies and redefine black womanhood
Download or read book Making the American Body written by Jonathan Black and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you thought the fitness craze was about being healthy, think again. Although Charles Atlas, Jack LaLanne, Jim Fixx, Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, and Jillian Michaels might well point the way to a better body, they have done so only if their brands brought in profits. In the first book to tell the full story of the American obsession with fitness and how we got to where we are today, Jonathan Black gives us a backstage look at an industry and the people that have left an indelible mark on the American body and the consciousness it houses. Spanning the nation's fitness obsession from Atlas to Arnold, from Spinning to Zumba, and featuring an outrageous cast of characters bent on whipping us into shape while simultaneously shaping the way we view our bodies, Black tells the story of an outsized but little-examined aspect of our culture. With insights drawn from more than fifty interviews and attention to key developments in bodybuilding, aerobics, equipment, health clubs, running, sports medicine, group exercise, Pilates, and yoga, Making the American Body reveals how a focus on fitness has shaped not only our physiques but also, and more profoundly, American ideas of what "fitness" is.
