Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

The strange and surprising history of the so-called epidemic of bad posture in modern Americafrom eugenics and posture pageants to todays promoters of paleo posture

In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that the Smithsonian possessed a centurys 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 Americas largely forgotten posture panica 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 todays widespread anxieties about posture.

Beginning with the eugenics movement, and fueled by fears of disability, slouching took on a new scientific relevance in the early twentieth century, becoming 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 paincampaigns 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.

Author Bio

Beth Linker is the Samuel H. Preston Endowed Term Associate Professor in the Social Sciences in the Department of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Wars Waste: Rehabilitation in World War I America, and her work has been featured in The New Yorker, the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, and other publications.