Physical culture and the body beautiful
Subtitle: purposive exercise in the lives of American women, 1800-1870
By: Jan Todd.
Publisher: Mercer University Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Macon, Ga
Language: eng
Number of pages: 369
Subjects: Physical education for women -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Exercise for women -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Feminine beauty (Aesthetics) -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Popular culture -- United States -- History -- 19th century.
Other titles: Purposive exercise in the lives of American women, 1800-1875
Description: In examining the course of the debate between the philosophies of Rousseau and Wollstonecraft in the first seventy years of the nineteenth century, several important conclusions have been reached. First, a much more diverse spectrum of women's exercise existed in the antebellum era than is currently described in modern historical texts.

Second, several exercise systems had significant links to an ideal of womanhood - called in this text Majestic Womanhood - which directly competed with the prevailing construct of the ideology of True Womanhood articulated by historian Barbara Welter. Third, purposive training mattered in the lives of American women influencing them physically, intellectually, and emotionally.

In many instances this training empowered women to step beyond the confines of their separate sphere of domestic duty and involve themselves in the world outside their homes.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [305]-354) and index.