03521cam a22003978i 4500 23281632 20251112113118.0 230817s2024 njua b 001 0 eng 2023036266 9780691235493 (hardback) 23281632 DLC eng rda DLC DLC AU pcc n-us--- Alfaisal Main Library RA781.5 .L56 2024 Linker, Beth, author. Slouch : posture panic in modern America / Beth Linker. Princeton : Princeton University Press, ©2024 377 pages illustrations ; 25 cm text txt rdacontent unmediated n rdamedia volume nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. The making of a posture science -- Posture epidemic -- Posture commercialization -- Posture queens and fitness regimes -- The geopolitics of posture -- The perils of posture perfection -- The posture photo scandal. "This book is a historical consideration of how poor posture became a dreaded pathology in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century. It opens with the "outbreak" of the poor posture epidemic, which began with turn-of-the-century paleoanthropologists: If upright posture was the first of all attributes that separated human from beasts - and importantly a precondition for the development of intellect and speech - what did it mean that a majority of Americans slouched? By World War I, public health officials claimed that 80% of Americans suffered from postural abnormalities. Panic spread, setting into motion initiatives intended to stem the slouching epidemic, as schoolteachers, shoe companies, clothing manufacturers, public health officials, medical professionals, and the popular press exhorted the public toward detection. Wellness programs stigmatized disability while also encouraging the belief that health and ableness could be purchased through consumer goods. What makes this epidemic unique is that, in the absence of a communicable contagion, it was largely driven by a cultural intolerance of disabled bodies, with notions of "ableness" taking hold for much of the twentieth century. The author traces this history through its consequential demise, as social movements of the 1960s prompted people to push back against invasive and discriminatory standards. Large-scale physical fitness assessments designed to weed out defective bodies relied on compliant participants, and the Civil Rights and Women's Movement, as well as the anti-Vietnam war protests and Disability Rights Movements eventually halted that supply, and in the 1990s a public outcry destroyed many of the archives and materials collected. Nevertheless, anxiety over posture persists to this day"-- Posture United States History 20th century. Posture United States History 21st century. Posture Social aspects United States History 20th century. Posture Social aspects United States History 21st century. Human body Social aspects United States History 20th century. Human body Social aspects United States History 21st century. Print books. local 4 Online version: Linker, Beth. Slouch Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2024] 9780691235509 (DLC) 2023036267 lcc BOOKS 607919 607919 0 0 lcc 0 0 AU AU GEN 2025-11-12 0 RA781.5 .L56 2024 AU00000000020869 2025-11-12 11:32:38 112.00 2025-11-12 BOOKS