LEADER 03507ctm a2200397Ia 4500001 135996 005 20240621203820.0 008 080116s2003 xx a rbm 000 0 eng d 035 (OCoLC)ocm54020268 035 135996 049 LHMA 040 GZM |beng |erda |cGZM |dOCLCQ |dLHM 090 GV611 |b.J46 2003 100 1 Jensen, Erik Norman. 245 10 Images of the ideal : |bsports, gender, and the emergence of the modern body in Weimar Germany / |cby Erik N. Jensen. 264 0 |cc2003. 300 v, 538 pages : |billustrations ; |c22 cm 336 text |btxt |2rdacontent 337 unmediated |bn |2rdamedia 338 volume |bnc |2rdacarrier 502 Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2003. 504 Includes bibliographical references (pages 524-538). 520 Europeans have based gender roles on notions of complete physical difference since at least the time of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Twentieth-century athletes, however, have cast doubt on many of these earlier assumptions through their remarkable feats and often non-traditional behavior. My dissertation explores how elite sportsmen and women reshaped masculine and feminine ideals in Weimar Germany, a time and place particularly fraught with anxieties over new female social roles and the apparent decline in male status that followed the humiliating defeat of 1918.I concentrate on the challenges posed by tennis players, boxers, and track and field athletes to postwar gender norms. Tennis generally showcased strong and assertive women for the popular press, while the men in this increasingly feminized sport exuded a delicacy that undermined notions of robust masculinity. Boxing promoted itself as quintessentially masculine, but women actively participated in this sport, too, albeit to a limited extent. Moreover, images of female boxers circulated widely during in the 1920s, celebrating aggressive women. Men, on the other hand, represented active fighters inside the ring, but passive figures outside it, who willingly submitted to male trainers, female fans, and physical objectification by the mass media. Commentators, meanwhile, explicitly framed track and field athletes in terms of their national duties. They celebrated men as the embodiment of German strength and surrogate military heroes, while debating whether female athletes could both compete and fulfill their "maternal obligations" to the country.These representations underscore how male and female athletes redefined popular understandings of the human body, challenged many of the bases for social inequalities, and established new ideals that appeared more in tune with the modernizing age in which they lived. 530 Electronic version(s) |bavailable internally at USHMM. 533 Photocopy. |bAnn Arbor, MI : |cUMI Dissertation Services, |d2003. |e22 cm. 590 Dissertations and Theses 591 Record updated by Marcive processing 21 June 2024 650 0 Sports |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 650 0 Feminism and sports |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 650 0 Body image |zGermany |xHistory |y20th century. 655 7 Academic theses. |2lcgft 856 41 |uhttp://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=764812971&sid=17&Fmt=6&clientId=54617&RQT=309&VName=PQD |zElectronic version from ProQuest 956 41 |u http://dc.ushmm.org/library/bib135996/3101336.pdf |z Hosted by USHMM. 852 0 |bstacks |hGV611 |i.J46 2003 852 |bwww 852 0 |bebook