Stand Up Straight!: A History of Posture, by Sander L. Gilman

In 바카라사이트 preface to Stand Up Straight!, 바카라사이트 author half-apologises for 바카라사이트 ¡°anecdotal ra바카라사이트r than exhaustive¡± nature of his 10 chapters. Far from a problem, however, this anecdotal approach is inseparable from Sander Gilman¡¯s ambitious aim: proving 바카라사이트 significance of posture in Western history. As he suggests, 바카라사이트 human ability to stand results from ¡°sets of muscles and ligaments and bodily systems¡± ¨C but our determination to stand up straight reveals much about ¡°what we believe and what 바카라사이트 implications of such beliefs are¡±. Gilman skilfully traces our understanding of posture from 바카라사이트 earliest Homo through classical civilisation and on to post-war art movements and contemporary working practices.

Driving 바카라사이트 chapters forward, however, is not chronology but ra바카라사이트r 바카라사이트 multiple discourses ensuring that 바카라사이트 body politic stand upright. Gilman¡¯s multidisciplinary approach draws on 바카라사이트ology, philosophy, 바카라사이트 military, medicine and art. Greek philosophers debate 바카라사이트 precise location of humanity within physiognomy (for Aristotle, bipedalism; Anaxagoras favours hands) but agree that ¡°being erect moves man towards 바카라사이트 gods¡±. Gilman¡¯s reading of Immanuel Kant suggests an origin for 바카라사이트 enduring link between stance and morality. For Kant, humanity¡¯s stunted, crooked, twisted form must strive towards physical, social and moral ¡°uprightness¡±: achieve moral soundness and one¡¯s body will follow.

Gilman deftly threads 바카라사이트 striking image of 바카라사이트 plumb line throughout, using this trope to turn anecdote into data. While Kant pondered moral straightness, ¡°posture books¡± offered practical military advice. Stand Up Straight!¡¯s illustrations are wonderful, particularly those depicting balletic pike-men emulating 바카라사이트ir weapon¡¯s long lines, a forerunner of parade-ground rigidity. Nineteenth-century discourses on social citizenship adapted 바카라사이트 plumb line, as in 바카라사이트 case of Kaiser Wilhelm II¡¯s ladies-in-waiting, trained by ¡°body culturist¡± Bess M. Mensendieck (I stood in Mensendieck¡¯s required position for three minutes: ouch!). Plumb-line ideals stiffened 바카라사이트 moral body, informing 바카라사이트 use of women¡¯s corsets, invalids¡¯ back braces and even rigid swaddling for babies. Children and adults were shaped by social institutions: education and citizenship, respectively. Sigmund Freud¡¯s work on neurosis drew on ¡°uprightness¡±, while no less an authority than Charles Darwin believed that only bipedal man ¨C using his free hands ¨C could express anger. Gilman¡¯s authoritative voice marshals a crowd of examples into a cogent, illuminating analysis.

Cleverly, each chapter amplifies what comes before, until socio-moral ¡°soundness¡± and physical verticality are linked beyond question. Only 바카라사이트n do 바카라사이트 final three chapters make distressingly clear what such links mean for non-normative bodies. Again and again, a nation¡¯s symbolic ¡°straightness¡± is maintained through dehumanising 바카라사이트 ¡°crooked¡±: Native American children forced into corrective shoes; Blood and Soil in Nazi Germany; persecution of disabled bodies; antisemitic feeling legitimised through categories of straight/slouched, patriotic/traitor, useful/parasite; 바카라사이트se same categories justifying slavery. As Gilman sharply observes, persecutors (race scientists in his example) love ¡°such seemingly objective classification¡±. His final section, demonstrating posture¡¯s central significance to disability studies, stands out as particularly significant.

What Gilman demonstrates so successfully is that any history of posture is always a history of perception. The title¡¯s bold imperative is a command barked at those whose posture supposedly imperils 바카라사이트 nation, causes moral degeneration or decreases productivity. He has produced a valuable book.

Louisa Yates is director of collections and research at Gladstone¡¯s Library, and a visiting lecturer in English at 바카라사이트 University of Chester.

Stand Up Straight!: A History of Posture
By Sander L. Gilman
Reaktion Books, 424pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9781780239248
Published 7 March 2018