Italian Fascism and the Female Body: Sport, Submissive Women and Strong Mothers

by Gori,Gigliola

• ISBN13: 9780714653556
• ISBN10: 0714653551
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-11-03
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

This is the first text to examine women and sport in Italy during the period 1861-1945. To qualify and quantify the impact of fascism on Italian women's sport, the author first examines the pre-fascist period in terms of female physical culture. The text then describes how during the fascist era, women moved strictly within a framework designed by medicine and eugenics, religious, and traditional education. The country aspired to emancipation, as promised by the fascist revolution, but emancipation was hard to advance under the fascist regime because of male hegemonic trends in the country. This book shows how the engagement of women in some sporting activity did promote and support some gender emancipation.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	ix
Foreword	xi
Series Editor's Foreword by J.A. Mangan	xiii
Preface	1	(166)
General framework	2	(3)
State of research	5	(2)
Methodology	7	(2)
1 Fascism as a cult of virility and the Duce as its political athlete	9	(25)
Historical and ideological premises	10	(3)
The myth of the 'new man'	13	(2)
The Duce, symbol of the 'new Italian'	15	(3)
The aesthetics of virility and Fascist institutions	18	(5)
The Duce as sportsman	23	(1)
The cult of the body in literature and the arts	24	(5)
Racism and the politics of the body: Fascist style and 'Aryan' aesthetics	29	(3)
Conclusion	32	(2)
2 Model women and physical training before the Fascist era	34	(20)
Girls and educational gymnastics in the nineteenth century	37	(7)
Female pioneers and early sporting enterprises	44	(2)
Emancipated sportswomen at the start of the twentieth century	46	(4)
Anti-feminism and emancipation in the 1910's	50	(4)
3 Fascist models of femininity	54	(21)
The revolutionary women of early Fascism, 1919-24	56	(3)
'New women' as wives and mothers, 1925-35	59	(7)
Militarised women in the war years, 1936-45	66	(7)
Conclusion	73	(2)
4 Sports medicine and female athleticism under the Fascist regime	75	(17)
Italian sports medicine and gender eugenics	77	(4)
The FIMS and female athleticism	81	(4)
Controversies over female athleticism	85	(3)
Conclusion	88	(4)
5 The education system and the Fascist youth organisations	92	(23)
Schools and physical education before the Fascist era	92	(1)
The school system under the Fascist regime	93	(3)
From the ENEF to the ONB, 1923-27	96	(2)
The activities of the ONB, 1926-37	98	(5)
Girls and young women in the ONB	103	(5)
The activities of the GIL, 1937-43	108	(2)
Physical education and sport in universities	110	(5)
6 Girls and young women at health resorts	115	(12)
Expansion under Fascism	116	(4)
Recruitment of female patients and training of female staff	120	(2)
Treatment at the health resorts	122	(5)
7 The Accademia Nazionale Femminile di Educazione Fisica	127	(13)
Forging the 'new woman' in Orvieto under the ONB, 1932-37	129	(5)
Forging militarised women in Orvieto under the GIL, 1937-43	134	(4)
Conclusion	138	(2)
8 Spare-time activities in the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro	140	(7)
Organisation and objectives of the OND	140	(2)
Physical activities for all	142	(2)
Female members of the Dopolavoro clubs	144	(1)
Controversy over dancing	145	(2)
9 Sportswomen's contests and displays	147	(20)
Modern women and sport in the 1920's	148	(10)
'Suitable' sports and spectacular displays, 1930-36	158	(2)
Mass displays and championships, 1937-42	160	(4)
Rhetoric and reality	164	(3)
10 Fashion, aesthetics and the 'true woman'	167	(15)
The 'new woman' of the 1920's	167	(2)
The 'true woman' and her rivals in the 1930's	169	(6)
The influence of American popular culture	175	(1)
Images of women in the war years	176	(6)
11 Sportswomen of the Fascist era: biographies and interviews	182	(21)
Ondina Valla: biography	182	(5)
Ondina Valla: interview	187	(3)
Some other prominent sportswomen	190	(4)
Oral testimonies from five former sportswomen	194	(6)
Conclusion	200	(3)
12 Women's emancipation through sport under Fascism and after	203	(4)
Notes	207	(23)
Index	230