physical fitness — Bunk History

Viewing 31–60 of 67 results. Go to first page

Three muscle builders pose at Muscle Beach on the Santa Monica Beach in California, 1949.

Gay Panic on Muscle Beach

The skin and strength on display at Santa Monica’s Muscle Beach aggravated American fears of gender transgressions and homosexuality.

by Livia Gershon, Elsa Devienne via JSTOR Daily on August 26, 2022

Macho Macho Men

Bodybuilding is routinely presented as the very apex of male heterosexuality—but its history is a bit gayer than you might think.

by Benjamin Weil via The Baffler on November 23, 2021

Three women in swimsuits

Policing the Bodies of Women Athletes Is Nothing New

For women who play sports, there's often no way to win.

by Martha H. Verbrugge, Jess Romeo, H. Grace Shymanski via JSTOR Daily on August 12, 2021

Wally Funk today and as a pilot

Guess Who’s Going to Space With Jeff Bezos?

Wally Funk has been ready to become an astronaut for six decades.

by Marina Koren via The Atlantic on July 1, 2021

Tsökahovi "Louis" Tewanima became an Olympian while being forced to attend the Carlisle Indian Industrial School.

The Olympic Star Who Just Wanted to Go Home

Tsökahovi Tewanima held an American record in running for decades, but his training at the infamous Carlisle school kept him from his ancestral Hopi lands

by Kathleen Sharp via Smithsonian on May 20, 2021

Image of plastic human figurine hunched over at a desk and computer.

How the Personal Computer Broke the Human Body

Decades before 'Zoom fatigue' broke our spirits, the so-called computer revolution brought with it a world of pain previously unknown to humankind.

by Laine Nooney via Vice on March 12, 2021

Men with six-packs on a boat

When Men Started to Obsess Over Six-Packs

Greek statues, the Napoleonic wars, and the advent of photography all played a role.

by Conor Heffernan via The Conversation on February 23, 2021

Group of roller-skaters in a room

The History Behind the Roller Skating Trend

Since its invention in 1743, roller skating has been tied to Black social movements.

by Ruth Terry via JSTOR Daily on September 7, 2020

Mounted NYPD officers parade down Broadway.

World War I Preparedness and the Militarization of the NYPD

From food rationing to drafting soldiers, preparedness and all it involved included a full-scale reorganization of American society, including the NYPD.

by Matthew Guariglia via The Gotham Center on December 27, 2018

People working out in bikinis in a mall.

As Swimsuit Season Ends, Pursuit of the ‘Bikini Body’ Endures

The "bikini body" is out. But the pressure to maintain the ideal female physique lives on.

by Natalia Mehlman Petrzela via Made By History on August 30, 2018

How Wilma Rudolph Became the World’s Fastest Woman

Wilma Rudolph won three Olympic golds and was among the first athletes to use her celebrity to fight for civil rights.

by Kate Siber via Outside on June 8, 2018

Dystopian Bodies

In her newest book, Barbara Ehrenreich attacks the "epidemic" of wellness.

by Niko Maragos via Los Angeles Review of Books on June 7, 2018

Examining 20th-Century America’s Obsession With Poor Posture

A new book explores the nation’s now-faded preoccupation with the 'epidemic' of hunched bodies.

by Katherine Unger Baillie via Penn Today on June 7, 2018

This Seamstress Conquered Bike Racing in the 1890s

Cyclist Tillie Anderson shattered records, dominated her competition, and earned the world champion title.

by Kate Siber via Outside on May 31, 2018

Why the Name of the President’s Fitness Council Matters

And why would President Trump bother to change the name?

by Rachel Louise Moran via Nursing Clio on May 8, 2018

Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines

America’s favorite piece of workout equipment was developed as a device for forced labor in British prisons.

by Diane Peters, U. R. Q. Henriques, David H Shayt via JSTOR Daily on May 2, 2018

5 Facts That Help Us Understand the World of Early American Yoga

100 years ago, it was associated more with the mystical practices of the Orient than with middle-class women in stretchy pants.

by Anya P. Foxen via OUPblog on November 15, 2017

Women with field hockey sticks in a physical education class circa 1920.

The Physical Education of Women is Fraught With Issues of Body, Sexuality, and Gender

A new book, ‘Active Bodies,’ explores the history.

by Nina Renata Aron via Timeline on September 21, 2017

Katharine Hepburn, an iconic tomboy, cocking a gun in 1935.

Tomboys Were a Trend 100 Years Ago, but Mostly to Bring Up the Birth Rate for White Babies

Fear of diminishing broodstock got the gals going outdoors.

by Laura Smith via Timeline on June 21, 2017

A Short History of the Tomboy

With roots in race and gender discord, has the “tomboy” label worn out its welcome?

by Elizabeth King via The Atlantic on January 5, 2017

When Dieting Was Only For Men

Today, we tend to assume dieting is for women, but in the 1860s, it was a masculine pursuit.

by Livia Gershon, Katharina Vester, William Banting via JSTOR Daily on January 2, 2017

Twenty-First Century Victorians

The nineteenth-century bourgeoisie used morality to assert class dominance — something elites still do today.

by Jason Tebbe via Jacobin on October 31, 2016

A yuppie surrounded by money and luxury items.

When Yuppies Ruled

Defining a social type is a way of defining an era. What can the time of the young urban professional tell us about our own?

by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on July 22, 2024

Zdeněk Koubek running.

Human Velocity

“The Other Olympians: Fascism, Queerness, and the Making of Modern Sports” upends long-held assumptions about trans people’s participation in sports.

by Michael Waters, Frankie de la Cretaz via The Baffler on June 7, 2024

President Warren G. Harding against a background of news clippings related to his death.

Why President Warren G. Harding's Sudden Death Sparked Rumors of Murder and Suicide

The commander in chief's unexpected death in office 100 years ago fueled decades of conspiracy theories but was most likely the result of a heart attack.

by Greg Daugherty via Smithsonian on August 1, 2023

A crowd of men attending a Plattsburgh Camp.

Going to Summer Camp in 1913 Meant Practicing for World War I

How the Plattsburg camps tried (and failed) to raise a volunteer army ahead of World War I.

by Erin Blakemore via HISTORY on July 11, 2023

The women of the Source Family pose on a Rolls-Royce for an ad for the release of a recording of the cult's band, Ya Ho Wha 13.

The Cult Roots of Health Food in America

How the Source Family, a radical 1970s utopian commune, still impacts what we eat today.

by Diana Hubbell via Atlas Obscura on April 19, 2023

French pharmacist and self-help guru Émile Coué waves from the deck of a ship, circa 1923. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

America Was Obsessed with This Self-Help Craze 100 Years Ago

Émile Coué, a French apothecary, started an “autosuggestion” craze that was the biggest thing in America in the early 1920s, practiced by millions every day.

by Gordon F. Sander via Retropolis on March 13, 2023

How Marvin Gaye Earned a Tryout for the Detroit Lions

On the 50th anniversary of ‘What’s Going On,’ a look back on Gaye's onetime dream to become a professional football player.

by Justin Tinsley via Andscape on May 21, 2021

Spoonfuls of different types of sugar: white and brown, granulated and cubed.

Corn, Coke, and Convenience Food

How high-fructose corn syrup became an American staple.

by Hope Jahren via Literary Hub on March 6, 2020

brought to you by

© Bunk History