The celebration of the 'body beautiful' in the 1920s and 1930s is commonly associated with fascist Italy or nazi Germany. Focusing on the physical culture movement, this article argues that the endeavour to build a 'superman' was not confined to fascist dictatorships or Britain's small fascist parties. The physical culture movement played an important role in cementing the link between manliness, physical fitness and patriotism in interwar Britain. Stimulated by the Edwardian 'national efficiency' campaign, physical culturalists represented physical fitness as an obligation of citizenship and a patriotic response to the needs of the British Empire. This aspiration acquired a renewed sense of urgency after the first world war. Despite a penchant for rituals and displays which some might read as fascist, the relationship between fascism and the physical culture movement was complex and contested. During the early 1930s, some physical culturalists championed fascist leaders and ideology and parts of the physical culture press moved to the extreme right. The effort to align British physical culturalists with fascism was unsuccessful, however, and in the late 1930s the physical culture press backed the centre-right National Government which launched a National Fitness Campaign in the face of a growing threat from nazi Germany.
In interwar Britain female athleticism, keep-fit classes and physical culture were celebrated as emblems of modernity, and women who cultivated their bodies in the pursuit of beauty, health and fitness represented civic virtue. This article argues that a modern, actively managed female body was part of women's liberation during this period. A modern female body required sex reform and birth control. Fitness culture was circumscribed by traditional notions of femininity. Women's competitive sport remained controversial and slimming in pursuit of fashion was widely condemned. Women from across the social spectrum embraced sport and joined fitness organizations. The rise of a modern female body contributed towards greater equality between the sexes. However, the gender order did not change fundamentally and the ideal woman of the interwar years was represented as a modern, emancipated race mother.
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