Beyond the Standard Measures: Physical Education's Impact on the Dialogue About Obesity in the 20th Century

Abstract

As numerous Homans' lecturers have attested, Amy Morris Homans was a significant and visionary leader who set the foundation for women's physical education for the first half of the 20th century. Her reign at the Boston Normal School for Gymnastics (BNSG) was ironclad, and through the BNSG she controlled her student's lives, including their physical appearance. This notion of appropriate vs. inappropriate physical appearance continues to play out in American society today. One of the most significant debates within the profession of physical education, and throughout the nation, is on the topic of obesity. This essay examines how physical education has been cognizant of body weight more than almost any other profession—except for perhaps medicine—over the past 120 years, but appears to have only in recent years jumped on the bandwagon and is joining the chorus of professions who claim that there is a crisis in contemporary America. In addition, it examines the pedagogy of overweight/obesity. That is, how has the American physical education profession instructed its professional members about issues to do with body weight and size over the first half of the 20th century?