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Cover of Italian Fascism and the Female Body

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

  • Published: 6 Dec 2012
  • DOI: 10.4324/9780203483619
  • Print ISBN: 9780714653556
  • eBook ISBN: 9780203483619

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 of all 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. The conclusion of the book demonstrates how, in the post-war period, women found it hard to advance further on, for a number of reasons.

Contents

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    Front Matter
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    Preface
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    1
    Fascism as a Cult of Virility and the Duce as its Political Athlete
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    2
    Model Women and Physical Training before the Fascist Era
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    3
    Fascist Models of Femininity
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    4
    Sports Medicine and Female Athleticism under the Fascist Regime
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    5
    The Education System and the Fascist Youth Organisations
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    6
    Girls and Young Women at Health Resorts
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    7
    The Accademia Nazionale Femminile di Educazione Fisica
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    8
    Spare-Time Activities in the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro
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    9
    Sportswomen’s Contests and Displays
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    10
    Fashion, Aesthetics and the ‘True Woman’
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    11
    Sportswomen of the Fascist Era: Biographies and Interviews
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    12
    Women’s Emancipation through Sport under Fascism and after
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    Back Matter