Beauty and femenine bodies. Contradictions of the physical exercise for women in Familia (1910-1915)

Abstract

In Chile, the decade of the Centenary of the Republic presented a worry surrounding the bodies and their improvement. The well-being of the nation was represented through the bodies, which could improve with physical exercise. Moreover, the roles of women were fundamental. Physical exercise was considered from three perspectives for women: they incarnated the “mother”, in their relation to domestic work and motherhood; the “modern woman”, who takes part in masculinized activities in public space –sport being one of them—; and the “pretty woman” concerned with the improvement of her looks in relation to a modern view of beauty. Magazines were one of the channels for the diffusion of these ideas, particularly journals oriented to a feminine public, as for example the journal Familia that presented a variety of discourses surrounding the ideal body of women.

This paper carries out an analysis of the discourses that can be found in texts and images from Familia magazine between 1910-1915, regarding physical exercise that women were conveyed to –or not to– carry out.