Freeing the Female Body Inspirational Icons

Stories of remarkable women who devoted their lives to the cause of women's physical liberation are told in this volume. They each shared the same ambition: to free women's bodies through sport. Scholars have studied the paradoxical importance of sport in both reinforcing the male-dominated status quo and emancipating women from traditional repression in both Western and Eastern worlds, but the role that individuals played in achieving the political and economic freedom of women through sport has been neglected. This collection records the bravery of these forgotten inspirational figures whose determination challenged and overcame convention, custom and prejudice to free women from the ranks of the sexualized, controlled and oppressed.

This collection records the bravery of these forgotten inspirational figures whose determination challenged and overcame convention, custom and prejudice to free women from the ranks of the sexualized, controlled and oppressed.

All the freedom of the boy": Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 19th-century architect of women's rights, Roberta J. Park; a martyr for modernity: Qiu Jin, feminist, warrior revolutionary, Fan Hong and J. A. Mangan; a militant madonna: Charlotte Perkins Gilman, feminism and physical culture, Patricia Vertinsky; a lifetime of campaigning: Ettie Rout, emancipationist beyond the pale, Jane Tolerton; breaking bounds, Alice Profe, radical and emancipationist, Gertrud Pfister; at the heart of a new profession: Margaret Stansfeld, a radical English educationalist, Richard Smart; Alexandrine Gibb in "no man's land of sport", M Ann Hall; glittering icin of fascist femininity: Trebisonda "Ondina" Valla, Gigliola Gori; ignoring taboos: Maria Lenk, Latin American inspirationalist, Sebastiao Votre and Ludmila Mourao; in pursuit of empowerment: Sensei Nellie Kleinsmidt and gender challenges in South Africa, Denise E.M. Jones; epilogue: prospects for the new millennium - women, emancipation and the body, J.A. Mangan.