Superman Supreme Fascist Body as Political Icon - Global Fascism

This volume dealing with the male body in the iconography of fascism reflects an ambition rather than an achievement. The supremacy of the global fascist superman never became a reality but was certainly an intention. This work explores the use of the image of the male body for this purpose in European, American and Asian fascism of varying degrees and various interpretations, and the differences and similarities involved. Among the similarities isthe fact that sport in all the cases in this volume was at the centre of the induction of the male body (and mind) into martial self-sacrifice. Sport was an important part of fascist socialization. The reasons are not hard to find. Sport develops muscle and muscle is equated with power - literally and metaphorically. War, the essence of fascism, demands physical fitness and sport helps promote this fitness. Competitive sport can help develop attitudes of aggression and aggression is essential in war.

The supremacy of the global fascist superman never became a reality but was certainly an intention. This work explores the use of the image of the male body in European, American and Asian fascism of varying degrees and various interpretations, and the differences and similarities involved.

Prologue: global fascism and the male body - ambitions, similarities and dissimilarities, J.A. Mangan; model of masculinity - Mussolini, the new Italian of the fascist era, Gigliola Gori; muscular Anschluss - German bodies and Austrian imitators, Wolfgang Weber, Paula Black; fascist political athletes and the body politic - Bulgaria reborn, Vassil Girginov, Peter Bankov; the iconic symbolism of Neils Bukh - Aryan body culture, Danish gymnastics and Nordic tradition, Hans Bonde; fascists and Christians! in the Spanish martial tradition of the soldier-monk, Teresa Gonzalez Aja; return to manhood - the cult of masculinity and the British Union of Fascists, Tony Collins; bodies from Brazil - fascist aesthetics in a South American setting, Lamartine P. da Costa, Plinio Labriola; militarism, sacrifice and emperor worship - the expendable male body in Japanese martial culture, J.A. Mangan, Takeshi Komagome; blueshirts, nationalists and nationalism - fascism in 1930s China, Fan Hong.

Mangan, J A