If we look at the period before WW2, we find that many of those demands had found their early expression in a range of female body cultural practices. However before WW2 those discourses were confined to narrow cultural elites of the upper bourgeoisie, entertainment- and cultural milieus. They were not relevant for or within reach of most women. So the social conditions were not established for these cultural practices to spread out in society. Before the physical culture would have any relevance to Western women, they would have to have achieved a certain level of emancipation – emancipation from the household, the large numbers of children, the denial of education. In short they needed economic independence and leisure time. These conditions emerged after WW2 for many women – not only the elite – in the West, as the middle class exploded in size. However the discourses of fitness post-WW2 women adopted were already developed before the war.
So let us first look of the discourses of female fitness before the war. Having looked at that it is easier to comprehend what happened after the WW2. Mark Singleton in his recent book Yoga Body (2010) has mapped the emergence of this female fitness culture and the following module draws on this.
Oftentimes, focusing too much on one aspect of life makes another appear more difficult.Dandasana Pose Yoga In his book Into the Heart of Truth: The Spirit of Relational Yoga, John McAfee says that all of our relationships, from the most casual to the most lasting, are based Dandasana Pose Yoga on either pleasure or fear . . . our relationships bring exploitation, because they are instruments of gratification. This self-centered basis of relationship is the cause of our loneliness and isolation. But true relationship is based on communion, and there can be no communion where there is exploitation . .
