Gender and aesthetic norms in popular hygienic culture in Germany from 1900 to 1914

The paper concerns the construction of gender norms in popular hygienic lit erature at the rum of the century. It argues that the formulation of aesthe tic gender norms for women's and men's bodies was a response to social deve lopments which were perceived as a threat to the middle-class ideology of s eparate spheres for the sexes. Concerns about the blurring of gender distin ctions were expressed in the aesthetic idiom of the educated middle class. Aesthetic norms for each sex were established and contrasted with the degen erate body forms of contemporaries. The spectre of masculinized women and f eminized men was raised, reflecting a deep-seated uneasiness about changing gender roles and identities. The increasing assertiveness of women as expr essed in feminist activism was interpreted by anti-feminist authors as a si gn of degeneracy. For these authors any articulation of self-interest by wo men was suspect. Strong sexual desires of women which could serve as the ba sis for the independent articulation of female sexual interests were denied or declared as abnormal. Feminist critics argued that it was the lack of e conomic and social independence of women which was the reason for the decli ning health and beauty of the female sex.