Globalizing the beautiful body: Bodybuilding and the ideal of muscular manliness - a global history

• Abstract：

At the turn of the twentieth century, bodybuilding emerged as a new form of body politics that responded to the needs of social reformers, work science, and nationalist ideologues around the world. The global appeal of bodybuilding – forming both strong and beautiful bodies – is usually seen as a result of the outward spread of a European model, epitomized in the world tour of Eugen Sandow, the “father of modern bodybuilding.” In this talk, I will trace the invention of bodybuilding in the 1890s, and its subsequent global career. At the same time, I will show how the resonance of the new body regime owed to changes in capitalist societies and geopolitics that manifested themselves across the globe. Bodybuilding as it emerged before World War I corresponded to the social conditions of the times – which becomes clear when comparing it to the forms of bodybuilding popular in the Schwarzenegger era.

• Registration time：From now on until 2023/3/17 
• Active time：2023/3/24 14:00-16:00
• Place：Dept. Bldg. of History 25237(振芝講堂)
• Participation quota：70
• Host：Harry Yi-Jui Wu(Associate Professor, The Cross College Elite Program, National Cheng Kung University)
• Speaker：Sebastian Conrad(Professor, Modern History department, Freie Universität Berlin)
• Registration link：https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBBm-T2N9pJMEq1NZRAaHkZCZO2CvnGUb4rwZMHY67kLLX7w/viewform