For decades, the idea of standing properly upright carried considerable political and social baggage.
In the early 20th century, posture exams became mainstays in the military, the workplace and schools, thanks in part to the American Posture League, a group of physicians, educators and health officials that formed in 1914.
In 1917, a study found that roughly 80 percent of Harvard’s freshman class had poor posture.
But the actual science doesn’t support the conventional wisdom about proper posture, Beth Linker argues in her new book, “Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America.” Dr. Linker, a historian and sociologist of science at the University of Pennsylvania, recently sat for an interview with The New York Times; the conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
Your posture looks pretty good.
Persons:
Slouching, Beth, “, ”
Organizations:
League, University of Pennsylvania, The New York Times
Locations:
Modern America