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‘Female Nature’, Body Culture and Plastique

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Abstract

This chapter looks at the role of plastique1 in the numerous systems for disciplining the body, and especially the female body in the early decades of the 1900s.2 Based on material relating to Denmark, it will be argued that the training of plastique created a link between otherwise discrete genres3 of women’s body culture, and furthermore was perceived as particularly close to, or even enhancing female ‘nature’. Ultimately it will be suggested that the training of plastique came to inform a double process of ‘naturalization’ taking place before, under and after Denmark gained full female suffrage in 1915.

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© 2011 Karen Vedel

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Vedel, K. (2011). ‘Female Nature’, Body Culture and Plastique. In: Carter, A., Fensham, R. (eds) Dancing Naturally. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230354487_10

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