Chapter Five charts the re- emergence of Lycra in the social changes of the women’s movement, when the fiber that had been invented for the restrictive girdles that symbolised women’s controlled position in society now became the fiber of liberation when made up into aerobic leotards and leggings worn by women reinventing themselves and their bodies. ©2011 Taylor and Francis

Aerobics Aerobics was not a stand-alone phenomenon, it was part of the emergent Women’s Movement. The Women’s Movement had diverse elements, but for all, gaining control - wresting it from patriarchal authority, enabling women to take control of their own lives, health, bodies, sexuality and reproduction – was paramount. What was striking at the time was the transcendent nature of the movement. It was a total social phenomenon that spread into dietary practices; beliefs about health and medicine, new music and other forms of popular culture, new codes of dress and behaviour, new attitudes to the body. ©2011 Taylor and Francis

One of the most influential and explicit statements of the thinking of the times among politicized women comes from the hugely influential book on women’s health – Our Bodies, Our Selves – a landmark work that as Laura Nader (1997:717) said, sought to crack controlling paradigms by ‘introducing women to their own bodies as a site for the exercise of power’ © 2011 Taylor and Francis

From Our Bodies, Our Selves ‘For us, body education is core education. Our bodies are the physical bases from which we move out into the world; ignorance, uncertainty – even, at worst, shame – about our physical selves create in us an alienation from ourselves that keeps us from being the whole people we could be. Picture a woman trying to do work and to enter into the equal and satisfying relationships with other people when she feels physically weak because she has never tried to be strong; when she drains her energy trying to change her face, her figure, her hair, her smells to match some ideal norm set by magazines and tv.’ (Boston Women’s Health Collective 1973:iii) © 2011 Taylor and Francis

This passage from Our Bodies, Our Selves, which contextualizes the giving up of the girdle, resonated strongly with the nascent aerobics movement, which would provide women with an entirely new way of transforming themselves, on their own terms. Of all forms of exercise, aerobics was then – and remains – practiced almost entirely by women. © 2011 Taylor and Francis

A key text for the period, in which the ideology of aerobics and the fitness movement generally is made explicit, is Jane Fonda’s Workout Book, published in 1986 but reflecting the influences and beliefs that had been emerging since the 1960’s. Another highly influential work was Debbie Moore’s Pineapple Dance Book published in © 2011 Taylor and Francis

Striking a deep chord in the popular psyche of women across the United States and in many places abroad, these books were instant best-sellers. In the phraseology of the time, aerobic exercise was perceived by vanguard adherents as ‘empowerment, the wresting back of control of one’s own body, life, and health. If weight loss and change in body shape transpired as a result of exercise, these were by- products of a more meaningful activity, not an end in itself. The very practice of highly energetic exercise by women – smelly, sweaty, strenuous activity – challenged the old construct of the ‘ideal’ controlled and passive woman. Far more important than appearance was the empowerment – physical, psychological, social – that was perceived to come through exercise. ©2011 Taylor and Francis

These emergent, young, liberated, females, mainly of the Boomer cohort constituted a new social category, and aerobics was a new physical and symbolic practice that defined them. But what new clothes would construct and consolidate the new category? © 2011 Taylor and Francis

The death of the girdle, the decline in traditional lingerie and the resultant slump in the foundation market generally had resulted in a surplus of Dupont Antron-Lycra fabrics in a range of fashion colours originally intended for undergarments, which now reposed unused in warehouses. Small craft business grew up, which bought up the unwanted shiny stretch fabric and used it to make colourful dancewear for the first aerobics clients, which soon turned into a big business. Ironically, aerobics leotards, leggings and catsuits were almost identical to the ‘bodyshapers’ that Dupont had tried to persuade the young Boomers to buy. © 2011 Taylor and Francis

In one of the many ironies that surround Lycra what had been the ultimate fiber of control now became the defining fiber of freedom. In the past, women had worn girdles beneath their garments to make the clothes look good. In other words, women were worn by their clothes. Now Lycra, the aerobics movement and the wider culture turned this paradigm on its head. Lycra leggings and leotards allowed women to wear their own bodies. Lycra became the second skin for a new life in which self confidence would be rooted in women and their bodies, not in rules, dress codes, wearing clothes that were ‘appropriate’ for age or social status, and especially not in wearing girdles. ©2011Taylor and Francis

Dupont and Lycra Dupont never promoted Lycra aerobics wear in the way they had promoted girdles of Lycra, but when the girdle market declined they developed the use of Lycra in everyday clothing for men, women and children, bringing an unprecedented level of fit and comfort to everyday clothes through stretch. © 2011 Taylor and Francis

Dupont then went on to develop high performance Lycra fibers for sport, but when you say ‘Lycra’, most members of the public still think of the Lycra aerobic leggings and leotards of the 1970’s and 1980’s not the more recent applications of the fiber, showing how ‘stuff’ takes on values, meanings and associations independently of what producers and consumers say and do. ©2011 Taylor and Francis

Discussion questions – Chapter five 1) Ecstatic dance expresses ideologies and values on a communal level, while creating community and solidarity among the dancers. Aerobics has been compared to an ‘ecstatic religion’ – discuss. 2) How did Lycra empower women? 3) Aerobic dancewear and Dupont’s Lycra ‘bodyshapers’ were virtually identical - why do you think young Boomers would buy the former, but not the latter? 4)Can you imagine life without Lycra or similar stretch fibers? How many garments and other things can you think of that contain stretch fibers. ©2011Taylor and Francis