Average, normal, and beautiful: representations of bodies in Brazilian biotypology (1930-1940)

ABSTRACT

Th present article deals with the visual culture present in the books and textbooks on biotypology in Brazil, in the 1930s and 1940s. It analyses the representations of bodies in images, all of which were employed to guide people on the reasoning and practices of bodily measurement and classification according to the main biotypology approaches. Images herein discussed expressed the following scientific modus operandi of biotypology in Brazil: anthropometry, biometry and the construction of an average body; categorisation of biotypes, physical culture and classic aesthetic; and the link between normality, beauty and moral conceptions applied to women’s body features. This analysis also seeks to shed light on some of the ways in which biotypology strayed from and was consistent with eugenic discourse in Brazil. The representation of bodies in Brazilian biotypology showed the efforts to construct normal and deviant bodies defined according to ideals of national and racial identity, perfection, symmetry, harmony, goodness, fairness, femininity and beauty.

KEYWORDS:

• Biotypology
• eugenics
• normality
• visual culture of science

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Among other publications see: Waldemar Berardinelli (1933b) Casos Clínicos Comentados.

2. The so called Varga’s era was a period lasting from 1930 to 1945 under the rule of the president Getúlio Vargas. A government marked by strong nationalist, populist, centralised political cultures and conservative. It was an authoritarian regime not entirely aligned with fascism and guided by its specific traditions, economic interests, and political cultures, including economic, legislative, and cultural modernisation desired and implemented by some groups within the Brazilian elite.

3. “Lexicon” is understood in this context as a linguistic form in terms of linguistic pragmatics, in accordance with Kuhn (2003, 98–101) and his ideas regarding the production and propagation of meaning in science.

4. Here we can interpret opposition biotypologists versus anthropologists and a struggle for academic action. The anthropologist from the National Museum Bastos Ávila, for instance, criticised the lack of coherence of the biotypology schools and the limits of studies concerning the Brazilian normotype, claiming for the role of anthropology to coordinate the several approaches of people classification (Cunha and Gomes 2002, 321).

5. Physician, professor at the National Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Brazil, and chairman of the Brazilian Society for Anthropology and Ethnography.

6. Professor at the Rio de Janeiro School of Medicine and Assistant in the Clinical Practice (Ferla 2009).

7. Professor of internal medicine at the University of Buenos Aires and director of the Municipal Center for Nutrition.

8. Among the titles published on physical education, it is important to highlight the following: “The Feminine Form and Physical Education: Social trends and biological trends” (Original Portuguese Title: “As formas femininas e a educação física: a moda social e a moda biológica”). Educação Physica, Rio de Janeiro, n. 47, p. 37–38, Oct. 1940; “The Feminine Form and Physical Education: Social trends and biological trends” (Original Portuguese Title: “As formas femininas e a educação física: a moda social e a moda biológica”). Educação Physica, Rio de Janeiro, n. 28/29, p. 14–15, Mar./Apr. 1939.

9. It stems from the understanding of fascism as a movement that relied on an aesthetic phenomenon, the neoclassical inspiration of which had the social function of establishing standard models of the body. (Schmid 2005).

10. In its project to create totalitarian bodies and art, the German Nazis put significant effort into disqualifying and destroying art that was not consistent with the classical and neoclassical aesthetic. Modern art, which they considered chaotic, grotesque, and debased, was persecuted with the argument that it incited conflict and was of questionable artistic and technical quality. This “degenerate art” was to be banned, with a focus on classical Greek style (Magan 1999).

11. A scholar whose early works were dedicated to the debate over physical education. Member of the Eugenics Society of São Paulo, Azevedo was then influenced by the scientific and political ideas associated with eugenics, which appear in two of his works discussing exercise: Da Educação Physica (On Physical Education) and Antinou: Estudo da Cultura Atlética (Antinous: A Study of Athletic Culture) (Fraga, Goellner, and Silva 2011).

12. In addition to Fernando de Azevedo, Renato Kehl – a physician, pharmacist, and one of the largest proponents of the eugenics movement in Brazil (Silva 2008).