For health and beauty: physical culture for Frenchwomen, 1880s–1930s

to the natural world into the language of popular science and presents this for the edification of others. These values were popular in the first half of the nineteenth century but less widely held in the second half, after challenges such as the Origin of species threatened the aesthetic sublime of nature.'s wide-ranging history of physical culture at the turn of the century contains a wealth of interesting facts about how women's bodies were categorized. That does not make it either an easy or ultimately very satisfying read. Though Stewart acknowledges her debts to Michel Foucault and feminist theory, she does not take on current debates on the body and gender identity directly in her text. Her book lays out a myriad of examples of how scientists, health practitioners, hygienists and educators understood women's biological and physical form. Though the book's preface lays out the historiography and her main themes, the chapters are not clearly connected and even the conclusion feels unfinished. Stewart's first chapter outlines the creation of a two-sex model based on scientific principles, while her second shows how the science of endocrinology both supported and questioned this model (though it also covers a variety of other issues such as the level of medical education available to women). These scientific judgements about femininity are only peripheral to her main focus on the education of women about their bodies through schooling, medical advice, beauty manuals and advertising. In chapter three, Stewart argues that medical science had to alter its message to convince Frenchwomen to adopt new rituals of health and hygiene seen as necessary to the prosperity of the nation. Hygienists, after the discovery of germs, influenced women's behaviour by appealing to their interests. To do so they used beauty manuals, linking cosmetic comeliness with health in a successful manipulation of women's vanity. If hygienists succeeded in imparting healthier practices to women of the middle-classes (while accepting cosmetics), other professionals concerned with the reproductive capabilities of the female body were less successful. Part two presents the dominant pronatalist vision divided into chapters on puberty, sexuality and menopause. Stewart argues that the education available to women about their sexuality was disturbing and vague, discouraging women from wanting to procreate. Over time, especially after the war, improvements were made in perceptions of female sexuality. Some sex education books stressed the need for female arousal, though most were aimed at husbands rather …