Physical exercise; a source of liberation for women…. and probably for men too!

As a physiotherapist working in the same place for many years, one of the rewards – which admittedly can, occasionally, be a double edged sword -  is getting to know patients so well they are comfortable sharing some of their innermost thoughts with you. Recently I was seeing a woman who was a ballet dancer. She has been retired for several years but the discipline she learnt from an early age continues; she is slim, fit and remains extremely active – a fabulous advert for her art. This week she was in reflective mood remembering the debt she owed to ballet – how it had transformed her life. At school she had struggled academically and her self esteem was at an all time low when she discovered she had both a talent and a love of  dance.

The freedom she found in ballet unleashed a self confidence that she had never dreamt of before. This new experience came solely through the control, training and movement of her body. It gave her a new relationship both with herself and, through  her performances, with the external world of the audience. She explained how it was only through understanding and using her body that she was at last able to express herself  fully. It gave her a liberty, it let her soul sing. Movement, fitness, training and most importantly performance  gave her not only a physical but crucially also an immense psychological and spiritual boost. Life was never the same again after her discovery of dance.

Francis Havergal

Given my PhD topic I was immediately aware of the similarities with women climbers in the nineteenth century. For many of them  it was only once they began climbing that they  realised what their bodies were actually capable of. Mountaineering, as ballet did for my patient, suddenly allowed women to glimpse a whole new world of possibilities. This was a particular revelation at a time when control of women’s bodies was central to many medical, political and social debates.  Any woman who paid heed to medical advice, for example, knew that many doctors advised them to avoid extreme physical  exertion for fear of infertility. Interest in evolution seemed to suggest that women’s bodies were arrested at a more primitive stage of development than mens and the Contagious Diseases Acts allowed any woman to be whisked way and subjected to  internal examination to exclude venereal disease . The female body, therefore, was a contested subject in the second half of the nineteenth century. In the mountains  though women found somewhere they could leave these debates behind, a place where they  could truly experience their bodies for themselves; here was reality and truth, not opinion or conjecture.  The views of scientists, doctors or politicians  were of no relevance in the mountains all that mattered  here was the physical and psychological ability and desire to gain the summit. Just as for my patient, discovering what they could achieve in the mountains was a revelation for many women. Francis Havergal, despite being more noted as a hymn writer than a climber, nevertheless became seduced by the mountains and noted how ‘no one can judge  of what they can do here by what they can do in England.’

Another group of young women  during their first Alpine trip in 1874 wrote ‘ there is something delightful in possessing strength and power and endurance… there is a buoyancy, a sense of freedom.’  Many other women  had similar experiences; free from the restrictions of society the high mountains provided an exhilaration few had known before. It truly was another world. For some these encounters were life changing. As with ballet,mountaineering gave some women  a new sense of self expression, fulfilment and spiritual renewal. While men, clearly, also experienced these sensations the difference in lifestyle and activity in the Alps compared to life in Britain was more marked for women than men.  In the mountains women were freer to experience and explore for themselves what  their bodies could achieve. Medical and evolutionary theories were just that – theories; in the mountains they were an irrelevance -superseded by the reality of what women discovered they could do.

author and friend aiguille de toule 2010

And just to prove this is still as relevant today the photo above was taken a couple of years ago in the Mont Blanc Massif. It was the first time a friend of mine had been on glaciers or climbed in the high mountains  but like many women before us she found it an engrossing and liberating experience. Society, both in the past and today, is very keen to shape what women  should or should not be doing. Much of this revolves around their bodies- what they  wear, how they behave, what sport, job or exercise is suitable – witness the recent curfuffle over Hilary Mantels view of the Duchess of Cambridge if you have any doubts! In setting limits on the body, the spirit is dampened. If women discover the ability of their body for themselves it can herald a transformation. It may even allow the soul  to break out and sing – just as it did for my patient.

Women, Mont Blanc………& Recognition

So the weather is dreadful. Outside it is cold, snowing, wet and dismal. In these conditions most of us are happy to remain tucked up inside – an ideal time to get on with some reading  and catch up with indoor chores. During such moments of self indulgence, however, we would do well to consider the activities of two women in the Alps a hundred and thirty seven years ago.

Mont Blanc with the Grand Mulets ridge rising above the Bossons Glacier

During January 1876  two women were bidding to become the first person to climb Mont Blanc in winter. The first person note , not just the first woman. At a time when it is often imagined mountaineering was a male domain, it was two women who were serious contenders  to claim this first winter ascent. The American, Meta Brevoort, spent New Year’s day at the Grand Mulets refuge, a hut high up (3000m) on the flank of the mountain  – it nestles behind  one of the rocky outcrops shown in the middle of the photo. She stayed  there for five nights  and even camped out under canvas at the significantly higher Grand Plateau (4200m) in a last desperate, heroic – some might say foolish – attempt to reach the summit.

Meta Brevoort with Nephew William Coolidge and guides Christian & Ulrich Almer and dog Tschingel

Unfortunately, driving winds, low temperatures and poor visibility forced a retreat. A few days later, the desire to achieve the first winter ascent of the Alps highest mountain encouraged another attempt  by fellow mountaineers, Gabriel Loppe and Simon Ecclestone. They too, however, were stopped at the Grand Plateau by terrible weather conditions.

Isabel Straton (right) and future husband Jean Charlet

Two weeks later the thirty eight year old British woman, Isabel Straton, made her bid.                                              Accompanied byJean Charlet, the man she would  marry later that year, the expedition was not without mishap; she suffered frostbitten fingers, a porter was injured and it took four days at the Grand Mulets before they successfully made it to the top. The temperature on the summit was minus 23 celsius. So if you think the weather we have had recently is bad, think again!

Straton’s success was reported in both English and foreign newspapers. She  remains a real presence in Chamonix  where streets, mountain ridges, hotels and refuges are named after her. In Britain, however, she is virtually unknown. It is hard not to imagine that if Straton had been a man, histories of mountaineering would have given her a higher priority. As it is, details of her climbing  are often secondary to  discussion of her wealth and marriage. Such domestic arrangements  assume a higher priority for women than for men it seems and in doing so occlude the very real achievements that were made.

Looking out of the window I see the snow has stopped and  a suggestion of sun is filtering through the leaden sky. Clearly its time to leave my warm, sheltered study, get outside  and enjoy the bracing, cool air , to commune in an albeit limited sense  with the spirit of  women like Brevoort and Straton. Regardless of how others saw them they did not let domestic concerns deter them – as I leave my comfy chair I am wondering if I can do the same!

Scoliosis, hunchbacks and other Richard III stuff!

I can’t help it, as a physio and a historian I have got to get this off my chest. There have been lots of comment about Richard III and his scoliosis – a sideways deformity of the spine – and whether he was also a ‘hunchback’ and if so how could he have worn armour.

In most instances a marked scoliosis – that is one visible to the naked eye and not requiring modern imaging to unmask – will also have some axial rotation of the vertebrae. As the ribs attach to these same vertebrae any rotation  of the spine is exaggerated. This causes  the ribs to be more prominent on one side than the other and creates what is popular termed a ‘hunchback’.

It is clear Richard III had a significant scoliosis in his thoracic spine; he therefore inevitably had an asymmetric rib cage and ‘hunchback’. Having one without the other, whilst not impossible, is probably as rare as hens teeth! The whole debate of whether he had a hunchback as well as a scoliosis should never have got off the ground – it is a non question.

The other ridiculous comment is ‘how did he wear armour?’ Do the people who ask this think he  bought it off the peg from John Lewis?  He was the king not  a pauper – he had his armour made for him as did everyone else. He would have been able to move within this as well as anyone.  His body would have adapted  to the restrictions imposed by the scoliosis. One of (possibly the only!)  benefit of dying aged thirty two is that he avoided the worst of  the back and neck pain that plagues most people with scoliosis from middle age onwards making their later years a misery. Even  a king can’t avoid that.

The Continuing Problem of Women’s Appearance……

My PhD topic is researching the surprisingly numerous women who climbed and walked in the Alps in the second half of the nineteenth century. Whenever I explain this to people hardly anyone comments on the extreme physical fitness needed, the cool heads and, at times, profound privation endured. No, women might have been bivouacking on glaciers, negotiating Alpine ridges with  thousand foot drops on either side, climbing without rest for over eighteen hours and then dining on slugs and squirrels but the thing that pops into most people’s heads is what they looked like!

A Typical Alpine Ridge

The most frequent comment is , ‘Did they climb in skirts and if so how did they manage?’   In many ways that is not surprising as to modern minds it seems impossible to have the same freedom of movement in a skirt as is possible in trousers.  In reality there was less difficulty than modern minds might  imagine and, indeed, some advantages; any woman who has walked up a glacier will know there is little cover for ‘calls of nature’. A skirt, however, provided a ready made tent as the Alpinist Mary Mummery noted in 1889. Nevertheless, I suspect if I told people I was studying male climbers  there would be few comments  made about their heavy, three piece tweed suits, the waist-coats, breeches and  the almost compulsory pipe they smoked. Appearance is  of little or no significance for men; it seems fundamental when considering women.

The continued subtle influence of what we expect of women’s appearance was brought home to me  recently by a comment made by a patient. Whilst discussing the joys of the Olympics and in particular the outstanding achievements of women like Jess Ennis the patient confessed she disliked seeing women with six packs.

Jess Eniss, London 2012

She felt they were ‘manly’ and de-feminising. I commented that this was only because her view of the feminine body has been conditioned by society and  the media.  The dismal coverage given to women’s sport is merely one example. If  an alien scanned the sports pages, women’s magazines or  television channels they could be forgiven for questioning whether women were capable of  serious physical exercise at all. Unfortunately the patient was not persuaded. Society’s expectations of women’s appearance clearly remains  an issue in a way it doesn’t for men. The recent disgusting attacks on the appearance of Cambridge don Mary Beard which followed  previous unwarranted criticism of her by  The Times columnist AA Gill are  high profile examples. If women, such as the ‘admirable Beard’, do not conform to the expected female stereotype they are  threatened and subjected to vitriol. Society’s expectations of women’s appearance can be subtle, pressurising and pervasive. Yesterday the highly acclaimed, double Booker winning author, Hilary Mantel laid bare her reflections  on coping with body image (www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/02/hilary-mantel-experience-fat).  If someone as successful and outwardly self assured as Mantel wrestles with appearance it suggests we have some way to go before the way women look is not an important talking point.

In one sense we have not moved very far from the final decades of the nineteenth century. Women’s bodies, their exercise and shape, was a major topic of conversation in medical journals and women’s magazines. Then as now the media, which of course meant only newspapers and periodicals, were controlled by men. Even most ‘Lady’s’ papers had male editors and proprietors. Medicine also was dominated by men. As a result the ideal woman’s body was often portrayed as one with a waspish waist sitting between a copious bosom and large backside!  As the anthropologist Mary Douglas has highlighted the more control and ritual a society exerts over dress and appearance the more an individual’s activities are controlled and curtailed. Women climbers were clearly one group of women who abandoned corsets  in favour of more practical clothing and in doing so opened up a new world of opportunities in the mountains. Although they climbed in skirts they made various  adaptations – no firm lacing being one.  Whilst not displaying their fitness in the explicit way modern athletes like Ennis do, nevertheless, the conventions of female body image were set aside whilst they were climbing. Then, as is clearly still the case today, not everyone was happy with this new demonstration of women’s appearance and by association their freedom to become involved in ‘manly’ activities, nevertheless they persevered – as must we.

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