AMERICAN WOMEN.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1020, 9 January 1911, Page 6

AMERICAN WOMEN.

. "INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM MEN." : The strange statement •is made to day, says a New. York dispatch of November 2S, oil tho authority of two eminent,professors of. art and gymnastics, that unless she radically changes her habits the American woman in a feiv: years will be indistinguishable as regards her figure from a man. According to Dr. Dudley Allen Sargent, director of gymnastics at Harvard University, the physique, of Amo-, rican womanhood has undergone a singular changs in the last. twenty years, mainly as the result of excessive indulgence" in athletics. Dr. Sargent has : in his study a composite stat-uo modelled in accordance with the actual measuvemcnts of more than 10,000 women before the year 1890. Since the statue was completed, he says, the American woman's physique has been revolutionised until it pow ap-. proximates that of . the man. Her feet and hands have become larger, her hips smaller, her shoulders broader, and her neck thicker. Dr. Sargent's observations are confirmed by Mr. John AY. Alexander, the portrait painter and president of the National Academy of Dosign. He declares that the American woman seems determined to lose what- 'constitutes woman's greatest charm. "In.no other country do you see such masculine figures as American women have. In France tho woman is the personification of grace. In Germany sue is not as 'graceful perhaps, but she has that motherly bearing which gives her a' lovableness not often found in our women. • "Iu England her stateliness and dig-, nity dissipate the slightest suggestion of the masculine. But thd American woman lias devoted herself to such an extent to athletes that she-has beconio tho despair of artists, -with her. flat chest, liuge muscular waist-, strong, heavy arms, thick neck, small hips, aiii largo feet and hands." Dr. Sargent predicts that unless the American woman modifies her preseutpassion" for violent outdoor exercise "her figure in a few years will lie so manlike that, she will appear ridiculous in female attire."