From Corsets to Cockpits: The Politics of the Female Body and the Rise of Women’s Sport in Fin-de-Siècle Hungary (1867–1914)

Abstract

This study examines the institutionalization and social perception of women’s sports in Hungary during the Dual Monarchy (1867–1914), situated within the broader modernization context of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The research is based on a systematic exploration of primary sources, including contemporary Hungarian sports journals (e.g., Herkules, Sport-Világ, Ladies’ Cycling Journal), fashion magazines carrying feminist discourses (e.g., Divatszalon), illustrated weeklies (e.g., Vasárnapi Ujság, Új Idők), and period medical literature. The central thesis of the paper posits that the emergence of women’s sports was not an isolated leisure phenomenon, but rather a visual and physical catalyst for the construction of the modern autonomous female subject. Applying the theoretical frameworks of body politics and the performative turn, the author demonstrates how the female body became a contested zone between conservative biopolitical control and liberal emancipatory aspirations. The analysis details the specific social functions of various sporting activities: ice skating as a space for controlled social representation; cycling as a revolutionary technology of female mobility and the reclamation of public space; and tennis and swimming as practices challenging gender hierarchies and hygienic norms. A dedicated chapter discusses clothing reform, arguing that the abandonment of the corset and the introduction of functional sportswear liberated the female body from patriarchal discipline in both a symbolic and physical sense. Furthermore, the research highlights the ambivalence of medical discourses, which simultaneously viewed sport as a source of “racial degeneration” and a “guarantee of national health.” The conclusion asserts that the pioneers of Hungarian women’s sports, ranging from internationally successful figure skaters to the first female aviators, systematically dismantled the visual and mental barriers hindering the social and political equality of women, thereby paving the way for the 20th-century ideal of the modern woman.