Vertinsky Patricia
School of Human Kinetics, University of British Columbia.
Can Bull Med Hist. 2007;24(2):291-316. doi: 10.3138/cbmh.24.2.291.
When Ron Rosenbaum unveiled his explosive journalistic report on the "Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal" in 1995 it was a story that revealed the uneven evolution of attitudes toward body, race, and gender in the last half century. His intention was to highlight how easily ideas about the body have been taken up by scientists and sustained in elite institutions of higher education well beyond the bounds of common sense. The villain of his story was William H. Sheldon, a constitutional psychologist who appropriated the ritual of taking posture photos for his scientific study of somatotypes, a system built upon the relationship of body type to character. Sheldon's toxic eugenic views and equation of physique with destiny in the years following World War II made him increasingly unpopular. And while Rosenbaum concluded that Sheldon's downfall was due to the anger of women students over the taking of nude photos, the deathknell of his career was dealt by his former female assistant, Barbara Honeyman Heath. Publicly denouncing his methods as fraudulent and his somatotypes inaccurate she went on to build a successful career modifying somatotyping techniques and participating in projects all over the world.
1995年，罗恩·罗森鲍姆公布了他关于“常春藤盟校裸照丑闻”的爆炸性新闻报道。这个故事揭示了过去半个世纪里，人们对身体、种族和性别的态度演变并不均衡。他的目的是强调，关于身体的观念是多么轻易地被科学家们接受，并在精英高等学府中持续存在，远远超出了常识的范畴。他故事中的反派是威廉·H·谢尔登，一位体质心理学家，他将拍摄姿势照片的仪式用于他对体型类型的科学研究，这是一个基于体型与性格关系的体系。二战后的几年里，谢尔登有害的优生学观点以及将体格与命运划等号的做法，使他越来越不受欢迎。虽然罗森鲍姆得出结论，谢尔登的倒台是由于女学生对拍摄裸照的愤怒，但断送他职业生涯的却是他以前的女助手芭芭拉·霍尼曼·希思。她公开谴责他的方法是欺诈性的，他的体型类型不准确，随后她开创了成功的职业生涯，改进体型分类技术，并参与世界各地的项目。
