and if that happened today . . . well, it never would

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/brown/1915390,CST-NWS-brown02.article

Posture photos creepier than nude swimming

Oak Park-River Forest girls had to pose naked in '60s

December 2, 2009

BY MARK BROWN Sun-Times Columnist

Pam Catalano was in the second semester of her sophomore year at Oak Park-River Forest High School when the hour arrived that she had been dreading since before she ever set foot inside the west suburban school, her anxiety stoked by tales from her older sisters.

Catalano and her classmates reported per usual that day to their girls' physical education class -- per usual except for one little wrinkle: They had been instructed to wear no underwear beneath their gym uniforms.

Then, one by one, the girls stepped inside a booth in the girls' gym, where they were required to strip naked and pose for photographs. There were marks on the floor to show them where to stand. A fixed camera, operated by a female gym teacher, took two, maybe three pictures.

It was quick and all very clinical, and to an extremely modest 16-year-old Catalano, oh so very creepy.

The year was 1969. They called it Posture Class. snip

Still, she wonders what people were thinking at the time.

"Looking back, I can't believe our parents let this go on," Senn said. "No one made a fuss. I am the mother now of three girls, and if that happened today . . . well, it never would."

Vogel said the thinking was that teachers could check for scoliosis and other spinal problems. snip

Years after colleges curtailed the nude posture photos and promised they'd been destroyed, that New York Times article revealed that many of them had become part of some bizarre research project by a guy who theorized personality could be predicted by body type.

It also turned out many of the images have been preserved -- in the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian. No mention of any high school photos.

[FSogol]

1. Weird. In 1973-ish my school checked us for scoliosis.

No nude photography, the nurse just had us pull up our shirts and ran her hand up and down our spine. A co-worker was talking about his 1960s gym class in upstate NY, where the boys swam naked in the school's basement pool.