A clue to a possible (or probable) future reaction of the general population to the appearance of posthumans can be seen in the backlash against bodybuilders in the first half of the twentieth century. The rise in popularity of weight-lifting in the second half of the nineteenth century, spurred on by the muscular Christianity movement and widespread fears of racial degeneracy, created a number of bodybuilders who marketed themselves so efficiently as to become household names. These bodybuilders billed themselves as “superhuman” and as a new breed of man. By the early 20th century the idea that these bodybuilders were the first of a new race was so widespread that the most famous body builders appeared in popular culture as superheroes and as the equal of the fictional heroes of the era, many of whom were described as following similar weight-lifting regimens and having superhuman abilities. The general population went from idealizing and imitating the marquee bodybuilders to feeling unable to live up to their models and from there to hostility. In popular fiction, this backlash manifested itself in regulation and control of the superhumans through plot: superhuman heroes inevitably either lost their powers, had them fade away, or retired, vowing never to use their abilities again.
Jess Nevins is a reference librarian at the University of California at Riverside, and author of Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana and The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes (forthcoming, 2010).
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