If you’ve ever been given a passive-aggressive prod at the base of your spine by a “concerned” family member; if you’ve been told to “put your shoulders back” and walked around trying to imagine an invisible thread holding your head up; if you’ve generally been harangued by people about your “bad posture”; this article is for you.
Because, fellow slouchers, despite a lifetime of hearing that our sloping shoulders are compressing our organs and ruining our spines, some medical experts and researchers believe that “bad posture” truly isn’t that terrible at all.
In fact, in a recent episode of Vox’s Unexplainable podcast, medical historian and lecturer Beth Linker ― who just wrote a book, Slouch: Posture Panic In Modern America ― explained that our medicalised ideas of “good” posture only came about around the 1850s.
What?
Yup! She said that though people have cared about posture as etiquette for a long time, it was only after the publication of The Origin Of Species, where Darwin “posit[ed] that the first human characteristic to evolve was upright standing or posture,” that the way people hold themselves “caught a lot of attention among scientists.”
Until then, she says sitting up straight was seen as quite, well, tacky. “It was considered low class to sit bolt upright. It was kind of crude,” she said; “You’re supposed to have kind of a languid, leisurely pose about you.”
Once the idea of being upright got linked to, er, humanity, though, scientists became shocked to learn that lots of people ― their particular concern being well-off white people ― were pretty slouched.
“This was supposed to be the one thing that distinguishes human beings from simians and human beings were failing at it,” Beth shared.
Later, The American Posture League (yes, really) formed and teamed up with “tuberculosis crusaders” to falsely establish a link between the deadly disease and posture.
Since then, the way you sit and stand has been linked to everything from sleep problems to digestion issues, non-TB-related lung problems, and general laziness.
But Beth disagrees, calling it “the phrenology of the 20th century” and “fake news” in a New York Times article.
Woah. So it’s a myth?
A Guardian article from 2022, written by professor of musculoskeletal physiotherapy Peter O’Sullivan, professor of physiotherapy Leon Straker, and physiotherapist and lecturer Nic Saraceni says that “Perceptions of ‘good’ posture originate from a combination of social desirability and unfounded presumptions.”
They add that: “Systematic reviews have found ergonomic interventions for workers, and advice for manual workers on the best posture for lifting, have not reduced work-related back pain... People adopt a range of different spine postures, and no single posture protects a person from back pain.”
Of course, other experts disagree with this position. The National Institutes of Health (NIH), for instance, says that “How you position yourself can help or hurt your health over your lifetime.”
Beth Linker herself told the New York Times, “I’m not a posture denier. I think posture therapy can be a powerful tool when used to alleviate existing back pain... What I question is how much posture correction can do for a healthy, pain-free person in terms of preventing future ills and the inevitability of ageing.”
The NIH stresses the importance of posture for older people in particular. If you’re in pain, seek, and prioritise, advice from experts on the best way to cure it.
But if you’re getting ribbed left, right, and a-bit-off-centre for the way you sit, despite not feeling any worse off thanks to it, well... some experts, it seems, are on your sloping side.