Physical Education: the fetish of fascist and military dictatorships

This post is a contribution to the August/September 2023 edition of the Gender Exploration Carnival, whose topic is Sports.

When I think of Physical Education I can’t help thinking of Primo de Rivera, both the father and the son, the military dictator and the fascist ideologist, respectively. It was their fetish and it lasts until our days with no relevant modification by the aid of Franco’s dictatorship who continued both lines.

The abhorrent introduction of Physical Education has traceable roots in military instruction, and it was one of the early decrees by Primo de Rivera father to impose it to all students, segregated by «sexes» but similar in contents. His son praised Physical Education in counter-position to the atmospheres where ideas could be interchanged. Both wanted to develop discipline and annihilate thought.

With the end of Franco’s dictatorship, Physical Education was neither abolished nor deeply reformed. The only change performed was putting «both sexes» together in the same group, but still evaluating them according to different standards. The bad point is not that they acknowledged differences, but that their only parameter of diversity was the registered sex. Therefore, the normative for evaluation in Physical Education is illegal since it contradicts higher-rank law, but in this pseudo-democracy we are used to this kind of corruption.

Speaking personally, such a crap as Physical Education made me naturally hate sports (and still hate competitive ones) and any kind of structured physical activity. It’s the expected result when authority imposed something wrong by force, hate even for the few good features it might have. I only gave a second chance to physical activity when I signed up for an activity open for everybody and with respect to the actual diversity, not taking «registered sex» as a proxy. It was so open that the monitor spoke of «during menstruation» without referring to women in any case because it was unnecessary, apart that a large part of the group consisted of post-menopause women.

There are very few trainers that respect actual diversity and don’t impose binary standards. Apart of this monitor, I met a non-binary trainer who facilitated me make peace with physical activity. I hope I meet more of them, but the great majority of people related with sports and physical activity are human feces, transphobic and enemies of diversity.

If had the chance to dispose of one subject from the curriculum of schools, just one, I would choose Physical Education without any doubt. And I would do even if Catholic Religion remained as a subject, which happens in this pseudo-non-confessional country, because Physical Education teaches better not to think than Religion. At least, in the subject of Religion, the students are exposed to what the Catholic Church teaches and are better qualified to criticize it. For instance, they can learn how unsupported is the Church’s discrimination by «sex», but Physical Education introduces it as a natural fact, apart that it automatizes movements and penalizes thinking outside.