‘Governmentality’ in the origins of European female PE and sport: the Spanish case study (1883–1936)

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is twofold: (1) to contribute to the analysis of the origins of modern European female PE and sports from a power perspective, inspired by Foucault's work; and (2) to present a detailed analysis of female PE and sport in Spain (1883–1936) as a specific European case study. It is argued that these physical activities could be conceived in the Spanish case as part of a specific kind of ‘governmentality’ with a dual nature. On the one hand they represented disciplinary ‘technologies of power’ over the female body. Selected physical activities—dictated mainly from the hygienic-moral position of the Regeneracionistas (‘Regenerationists’)—were exerted as a kind of ‘bio-power’ for the control of the female population. On the other hand, such kind of activities (especially sports) represented certain ‘technologies of the self’ for middle and upper class women. Through participation in sports, women gained a more active and public role in the Spanish society of the era, obtaining some degree of autonomy in self-governance over their bodies and their lives.

Keywords:

• Foucault
• Power
• Governmentality
• Physical Education
• Sports
• Women
• Spain

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dominic Malcolm for his helpful edits on the previous version of the article.

Notes

1. Situation of female PE/sports in the United States resembled the same attitudes and values as in Europe. As Vertinsky (1987) reminds us:Physicians and moralists united after the 1870s in the joint desire to rescue the American race (and generate good business) by restoring emphasis on the female body to counteract female independence and the weakness they believed was caused by too much brainwork. Systematic exercise seemed offer an opportunity to regain control over the lazy body and to reintroduce substitute physical labor into the lives of wordless middle class women. Sports and physical activity would provide the strength and muscle to improve women's maternal function, but would not, they were sure, destroy the beauty of feminine curves, or the harmony of the home (…) Morality and a moderate muscularity thus joined in a salvage plan supported by orthodox physicians to renovate the female body and fortify a lady's will to be a good mother (1987, p. 259).

2. We follow Nikolas Rose (1999) idea about the fact that ‘governmentality’ implies already the notions of body disciplines and control of population and constitutes a latter development of the Foucauldian power/knowledge investigations. Also, we agree with Cole et al. (2004) in their statement that ‘in order to understand Foucault's exposition of modern power, Discipline and Punish and History of Sexuality must be read together’ (2004, p. 216).

3. In this sense, oriental practices such as yoga, tai-chi or martial arts could be conceived as well in this special group of technologies of the self based on a corporeal approach towards self-transformation.

4. As J. Hargreaves (1993) remind us ‘during the formative years of female sport—that is, from the middle of the nineteenth century to the early twentieth century—the legitimate use of the female body was redefined to symbolise a more active (yet when compared with men nevertheless still subordinate) role’ (1993, p. 71).

5. The Second Spanish Republic was a brief but relevant political period (1931–1936) compressed between Primo de Rivera's dictatorship and the Spanish Civil War. Consisting in a democratising and modernising project of the country, it clashed openly against the opposition of the conservative forces, ending up in the disgraceful conflict of the Spanish Civil War.