The Aversion of Female Students on Physical Education - Essay Example

?The Aversion of Female on Physical Education in Secondary School Introduction Although modernity is rapidly changing, which altered some ofthe traditional values of a society, the biases, prejudices, and battle continue in the issue of gender. The subject of this war is female, women, or girls. Traditional values discern women as inferior and domestic individuals that are only capable of household chores. However, they are striving to achieve gender equality and erase the conception of masculinity. The introduction of physical education aims to empower girls and to eliminate the stressful effect of major subjects, but girls in the secondary school have averted PE because of their negative experiences. This paper aims to discuss critically the aversion of girls on physical education in secondary school. The discussion evolves on the determined points that explain the girls’ avoidance on the non-academic subject including the physicality of women as the ideal of femininity, the immateriality of physical education, and pedagogy of teachers. Conception of Physicality Society expects girls or women to be physically beautiful without traces of imperfections or flaws. Callaghan (1994) indicates that the body is the standard measurement of a girl’s beauty because they are the object of men’s pleasure. Thus, the society structured what is considered as beautiful that girls must conform. The author emphasizes that this perception creates power struggle in the concept of feminism and masculinity. Women’s body is subjected to scrutiny because of the masculine’s perception of its weakness and limited endurance to engage in physical activities such as “marathons, weightlifting, and cycling” (United Nations, 2007, p.2). Recently, the society is creating another image of a girl. The incorporation of physical education is the result of bringing consciousness and awareness to the girl’s body. According to Garrett (2004, p.224), the western culture spread the new concept of a beautiful body is thin while fat is considered as “ugly.” The promotion of physical education is to entice girls to participate to achieve a beautiful body. This contradicts the perception of the United Nations (2007, p.8) that “sport as a vehicle for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.” If there is really equality in gender through physical education, then girls must not be conscious with their bodies as the standard of beauty, but the opposite happens. The feminist view asserts that the standard norms for the physical attribute of girls resulted to their continuous checking of themselves whether they look good or not. The consciousness of these girls ends with the restriction of their capability to express their self. In the study conducted at the Australian girls, their experiences on physical education were the cause of their aversion to it. It “became a source of humiliation, anxiety, and fear where feelings of inadequacy compromised any desire to participate and significantly damaged the individual’s sense of self” (Garrett, 2004, p.231). Physical education involves physical power and speed that signify a control of the body, but girls with unskilled physical attribute tend to abandon the game because they are humiliated by this fact. Instead of empowering girls, it breaks their self-esteem or confidence in their body, which projects inferiority. Competition in physical education is visible, which discourages inferior girls to participate. Therefore, the society claims that self-confidence is associated with the girl’s physical structure because they are aimed for public display. Olafson (2002) conducted a survey on the hatred of girls in the secondary school for physical education. It was found out that students’ hatred is centered on their consciousness of their body. The reason for their participation in physical education is to attain the perfect body that society is shaping. The students want to claim a body that will make them confident. In addition, confidence vanishes because of the comparing and judging other individuals body. Thus, the students resort to cut classes to avoid the critical eye of their counterpart. Furthermore, PE is promoted as a way of flaunting bodies to attract boys, so girls welcome the idea of wearing short shorts and close shirts. However, girls that do not conform to the standard dress code and prefer loose shirt and pants, which displays their feminism though objection of the norms. In effect, body association of femininity and physicality alienates female students from their self due to the excessive pressure in relation to engaging in physical education. Irrelevance of Physical Education As mentioned earlier, girls have not fully understood the importance of physical education in school. Girls have participated actively in physical activities outside the school. The number of girls involved in the men’s sports such as soccer is increasing. The feminist explains that there are changes in “power relations” and augments opportunities for women to be recognized in sports. Moreover, the belief that sports are created for masculinity has altered, “which resulted in a breaking down of hegemonic notions of ideal femininity” (Flintoff & Scraton, 2001, p.9). Indeed, girls are now more dynamic and engaging in physical activities; however, the question arises due to the low involvement of girls in school’s physical education. Based on the survey, girls have identified the positive impact of a healthy lifestyle, but the emphasis is on their motivation to attain a perfect body. Although physical education in school is used to encourage students to participate in sports, girls have developed disliked on physical education. The survey attests that girls’ aversion is due to their perception that physical education is irrelevant because they are told to focus on major subjects to get a better grade. PE is only a minor subject that needs no focus. The UK students comprehend that academic subjects are the key toward success in the future, so they have to strive in getting high grade. They usually ignore their physical subject in exchange of doing their assignment in other areas. Furthermore, the school provides choices of physical activities that students prefer to enroll. The students comment that even though the school has provided choices, but it does not know what they really want wherein they can experience liberation and enjoyment on physical education. The students desire that the school administration has to conduct a survey to know the students’ preference. Flintoff and Scraton (2001) have identified that generation gap exists between the students and school faculty because of their traditional views on PE. Pedagogy in School The goals and objectives of incorporating physical education in the school curricula are defeated because of negative experiences of female students. PE is supposed to eliminate gender inequality, but it has become the place of displaying masculinity and femininity. Paechter (2003, p.48) asserts that sex education is not comprehensively taught in biology and health sciences, but it is emphasized in physical education. In UK, PE is taught as a compulsory subject for secondary students, which is based on its fundamental objectives: to acquire and develop skills, to select and apply skills, tactics and compositional ideas, to evaluate and improve performance, and to understand the importance of fitness and health. These categories motivate students to display their attributes, which project their differences in gender. The author adds that the traditional physical education separates female from male through the choices they introduced such as swimming, athletics, dance, and other adventurous activities. The segregation defines weaknesses of individuals through their choices. Thus, the unintentional concept of domination is projected by boys who have developed their muscular strength, which results to insecurity of female. Fun and enjoyment must be associated with physical education, but it has a different impact to female. Pedagogy in school has been the center of discussion due to the comments of students with regard to their method of teaching. Boys always get the attention of PE teachers despite there are girls who are willing to be involved in physical activities and class discussion (Garrett, 2004, p.231). The unfair treatment for girls proved of the limited opportunities provided to them. This is supported by the study of Daleen (2005 cited in Beltran-Carrillo, et al., 2012, p.18) that teachers display favoritism for boys alone in their lessons, which makes girls feel compel to participate in physical activities that will fail their expectations. Beltran-Carrillo, et al. (2012, p.7) affirm that teachers assess and analyse the performance of students based on their “skill, fitness, and body shape.” Students, who excel in this field, usually get the reward and recognition from peers and teacher, but poor performance of students obtains failure in class. Thus, the main lesson in physical education is competition so that students can achieve better grades; hence, the one who gets the prize will gain respect and recognition. The teachers based their judgment on the socially structured concept of femininity and masculinity. Instead of distressing from difficult subjects offered in school, PE prompted students to avoid in participating to school activities. According to Fairclough and Stratton (2005), their study attests that the evaluation of student’s performance is grounded on the universal style of teaching, which does not assess individual differences of students as poor or excellent in physical activities. Therefore, student’s motor ability differs that is important when taking physical education. Beltran-Carrillo, et al. (2012) added that teachers are considered as slaves of performance management. This has been the influence of western culture that every individual must struggle to achieve success. Teachers integrate this notion to students, which increases insecurity and pushes them to strive hard until they excel in the field of physical education. Aside from the evaluation students received from their teachers, physical education forces them to comply and conform in the structured standard of feminism. Teachers take part in the transformation of girls in secondary schools. Cockburn and Clarke (2002) posit that teachers want to erase the “girlie” attitude of students. They strive to change the notion that girls are weak; hence, girls must act as a man, which is the concern of sports education. This leads to the complaints of students that teachers are changing their self identity, which girls do not prefer. It means they have to preserve what they are. As what the feminist argues, sports will not totally eliminate the ideal of girls’ femininity such as motherhood, physicality, and sexuality. However, teachers disregard the acceptable image of teenage girls, which restrict them to wear ‘girlie things’. Teachers encourage them to wear “unflattering, unfeminine, and unfashionable clothes” (Cockburn & Clarke, 2002, p.654). Furthermore, PE teachers command students not to wear jewelry, require girls to sweat, and tie their hair. Teenage girls are often uncomfortable with the requirement in PE. Sportiness remarks students’ active participation in physical education. Teenage students affirm that this remark hurts, but they have to appear tough on the outside, but crying on the inside. They do not want other people to notice that even though they have embraced the notion of being sporty, their feminine side still functions. Thus, this creates double identities for girls, which are in conflict. On the other hand, students have formed a resistance to the teacher’s authority, which increases the negative impression of PE teachers. Cockburn and Clarke (2002) construe that the disengagement of teenage girls to physical education is caused by unsupportive and judgmental PE teachers. Secondary schools have acknowledged the effect of physical education to female students, which pushed them to formulate single-sex teaching strategy wherein girls are segregated from boys in learning PE. In addition, female students are taught by female teachers to avoid favoritism, but Hayes and Stidder (2003) admit that this creates positive impact temporarily. This will aggravate the tension and conflict between the two sexes, which will be difficult to handle when not attended immediately. Female teachers and male teachers will clash their differing ideas on the style of teaching. Conclusion Girls are living in a society wherein they are instructed and controlled by the socially structured concept of femininity. Girls are considered as weak, which limits their ability to handle physical activities. Physical education exacerbates the tension and conflict in gender relations because it is promoted as a method of achieving the perfect body that girls must conform. This results to girl’s aversion to physical education. Moreover, teenage girls perceive that PE is irrelevant in the school’s curriculum because their priority is academic subjects. Lastly, teachers establish favoritism in class discussion and evaluation of girl’s performance. References Beltran-Carrillo, V.J. et al., 2012. When physical activity participation promotes inactivity: negative experiences of Spanish adolescents in physical education and sport. Youth & Society, 44 (1), pp.3-27. Callaghan, K.A., 1994. Ideals of feminine beauty: philosophical, social, and cultural dimensions. USA: Greenwood Publishing. Cockburn, C. & Clarke, G., 2002. “Everybody’s looking at you!”: girls negotiating the “femininity deficit” they incur in physical education. Women’s Studies International Forum, 25 (6), pp.651-665. Fairclough, S. & Stratton, G., 2005. ‘Physical education makes you fit and healthy’. Physical education’s contribution to young people’s physical activity levels. Health Education Research, 20 (1), pp.14-23. Flintoff, A. & Scraton, S., 2001. Stepping into active leisure? Young women’s perceptions of active lifestyles and their experiences of school physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 6 (1), pp.5-21. Garrett, R., 2004. Negotiating a physical identity: girls, bodies and physical education. Sport, Education and Society, 9 (2), pp.223-237. Hayes, S. & Stidder, G., 2003. Equity and inclusion in physical education and sport: contemporary issues for teachers, trainees and practitioners. USA: Routledge. Olafson, L., 2002. “I hate Phys. Ed.”: adolescent girls talk about physical education. Physical Educator, 59 (2). Paechter, C., 2003. Power, bodies and identity: how different form of physical education construct varying masculinities and femininities in secondary schools. Sex Education, 3 (1), pp.47-59. United Nations, 2007. Women, gender equality and sport. New York, NY: United Nations. Read More