Physical Education in schools is sexist (From The Northern Echo)

Physical Education in schools is sexist

2:53pm Thursday 1st April 2010

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We have noticed lately that there are a lot of differences between the female and male physical education lessons, and many females believe that these differences should be noted. Many males put this down to the physical differences of strength and weight, but females believe that this doesn’t matter if we are playing the same sex. The male society within school are allowed to play rugby, football, water polo and cycling, but the girls do the traditional sports that many find boring and very stereotypical. Many of the female population within school would like being given the opportunity to play tag rugby/rugby, football or cycling, as they believe that they should be given the chance to try new sports, to see if they like them so that they can continue later in life. The female population within the school have been stereotyped to be small, weak and feminine. We have also noticed that the female population are not getting offered showers after the physical education lessons which means they are walking around in their own sweat and dirt and this can be very unhygienic especially for the female population when on their time of the month. As the result of the situation a lot of girls hardly do any sport because they would be doing the same things repeatedly term after term so they will get very bored of doing the same things. Many are starting to skive from physical education lessons meaning that they are not getting the exercise they need for each week which is a minimum of 2 hours, and so many are starting to gain weight and sometimes resort to eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia this makes the body become run down and unhealthy because of this. Also they believe that showers should be offered after every lesson and that different sports should also be offered so that this problem does not arise. School has also now been not only sexist but also biased on ability within the same sex not only different sexes. We have noticed that if you are not in a certain Physical Education class for example; you are not in the GCSE class which is also known as the Top group. This group gets to do a variety of activities and sports compared to the lower groups, like badminton and volleyball, this adds to the disappointment of the lower groups and the skiving of many pupils as they feel left out and victimised for being in the lower groups as they feel they don’t get the opportunities others do and also feel less confident with low self-esteem. The male and female hierarchy has been said to be banished from our current society we live in today, but as seen in the Physical Education lessons this has not happened and it is still continuing within our schools the segregation of sexes within the facilities of the sport make others feel victimised and unimportant.

By Stephanie Roberts and Monde Dimuna

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