Sokol gymnastic movement, gender, physical culture, sport, Czech lands

The Sokol movement, which used to be the signboard of Czech and Czechoslovakian national identity, took great pride in allowing women to work out early after the establishment of this mass gymnastic organisation in 1862. Most of the publications concerning the movement present this move as a very progressive phenomenon at that time, and a display of how Sokol contributed to the emancipation of women. The involvement of women was undoubtedly ground-breaking, but from a long-term point of view it is deceptive to evaluate this move as a step towards emancipation. The Sokol organisation has been a purely masculine entity since its very beginning, and its principles were always laid down by men; women’s emancipation took place within the scope delineated by their male counterparts. The chapter raises the issue of the so-called paradoxical women’s emancipation. Despite the fact that Sokol allowed women to work out, it strongly reinforced old relationships based on masculine domination and feminine submission. These issues were reflected at the organization level (men’s and women’s committees), at the spatial level (men’s and women’s sections of gym), at the technical level (men’s and women’s apparatuses), at the symbolic level (men’s trousers, women’s skirts), and the performance level (via manifestation of the masculinity – defence exercises performed in shorts, and manifestation of feminity – exercises emphasizing gracefulness and elegance in becoming clothing). This layout was supposed to inculcate traditional cultural stereotypes into the society (man – strength, mettle, superiority; woman – loveliness, charm, inferiority). Regardless progressivity and democratic tendency, the Sokol movement took a conservative if not discriminatory stance regarding the issue of women.