8 minute read
The games people play, Pip Bennett
The games people play Pip Bennett has been listening to tales from school for years
Despite having written a PhD thesis on ‘Ethical Genetic Enhancement in Sport’ (2012), I find as much interest in what people say about games and everything associated with them as ever I did in research. Folk memory about organised games is a rich source, and some of the best stories I have heard about girls’ schools have involved a girl called Flossie. She is therefore the heroine in all the episodes that follow. I will also highlight that while much has changed in social attitudes to girls’ sport, there is still much to be done.
It was Flossie, therefore, that one former pupil of a girls’ school told me about. She was competing particularly hard on the netball court and leapt for the ball, determined to take possession, when disaster struck. A packet of cigarettes, Marlboro lights of course, fell out of her skirt and onto the tarmac. The games mistress seemed to turn a blind eye to the situation saying something about how she was certain that she could not see cigarettes on court. Withering irony included, one can easily picture the scene, and the probable sequel years later, as these girls, now at university, stand waiting to play lacrosse at the edge of the pitch with fag in hand.
Aside from scenes reminiscent of St Trinian’s, the practising of games and physical education in girls’ independent schools has come on in fits and starts. Much of what went on between 100 and 150 years ago would still be recognisable: callisthenics, swimming, cricket and the then novel hockey, lacrosse and netball. Though it was expected that the latter three should be played in such a way that contemporary standards of femininity were not eroded, these major sports, all played by men, offered
an increase in opportunity and acceptance when enlightened attitudes to girls playing games did not abound. 1 The popularity of specific activities comes and goes, and while more and more schools in this country are now offering yoga classes, I would be surprised to hear that their PE options involve bowling or surfing as they do at one Australian girls’ school. A relatively recent trend at many girls’ schools has been the fostering of a lifelong love of activity and exercise without over-reliance on team sports. In the schools I have worked in and those of contemporary colleagues, it seems that this approach is paying dividends.
No longer is it the case that the whole school tramps a few km up a steep hill to play lax each afternoon in the freezing cold, envying the goalkeeper because she can wear tracksuit bottoms rather than scratchy woollen skirts. These did not fare well in wet weather, nor do girls of that era talk about the ‘navy bags’ worn when doing gym with any affection. If you happen upon the netball courts or the rowing crews today, the school athletes certainly look the part and are very much on a journey to excellence in this field, as they are in so many others. The kit used for training and racing has come a long way since the 1960s.
A host of respondents recalled the horror of having to do sporting activities in an aertex shirt and gym knickers, or simply underwear if the latter or a swimsuit had been forgotten. This approach entirely disregarded the feelings of the selfconscious child or teenager and certainly accounts for many ‘off games’ notes. Colleagues from PE departments treasure some of these especially. ‘Please excuse Flossie from lessons today, she tried ever so hard in sports day yesterday’, or ‘Flossie has had her hair done for a party so cannot take part in PE today’, or (a favourite) ‘My daughter thinks I am writing to excuse her. She is very lazy so please push her very hard in games today and do not accept any excuses such as bad ankles or period pains.’
However, girls’ schools are still battling disappointingly longstanding and limited ideals of femininity when it comes to engaging some of their pupils with exercise. Historically the focus for many of the activities undertaken by girls and women was beauty and grace: the ‘ideal’ woman was almost the antithesis of the ‘ideal’ man. The latter was typically conflated with the athlete and warrior, while the former endorsed attributes that would contribute to a girl becoming a good wife and mother, rather than aiming at superior athletic performance. A woman who had developed sufficient poise was much more likely to attract the ‘right’ sort of man. Moreover, the media today still comments about the best female athletes in the world being wide of the mark in terms of an ‘ideal’ feminine appearance, disparaging the well-developed muscles which are not unexpected features of an elite athlete. This type of discourse around female appearance certainly makes it more difficult to persuade more of our pupils today to choose a sport based on enjoyment and rewarding exercise rather than on societally directed norms of attractiveness.
While the media has its part to play, so too do the federations that determine the structure of competitions. It would be unlikely but possible to design a sport which a woman’s physiology rendered it impossible to access, or one in which no woman wanted to take part. 2 Putting this to one side, access to sport at the highest levels is widening worldwide, but arbitrary differences between the sexes are still in place. In tennis, women play three sets while men play five; lacrosse is contact for men, but not for women; women compete in the heptathlon, but not the decathlon; and in cycling women are limited to 140km a day, while for men it is 280km. 3 It is welcome news that in swimming the same events will finally be offered to both men and women in the 2020 Olympics. It still appears as if many international sporting federations are stuck in a time when women were not given the same access as men to training opportunities and therefore needed less demanding competitions. The earliest women’s rowing races between Oxford and Cambridge were aesthetic contests in contrast to the exhausting races between the men. The male version of each sporting competition is not necessarily ‘purer’ or ‘better’, which makes it hard to understand why there should still be any difference in the competitions offered for women and men. The nature of competitions is always open to change, given their arbitrary design.
The often overwhelming external messages they are receiving matter to our charges: we should never underestimate the power of voices outside our institutions. One such message, still being delivered in 2017, is that if girls participate at the highest levels of sports they will not be attractive.
As a result, many of our schools continue to face ‘sick note’ negotiations, whilst the girls who reject that message, deciding to pursue sporting excellence, are presented with an attenuated or watered down version of the activity. Our schools must help to drive changes in the way many sectors of society still view women and girls in sport. And so, this summer, Badminton School is embarking on an exciting new venture, building a flexible, high-quality Sports Hall. For completion by Summer 2018, this innovative building will provide the opportunity to play multiple sports to competition standard and the resources to pursue the spirit of excellence and achievement as well as welcoming sport’s contribution to the overall wellbeing of our pupils.
Pip Bennett taught Maths at Broomwood Hall School, then Francis Holland, Sloane Square where he became Assistant Head, before moving to his present role as Deputy Head of
Badminton School in 2016. Once a national open medallist as an oarsman, he has five times been National Champion in Masters Open Water swimming.
Notes
1. Crone KE. 1988. Playing the Game Sport and the Physical Emancipation of English Women, 1870-1914. Kentucky, USA: The University Press of
Kentucky. P. 92 2 Schneider AJ. 2010. ‘On the definition of ‘woman’ in the sport context’ in
McNamee (ed.) 2010. The Ethics of Sports A Reader. London: Routledge: 264-275 p. 266 3 Lewis A. 2014. ‘Is sport sexist? Six Sports where men & women are still set apart’ at http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/golf/29242699 (accessed 28/07/2017)
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