Eugenics and sexuality in Physical Education teacher training in Uruguay (1948–1970)

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study addresses eugenics and their relationship with the discourse on sex and gender in the field of Physical Education in Uruguay, specifically in Physical Education teacher training (1948–1970). The sources used include the main works and articles of national and regional leading authors in the field, the syllabi of several subjects of the Physical Education Teacher Training Course in Uruguay as per the 1948, 1956, and 1966 academic programmes, and documents with the details of candidates who took the entrance examination. In Uruguay, there was a special reappropriation of biometrics which combined different measuring instruments and techniques with indices and coefficients of Latin origin (influenced by Nicolas Pende’s ideas) and Saxon-based anthropometric measurements. Eugenics and hygienism often overlapped, making it hard to distinguish one concept from the other. The eugenic discourse that permeated this training course contributed to producing and legitimising hegemonic masculinities and femininities through multiple mechanisms. This was confirmed by test indices based on the ideal male model and by the higher proportion of men who were admitted. The sources studied, fundamentally in the fields of biology and medicine, contributed to building a series of femininities centred on the most sacred goal, procreation, while regarding masculine transvestite and homosexual bodies as abnormal.