The Sokol Movement, the Sokol Culture, and Gender Relations in Bohemia and Moravia from the 1860s to the early 1870s

Abstract

Socially constructed gender relations are explored by the example of the Sokol (Czech for “falcon”) movement and the Sokol culture in Bohemia and Moravia in the 1860s and at the beginning of the 1870s. The Sokol clubs combined Czech nationalism with gymnastics. The study is based on the analysis of newspapers and other primary sources. The majority of Czech nationalists followed the pre-modern gender discourse, which implied the subordination of women. This discourse included the idea of male virtues that influenced the image of Sokol as the embodiment of Czech national masculinity. The Czech nationalist image of Germans, as well as the German nationalist image of Czechs, was associated with the others’ lack of masculinity. Another important component of the Sokol identity was the sense of beauty. Although nineteenth-century society had acknowledged the existence of only two genders and had denied the possibility of gender transition, there were some cases of crossing traditional gender boundaries. The role of women in Sokol events reflected gender inequality and gender stereotypes. As a political religion, nationalism assigned political meaning to the romantic relationships between men and women. The positive approach of Czech nationalists to the women’s movement was to a great extent caused by the mother’s role in the formation of the child’s identity. Sokols cooperated with the Prague American Ladies’ Club and supported the Gymnastic Club of the Ladies and Girls of Prague (1869). This club sought to avoid public attention, didn’t use the masculine elements of Sokol culture and promoted gymnastics as a part of female education. In the late 1860s the club was the only one of its kind in Central Europe. Limited dissemination of the modern gender discourse and its interrelation with the premodern one corresponded with the intermediate phase of modernization processes and their non-linear nature.