The Construction of Complementarity in Physical Education

This paper discusses the ways in which feminine and masculine subjectivities are constructed as complementary-that is, defined in opposition to one another. This concept will be explored in the context of secondary physical education through an analysis of open-ended interviews with students and teachers as they talk about themselves and each other in relation to physical activity and their expectations of masculine and feminine bodies. It will be argued that physical education is an important location in and through which bodies are inscribed with gender differences which contribute to the marginalisation of girls in relation to physical activity and help to inscribe the female body as lacking those qualities associated with the active male body.