Dodgeball Is An Instrument Of ‘Oppression’ Employed To ‘Dehumanize’ People, Some Researchers Say

Jun 26, 2019 by apost team

One memory that undoubtedly comes to mind when thinking back on your high school gym classes is the infamous game of dodgeball. For some, this game might have happy connotations and bring to mind only good things.

For others, it might conjure up feelings of dread and panic. If you were to ask a group of Canadian researchers who have been studying the game and its impact on youth, they'd refer to it as "oppressive."

According to a recent study, dodgeball is not actually all fun and games. On the contrary, it teaches youth to see others as lesser. It leads kids to dehumanize one another. Finally, because it is played in a school setting, it tells kids that harming others is permissible. The upcoming study will be published in the European Physical Education Review but the trio of researchers involved just presented their findings at the Congress Of The Humanities And Social Sciences.

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According to The Washington Post, the researchers said that dodgeball creates a social division. The stronger, more athletic students band together. They dominate the game by inflicting harm on their peers. The weaker and less athletic kids don't really have a stake in the game. Instead, they are playing a game of survival. Now, it might sound like a harmless game is being blown out of proportion. But the researchers were thorough.

They interviewed middle school students and found that most of them admitted to "hate" dodgeball. They felt exploited, marginalized, powerless, and attacked. It also raised the question of what exactly it is teaching students. One researcher, Joy Butler said "I think of the little girl who is running to the back to avoid being targeted. What is she learning in that class? Avoidance?" in an interview with The Washington Post.

To see if this behavior continued in other settings, researchers had a control group create a new game. Even in this new setting, the stronger kids immediately bound together. They designed the game and the rules without asking the kids who were weaker when playing dodgeball. The divisions in physical education classes had already been created and were seemingly lasting.

Education officials and experts in Canada have been working to decrease drop out rates of female students reports The Washington Post. They have also been trying to redirect the focus of traditional physical education classes away from the sports-based competition. The researchers suggested that focusing more on health and wellness as well as fitness, in general, would be a step in the right direction.

Most of us probably had a love-hate relationship with our own physical education classes. A lot of the games you played, you might have just accepted as normal and acceptable even if they were actually problematic, from a curriculum standpoint. Moving forward, maybe it's time to reexamine why physical education classes are structured the way that they are and what they are truly teaching our youth

Dodgeball has also recently been in the news with Michelle Obama's appearance on The Late Late Show, check it out for a comical take on the sport.

Learn more about the study in an interview with one of the researchers below:

We want to know your opinion: Is dodgeball a fun game or a tool for oppression? Let us know in the comments and pass this on to your friends who you know will feel strongly about it.