Gymnastics as an anti-onanistic tool in shaping school physical education in 19th-century Spain: The birth of a school discipline

© 2016, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul. All rights reserved. This paper follows up on an earlier work published in this journal (v. 21, no. 4, Oct./Dec. 2015). By reviewing and analyzing the content of medical, pedagogic and gymnastic material published in Spain in the 19th century, we established that medical prescription of gymnastics was the core of preventative and therapeutic policies against child masturbation. That disciplinary and normalizing policy based on the Central European model was gradually adopted by school establishments that dedicated regular time and space to the practice of gymnastics. Once it separated itself from the most controversial ideological and moral elements of body indoctrination, gymnastics became the Physical Education found in schools today.