U of Michigan Professor Ava Purkiss Says Fitness Can Be a Tool of Fascism

Physical fitness can operate as a tool of fascism, a University of Michigan professor asserted during an appearance on an NPR podcast.

Ava Purkiss, who teaches women’s and gender studies at the university, made the remarks on an Oct. 16 episode of the “Code Switch” program hosted by Gene Demby, the New York Post reported.

“We have an oppressive historical relationship to fitness,” Purkiss said on the podcast.

“When the state or a powerful institution or a powerful person is pushing fitness, it can seem harmless. It can seem anodyne. It can seem maybe even, like, a positive good,” she added.

Purkiss argued that exercise routines divide populations into categories based on productivity and moral worth. NPR edited out a phrase where she claimed the practice was racialized, according to the New York Post.

“So fitness has been and continues to be used to determine who is hardworking and who is lazy,” Purkiss said in a clip shared online.

Online users criticized the remarks across social media platforms. Critics questioned the academic standards of higher education institutions following the broadcast.

“That woman supposedly earned a Ph. D from an accredited institution of learning. Let that sink in, this is what passes as intelligence in institutes of ‘higher learning,’” one X user wrote, as reported by the New York Post.

Another user posted, “Good grief. We’ve reached the point where NPR can apparently find fascism in a pair of dumbbells.”

Purkiss authored the 2023 book “Fit Citizens: A History of Black Women’s Exercise from Post-Reconstruction to Postwar America.” Her recent statements arrive as federal officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, urge Americans to improve their physical fitness.