Goals, motives and collisions of women's running practices in the light of gender approach

Kannykin Stanislav Vladimirovich PhD in Philosophy Associate professor of the Department of Humanities at Stary Oskol Technological Institute named after A. Ugarov, branch of National University of Science and Technology "MISIS" 309516, Russia, Belgorod Region, Stary Oskol, micro district Makarenko, 42 stvk2007@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

Gender studies are an important part of modern post-non-classical science, vividly expressing its humanistic orientation and orientation to a comprehensive account of the value and socio-political components of culture ^{[27, p. 627]}. The theory of gender as a socio-cultural dimension of biological sex began to develop in Western science in the late 60s - early 70s of the last century, initially in the form of interdisciplinary "women's studies", which was due to the transformation of women's life practices in the emerging post–industrial society, then began to appear works related to the understanding of masculinity, and queerresearch. All this led to the formation of a gender approach to the study of various phenomena of society and man. The most important concepts of this method of research are "femininity", "masculinity", "androgyny", "gender stereotypes", "gender identity", "gender motivation", "gender consciousness", "gender roles", "gender expertise", "gender solidarity", "transgender", etc. Today, it can be reasonably argued that many phenomena of social life that go beyond marital and family behavior are largely determined by the relations of sexes and genders, which opens up new prospects for socio-cultural research. In this regard, attention is drawn to social feminology – "... an interdisciplinary branch of scientific knowledge that studies a set of problems related to the socio-economic and political position of women in society, the evolution of her social status and functional roles" ^{[33, p. 4]}. An impressive, although, of course, an intermediate result of these studies was the publication of a five-volume edition of The History of Women in the West, edited by Georges Duby and Michel Perrault ^[12], which was attended by 75 European historians who traced the history of women from Antiquity to Modern times. Today, the list of works on women's history is endless, the subject of feminologists' study is a wide variety of women's practices, including very private ones, like the "history of throwing children" ^{[21, p. 285]}. Studies of the role of women in world history, women's experience and the specifics of women's vision have proved very fruitful for overcoming "male myth-making" and expanding the horizons of cultural and historical anthropology.

Problem statementThe specificity of women's practices as a socio-cultural phenomenon is due to the dominant ideas of acceptable behaviors for women, depending on the specifics of a particular place and time, which are largely determined by physiological and psychological characteristics, as well as the opportunities provided by society and the personal needs of female representatives of various ages and social status.

Any kind of socio-culturally conditioned female activity is gender-marked, since it is associated with specific stereotypes, motivation, roles, identities, etc.

In this regard, such a phenomenon of modern culture as mass women's running attracts attention. For example, "in the USA, women overtake men in terms of the number of participants ? they make up 57% of the finishers of all races" ^[4]. An analysis of the literature on the subject of the study allows us to conclude that the attention of most researchers of the socio-cultural conditionality of women's running is attracted by its sports variety, namely the struggle of women for parity with men in official running competitions at various levels up to the Olympic Games, as well as gender-related problems of women's running sports like androgynization and even masculinization of female runners.. Thus, a number of works are devoted to the history of the formation of women's sports and Olympic running ^{[11, 35, 36, 39, 42]}, recently, scientific research related to the gender characteristics of the psychology of runners has been relevant ^{[38, 40]}, considering running as a form of female emancipation ^[37], as well as problems of gender identity and transgenderism in running sports ^[2]. According to the ideas dominating in scientific discourse, female stayers of the twentieth century had to overcome gender stereotypes for a long time and in an intense struggle, according to which long running deprives them of "femininity" and threatens reproductive function [35-37, 39, 40]. Without questioning the existence of such ideas, we note that the reasons for the long negative attitude of society towards physical culture and sports women's running are much more diverse and historically deepened, they go far beyond the sphere of training and competitive activity and "pure" physiology, having a socioculturally determined ideological basis. To reveal them, it is necessary to go beyond purely women's sports practices, turn to the whole variety of manifestations of women's running, identify its historical conditionality, understand the goals and motives of women runners themselves on the basis of a gender approach, as well as social stereotypes that prevent many people from accepting, for example, a woman running around the city. Considering that "... gender matters in every action, biological, social, cultural, if not in a specific action, then definitely in its significance" ^{[8, p. 620]}, the gender approach allows us to consider running in its duality: both as a biological ability for specific locomotion ^[14], and as a phenomenon cultures that have gender-role specifics. Thus, the objectives of the article are to determine the types of women's running practices; to analyze the goals and motives of their participants' running activities; to identify the causes of social conflicts generated by these practices and ways to overcome them. The philosophical register of the study of women's running as a sociocultural phenomenon generaliter determines the interest in world history and various ethnic groups and nations. At the same time, it is obvious that due to the greater availability of empirical material, the appeal to the European cultural area (including Russia) will be the most frequent.

Ritual and ceremonial women's running

The sacred sphere of society's existence has a noticeable gender conditionality, therefore, the concepts of female and male religiosity in modern humanitarianism are well-established. Since symbolic actions aimed at establishing a connection with the supernatural are the most important element of religious practices, we can talk about the existence of female rites and identify the functions of ritualized running as its component. The subject of our consideration is running as an element of female ritual within the mythological worldview inherent in traditional society. The specificity of the considered ritual, using running practices, is due to the statuses and roles of women in this type of society and is aimed at achieving the most important goals for them: marriage, childbirth, successful economic activity, as well as receiving the patronage of spiritual entities providing all this. At the same time, it is important to take into account the ideas common within a number of mythological views about ritual impurity and the demonic nature of women, their chthonic origin.    

1. Competitive running of women with each otherWomen's competitive races in ancient Greece had a pronounced ritualized character.

In Sparta, girls were engaged in physical exercises on an equal basis (and often together) with young men and ran a lot to maintain health: "Girls had to run, fight, throw a disc, throw spears to strengthen their bodies, so that their future children would have a strong body in the very womb of their healthy mother, so that their development was correct and so that mothers themselves could be resolved from the burden successfully and easily due to the strength of their body" ^{[20, p. 106]}. It is important to note that "the Spartan girls ran their main distance, the sprint in honor of the god Dionysus, when it was time for them to marry" ^{[9, p. 43]}. The cult of Dionysus– the god of fertility, required the girls of Sparta to demonstrate their bodily readiness for childbirth, so they competed fully or partially naked. This allowed the men present at the competitions to choose their future spouse solely according to her physical condition.

The Herean Games, held every four years in Olympia and dedicated to the sister and wife of Zeus, the goddess Hera, who, according to legend, protected the lives of women during childbirth and patronized their marriage, were also subordinated to sacred purposes. In these games, only unmarried girls competed, who participated in the only type of competition – the 160-meter run (stage 5/6). Running agons began after the solemn ceremony of bringing gifts to Hera and assumed the division of participants, depending on their age, into three groups. The winner of the race became a priestess of Hera in her policy, was awarded an olive wreath, a part of a sacrificial cow offered to the goddess, a statue was erected in honor of the new priestess in the temple of Hera. It is important to note that the participants of the race competed in short chiton, exposing the right chest and shoulder. Similar clothes "... were worn by men in hot weather or when performing heavy work. Thus, girls dressed like men – a ritual custom often used in initiation ceremonies into adulthood, inversion of gender roles, perhaps to experience the status of the "other" before taking on their role"^[43].

Attention is drawn to a certain "second-rate" of women's ritual running competitions, which was due to the misogyny inherent in ancient civilization, meaning "... neutralization and exclusion of women <...> from the system of organizing public life" ^{[10, p. 391]}. If the masculine principle was associated with reason, then the feminine – with physicality, instinctiveness, sensuality, weakness, orgiasticity. Thus, according to Aristotle, the child receives a rational soul exclusively from the father, the destiny of matter is the formation, bearing and birth of the child's body ? passive "human matter". The spontaneity of the feminine principle required an indispensable subordination to the male mind, constant help and control on his part. Remembering Nietzsche, we can define the feminine as Dionysian (bacchanalian), determined by bodily passions and expressing all the variety of manifestations of life in their unbridledness, no wonder the Spartans revered Dionysus with their running. It was women's "inferiority" that caused the separation of the Gerei Games from the Pan-Hellenic Olympiad, the ban (on pain of death!) the presence of women at men's competitions, as well as the shortened (less stage) and imitative nature of their running agons and even clothes. At the same time, it is important to note that competitive (i.e. having rules) running, as similar as possible to men's competitions, was a form of channeling spontaneous female energy into "normal" (read ? muscular) forms, "changing them (women – S.K.) the status changed from "wild" to "tamed" ^[43], and the most important goals of the fleeing girls were to worship the gods and receive patronage – both the future husband and Hera and Dionysus.

2. Competitive running of the bride and groom

This running practice is known as a marriage ceremony called "chasing the bride". As D. Fraser believed, this rite can go back to the ancient traditions of determining the physical condition of the groom who wooed the bride of royal blood. The ruling personages had to perform sacred rites (for example, to participate in a regular ceremony of "sacred marriage" requiring endurance, aimed at ensuring childbearing, animal fertility and crop yield), while it was believed that "the security and prosperity of the community depended on these ritual actions more than on the performance of civil and military duties" ^{[32, p. 214]}. In this case, the running ability of the noble bride, testing the future ruler, acquired critical importance for the survival of the community.  Mythological legends (like the stories about Atalanta and Melanion, Odysseus and Penelope ^[7]), as well as numerous ethnographic materials indicate the further prevalence of the already desacialized running test of the groom, including competition with the bride. As a rule, the bride received a significant head start or assistance from relatives who prevented the groom from running, so success in the competition depended not so much on the speed abilities of the candidate (or candidates) for a spouse, as on the sympathies of the bride who could succumb, thereby becoming an active or even decisive subject of the "elective" component of marital relations. A parody derivative of this rite is the modern "run of brides": an entertaining event for girls competing at a short distance in wedding dresses, sometimes to the tune of Mendelssohn's march. 

3. Out-of-competition initiating runningRunning as a component of the initiation rite clearly appears in the kinaalda ? a ceremonial complex of the Navajo tribe (North America), in which girls participate after the first menstruation or as close as possible to its beginning.

If we take into account that the girl was married shortly after the start of the regula, then the goal of kinaald is to prepare for the role of a full–fledged, according to the tribe, woman. This rite includes five elements: forming bodily and spiritual attractiveness (due to relaxation and pacification) ritual massage, hair washing, face painting, making corn pie and ritual running ^{[41, pp. 159-162]}. During the five days of the ritual, the girl must run three times (morning, afternoon and evening) to the east, to the Sun, each time overcoming a distance of increasing size. Thus, she demonstrated to the tribe her ability to persevere through inevitable difficulties, as well as the presence of such important qualities as perseverance, energy, diligence. In this regard, it is difficult to agree with Margaret Mead, who believed that "a woman does not need artificial socio-cultural structuring of her life cycle, since she has natural biological boundaries for this: the onset of menstruation, loss of virginity, the birth of her first child" ^{[17, p. 58]}. As can be seen, Navajo gender stereotypes demanded from a woman not only physiological maturity, but also attractiveness, economy, as well as endurance necessary for numerous births and for difficult women's work. An important component of any initiation as a transitional event was overcoming oneself, which was ensured by repeated ritual running.

4. Out-of-competition magic runningIn the mythology of the Slavic peoples, the legs were associated with the corporeal bottom and the chthon with all its contents: the underworld, chaos, werewolf, lack of a creative beginning, etc., thereby receiving a negative connotation.

 This attitude to the legs often made running an attribute of various evil spirits, including cursed women and witches: "... suddenly a woman ran past us like this. Her hair is black, loose, and barefoot, in a sundress. This, they say, is what the damned run in bad weather" ^{[13, p. 271]}; "if women run for a priest on a holiday, it's definitely witches. Witches run around at Easter" ^{[13, p. 375]}. It seems that the connection of running women with evil spirits is seen by the bearers of mythological consciousness in the fact that if their running has no practical purpose, then its purpose is mystical. The lack of utilitarian load of running is especially pronounced in its extreme manifestations: running in bad weather, running at night, running in a situation of a religious holiday, assuming solemnity and sedateness, is carried out only by the dark force.

The connection of running with evil spirits is emphasized by its symbolic functions implemented within the framework of black magic. So, women's running was part of the protective rite. This phenomenon is called "running around": "To make cabbage heads look big, tight and white, they resorted to partial or complete exposure: women and girls <...> ran along furrows without skirts or completely naked (Russian North, Siberia)" ^{[26, p. 216]}; "in Siberia, turnips were sown naked; after planting cabbage, women ran around the plot without skirts, with loose hair" ^{[26, p. 312]}, who likened a woman to a witch. C. G. Fatykhov gives an example of the ritual of fanning associated with running around: "In Russia, fanning was performed necessarily in the dead of night and in secret from men. Before the beginning of the action, the women let down their hair, then took off their outerwear or undressed completely and began running around the village with wild screams" ^{[31, p. 99]}. In the examples given, the unification of running and nudity is noteworthy: the latter took the woman participating in the ceremony beyond the limits of human and cultural, as if emphasizing the witchcraft, magical component of these running practices, bringing her closer to naked demonic entities, on the location (or coercion) of which the success of the cult action depended.

The magic of nudity is enhanced by regula, which further emphasize female "impurity". Their presence in many cultures gave rise to gender discrimination (the temporary expulsion of a woman from the family home), because in the myths of some peoples it was believed that menstruation is a manifestation of the curse of women by the gods, therefore, during menstruation, women defile everything around them, summon misfortunes and troubles: "Since time immemorial, witches who wanted to curse a house, field or cowshed, naked ran around him against the movement of the sun nine times during menstruation. Such witchcraft during a lunar eclipse was considered very dangerous for crops, livestock and children, and when the witch was a girl who had her period for the first time, it was believed that such a curse would surely come true" ^{[7, p. 327]}.

Thus, women's running in this context is a vivid example of sympathetic magic, since it involves by likening dark entities (for which, in addition to running itself, nudity and loose hair were used) establishing a connection with them.  Considering that in a number of mythological complexes, female nature is considered as "earthly, deep-chthonic, blind and crushing underground force, long, slow suction, darkness and swamp" ^{[19, p. 27]}, this allowed women to be a conductor of the forces of demonic beings, and coupled with the ability to long-term patience provided the ability to a special (i.e. running) locomotion, which was both a manifestation of ritual (mystical influence on nature and people), and a form of outburst of sexual and emotional energy.       

Festive competitive running A significant feature of Christianity for this study, which spread throughout Europe since the IV century, was its intolerance of pagan heritage.

Since the institutionalized competitive running in Antiquity had a pronounced ritual character, was a form of pleasing the gods of the Olympic pantheon, he had no chance of preserving and reproducing the theocentric culture of medieval Europe in the official, church-state dimension. Public competitive running moved into the sphere of folk carnival and festive culture, where all prohibitions and hierarchies were abolished for a while, and the main elements of the holiday were the body, eroticism, play and laughter released from under the cover of religious piety. Tour Gutos notes that "almost all Italian cities in the XIII-XV centuries had a day fixed by law when solemn running competitions were held among men, women and children, as well as horse and donkey races. Women's running was especially popular in Ferrara, in northern Italy, where the winner received a red robe as a reward. Those who finished behind her were also awarded" ^{[9, pp. 72-73]}; women's running was also practiced at a city festival in Verona, where the winner was presented with green clothes, sometimes money, utensils and food were among the first awards for the finishers.

It should be borne in mind that in medieval and modern Europe, men's running was prestigious, because there was a culture of runners who carried out postal and information (heralds) functions, as well as "master" runners who made up the escort of notable persons who moved in carriages. Festive competitions made it possible to choose young men to perform these duties, who, thanks to their running abilities, could count on the favor of those in power and a secure life. As for women's running, it was entertaining and parodic in nature, which was due to the caricature in the eyes of the audience of the difference between women's running locomotion from men's, and restraining the movement of clothes, as well as increased emotionality, leading (to the delight of the audience!) to scandals and brawls while running, and the physical weakness of the participants, not all of whom could overcome the distance exclusively by running. It is no coincidence that if there were not enough "decent ladies" for the festive races (of course, from among the poor population), then beggars and prostitutes participated in them (usually separate competitions were arranged for them), and the latter did not hesitate to run partially or completely naked, thereby advertising their services. In this regard, the bright color of the award clothes, which marked the "priestesses of love" at that time, becomes clear. Thus, for some European townspeople belonging to the lower classes of society, running was a way of earning money on holidays. Urban women's running for rewards was widely practiced in Europe before the advent of sports competitions and even for some time with them. "So, the Leipzig Illustrated Newspaper wrote in 1881: "Berlin has turned into one big city of runners. <...> almost every street now organizes a race for men and women for the prize of the quarter" ^{[25, p. 67]}. It is interesting to note that public competitive women's running in Russian cities begins in the European manner – as an entertainment event, to which participants of far from aristocratic bloodlines were attracted by money, and the press took over the functions of the laughing public: "In 1899, a running competition for ladies for 1.5 versts was held at the velodrome in St. Petersburg. <...> A cash prize of 25 rubles was set for the winner. Sarcastic and mocking notes in newspapers on this occasion for a long time discouraged women from participating in athletics competitions" ^[5].

In the peasant environment, running competitions were part of fairs, weddings and religious festivals, in which Christian elements were bizarrely combined with pagan ones. For example, correspondents of the "Ethnographic Bureau" of Prince V. N. Tenishev testify about women's running competitions among the Russian peasantry [for example, 22, p. 272; 23, p. 73]. This is also discussed in ^{[6, p. 270]}: "In the villages of the Tavda region <...> in the midst of fun, women and girls began to arrange races in a hurry ...". It should be noted that, unlike in Europe, men's festive running in its purest form was not developed in Russia, where both postal and escort functions were assigned to riders, which was due to the considerable distances and breadth of open spaces incomparable with the narrow (sometimes less than a meter) streets of European cities. Therefore, the festive male amusements in our country were competitions having a military-applied nature (taking a snow fortress, fist fights, equestrian contests, etc.), which were often carried out by participants in a drunken state and assumed aggressive behavior. It is obvious that there was no place for women and children in these amusements, so their lot became an unpresentable in the men's community, but a public running back and forth and games based on it.

Thus, the gender-based festive segregation of physical activity, in addition to many discrediting factors, still allowed women to experience the joy of winning running competitions, receive rewards and emotional release, as well as save their lives and health, being outside the sphere of cruel competitions of men.

                                   Running as a way of health improvement and formation of physical culture of the individualRenaissance and Modern times are characterized by a significant interest in the spiritual heritage of Antiquity.

As is known, the ideal of the ancient man was the achievement of kalokagathy – spiritual and bodily beauty in their unity, which in the European culture of the XVI-XVIII centuries was considered the main manifestation of a harmoniously developed personality. The most important way of its formation was the humanistically oriented pedagogy associated with the names of R. Ashem, R. Mulcaster, Ya. A. Komensky, J. Locke, J.-J. Rousseau, I. G. Pestalozzi.

It should be noted that physical development through running was largely considered the prerogative of young men, which was due to their military training. The development of firearms led to an increase in the importance of foot soldiers, who had to not only walk long distances over rough terrain in any weather, but also maneuver quickly enough on the battlefield, overcome natural and artificial obstacles, which required endurance, speed, agility and mutual coordination of actions, achieved including running exercises..

In addition to the lack of military-applied significance of running, its spread in the female environment was hindered by the widespread belief about the physiological unsuitability of the female body to the endurance and speed of running locomotion and the comical nature of female motor activity in general: "Count Wellington claims that women are graceful in the water, like swans, but as soon as they leave their natural environment – home, their movements become so obscenely clumsy that others'sides break when contemplating this spectacle" [Cit. according to: 30]; "... in 1797, the Scottish physician and moralist John Gregory wrote in the Fatherly Instruction to Daughters: "We naturally associate the idea of female softness and fragility with the corresponding fragility of the constitution, and when a woman speaks of her great strength, outstanding appetite, ability to endure excessive fatigue, we feel such a description is disgusted, which she does not even know about" ^[1]. And here's how J.-J. reasoned about it. Rousseau in his novel-treatise "Emile, or On education": "Women are not created for running, when they run, it is only to be overtaken. Running is not the only thing in which they are awkward, but the only thing they do not do gracefully; their elbows, bent back and pressed against the body, give them a funny look, and high heels make them look like a grasshopper who would not jump, but run" ^{[24, p. 443]}. These quotes vividly demonstrate the gender stereotypes of the society to which W. Wellington, D. Gregory and J.-J. belonged. Rousseau: a woman should be accessible to male control and ownership, her independence and independence are nothing more than a game that flatters women's self–esteem, and beauty and grace are the main ways to attract men's attention, the basis of life success and "female happiness". Therefore, girls and adult ladies should choose such forms of physical activity that do not involve "loss of femininity", namely intense sweating, prolonged tension, blowing and spitting on the move, as well as possible falls, pain, awkward movements, etc., which is often fraught with running.

Zh.-Zh. Rousseau also draws attention to the fashion that hindered women's running, which influenced the physical development of ladies. The sphere of women in traditional society is housing, children and household economy, which, of course, did not involve frequent and long running, especially for aristocrats.  In many cultures, the advancement of a woman outside of this territory required the obligatory accompaniment of a male relative. On the one hand, this was dictated by the need to protect women from attacks, and on the other – to monitor their "insufficiently reasonable" behavior: "A single woman on the way aroused the suspicions of any man, she could be stopped and asked why she was not at home. Her autonomous movement outside the home was associated with intimate accessibility and was illegitimate" ^[30]. One of the forms of restriction of women's movement, for example, was the practice of "foot binding" in China, traced among the elite until the beginning of the twentieth century.  It was believed that aristocrats should be as different as possible from commoners, for whom, due to the physical nature of work, healthy and strong legs were necessary. The fashion-dictated crippling bandaging of the legs of girls from the upper strata of society (and then representatives of other social groups whose parents planned their "prestigious" marriage) led to deformation of the feet, which is why those who underwent this procedure later completely or partially lost the ability to move independently. Such legs were highly valued in elite circles and were called "golden lotuses" if the feet did not exceed seven centimeters in length. This physical defect provided an additional dependence of a woman on her family and husband, deprived her of the ability to social activity, but at the same time demonstrated the high status, wealth of the spouse and belonging to the Han nationality (and not to "barbarians" like the Mongols, Koreans or Japanese), women with such legs were perceived by Chinese men as very erotic. Also, the running locomotion of the "muslin ladies" was negated by high heels, fashionable among representatives of the privileged classes not only in Asia, but also in Europe. Sometimes their length reached 25 cm, which made it impossible to move in such shoes without assistance. Both too tight (corsets) and very bulky, heavy clothes of European aristocrats, as well as hats with feathers and other sometimes quite high decorations, did not contribute to rapid movements ^{[29, pp. 54-59]}.

Another problem was the lack of teachers able to take into account the specifics of female physiology and psychology when organizing physical education classes. In Russia, for example, the first gender-oriented two-year "Courses for teachers and supervisors of physical education" were organized only in 1881 by the outstanding scientist and teacher P. F. Lesgaft. "A "Program for teaching gymnastics to girls" was created especially for the courses and eight age groups were identified according to the development of the female body between 10 and 18 years. So, for example, for each of the groups, basic exercises were defined on devices with weights, in jumping and outdoor games" ^[34].

However, despite these prejudices and problems, women's health running (as well as physical education in general) made its way in the advanced industrial societies of Europe and America, being a distinctive feature of girls and women belonging to the middle and upper classes. Initially, the sphere of existence of women's health–improving running, which began its history as a mass phenomenon in the second half of the XIX century, were urban educational institutions (for example, women's private and state gymnasiums), which were tasked with the physical education of students as future wives and mothers - energetic, strong-willed and physically capable of bearing and giving birth to healthy offspring, which was necessarily coupled with the requirement of "preserving femininity" when doing physical exercises. Running practices were part of gymnastics, which in the period under review was understood as physical culture in general, and belonged to the group of "exercises without shells", which could be practiced in long johns and vests. Running was also an element of outdoor games, and in P. F. Lesgaft's concept of physical education it was an important means of correlating physical and intellectual–spiritual development. For example, in his pedagogical system, running without turns (ekpletridzein) formed a muscular sense of space in children of both sexes, running on socks contributed to the elegance of movements, running in "party" games taught discipline and responsibility to the team, and running with a metronome developed a sense of time.

For the vast majority of girls, isolated running exercises ended with graduation from educational institutions. If they wanted to continue to engage in physical culture, then, as a rule, they chose fashionable, "noble" and "decent" types of physical activity such as tennis, figure skating, horse riding, golf or croquet, which did not involve "excessive" exposure and excessive tension. We should add that by the 20s of the twentieth century, leading European fashion houses could already offer women comfortable and beautiful sportswear. Mass women's health-improving running began to develop actively in the 20-30s of the last century under the influence of eugenic projects to create a "new" person. In the Soviet Union, for example, running, generally accessible and devoid of a touch of bourgeoisism, was a means of combating the physical degeneration and "bad" heredity of the proletariat and peasantry as, according to the ideas of the Bolsheviks, mercilessly exploited, spiritually and physically oppressed classes of tsarist Russia. In the paintings of the famous Soviet painter A. A. Deineka "Physical culture" (1934), "Runner" (1936), "Expanse" (1944), "Relay race on the ring "B"" (1947) running girls, dressed, like men, in T-shirts and shorts, are presented harmoniously folded, with attractive facial features, bursting with health, impetuous, joyful. This is exactly what the runners, specially selected for the festive relay races, looked like, embodying the image of an advanced Soviet woman, developed both ideologically and physically. It is noteworthy that the painting "Relay Race on the ring "B"" reflected by artistic means the new gender situation developing in the USSR in the first post–war years: "Deineka's women literally pass the baton to men - they are the ones who are running the distance now. In the context of the first post–war years, when men who came from the fronts regained those professions and social roles that had gone to women during the war, such an obvious symbolic gesture could not have appeared unconsciously - and, undoubtedly, was appropriately understood by the public" ^{[18, pp. 195-196]}.

Further, health-improving running was a means of improving the labor and military-related functions of women, increasing their endurance, endurance, ability to long-term physical and mental concentration: in 1931, the complex (program) "Ready for labor and defense of the USSR" was approved, the badge of which depicted a runner overcoming the finishing tape, and the complex itself included, among other things, sprinting, cross-country, marching, long "light running" and mixed movement (walking-running). Thanks to this program of physical training and physical education of the population, millions of girls and women began to run systematically, because among Soviet youth it was prestigious to have a TRP badge.

In the second half of the twentieth century, various kinds of formal and informal clubs of running enthusiasts appeared in societies covered by the NTR, the purpose of whose participants, engaged mainly in mental work, was to overcome physical inactivity, introduce a healthy lifestyle and communicate with like-minded people. In the USSR, for example, the most important goal of the KLB was the scientifically based and systematic organization of recreational running classes, while women were full-fledged (although at first few) participants of these clubs. It is interesting to note that at this time there is an expansion of the "women's space" of recreational running, which moves from school stadiums and cross-country forest paths to city streets. A woman running outside of festive and carnival events in the city was a challenge to the generally accepted order and at first was subjected to obstruction, since this run was seen as an encroachment on the moral foundations of society. In the mass view, the public space of city squares and avenues, which does not have physical culture and sports functionality, is certainly not a place for running, so runners who left the private sphere of their homes, families and farms were perceived as not quite adequate and literally ran away from fulfilling the duties assigned to them by nature and traditions. And since they moved in light and short clothes, they were likened by conservative consciousness to fallen public women, whose races were so popular in Europe several centuries ago. For a long time, the society, which had hardly come to terms with urban flanking as a form of women's leisure, was not ready to accept such an audacious overcoming of the boundaries of the gender-determined space of family life by runners. In this regard, wellness running in this form becomes a means of expressing female emancipation, which is especially clearly manifested in the most conservative societies. So, in March 2018, for the first time in the history of this country, a massive international women's three–kilometer race was held in Saudi Arabia, in which 1.5 thousand girls and women took part, while the participants ran in hijabs and abayas and for the most part did not pursue sports goals. Ultraconservative principles of organizing public life led to the fact that until 2008, Saudi Arabia was the only country in the world that did not allow women living in it to physical education (in private schools until 2013, in public schools until 2017), as well as as spectators at sports events. All this was supposed to be sinful, physical education classes were underground, private and dangerous for women who decided to do it. Under the influence of the challenges of the globalizing world, taking a course towards moderate Islam, the country's authorities, within the framework of the Vision 2030 program, gradually provide equal freedoms and rights to all subjects of the kingdom. The liberalization of public life led to the opening of the first women's running club "Jeddah Women's Running Community" in 2018. It is thanks to running outside stadiums closed to men that Muslim women who feel the need for personal improvement by means of physical culture overcome gender stereotypes and barriers, becoming visible to society and demonstrating its qualitative transformation.

Sports runningBased on the research of L.P. Matveev ^[16], V.I. Stolyarov ^[28] and N.N. Visitey ^[3], we define sport as an officially organized and regularly repeated competitive activity with rules, as well as training preceding it, which are aimed either at strengthening health and achieving the desired level of physical and spiritual development (public, amateur, mass sports), or to obtain the highest possible results (professional sports of the highest achievements aimed at records).

Men's sports running in Europe has two grounds: its competitiveness goes back to the competitions of servants who made up the running escort of noble persons, and institutionalization – to horse racing, for which clear rules were established, precisely defined distances and regularity of holding, while only men were jockeys in officially held races. It should also be noted that such a popular form of competitions in the nineteenth century as the competitive running of people and horses, which was carried out both for scientific purposes and to attract the public to racetracks.  "The runners were dressed as jockeys and even held a whip in their hand, they sometimes called themselves "jockeys". When the Running Club started its work in Paris in 1884, the main competition for runners was steeplechase, which copied the corresponding form of horse racing. "Jockeys without horses" was a common, but at the same time a very meaningful metaphor: it allowed us to encode the very meaning of running in a new way" ^{[25, p. 67]}. It is interesting to note a similar process in Russia: in 1888, in the dacha village of Tyarlevo, located not far from the Tsarskoye Selo racetrack, young men, among whom there were race regulars, began to compete in running with timing, rules and measured distances, while they used such elements of equestrian sports as gits, starting on the move, jockey nicknames, hurdling, derby, handicaps, etc. Thus, men's sports running originated as an imitation of horse racing, and women's sports running – as an imitation of men's.

One of the most prestigious areas of sports activity was the Olympic Games revived by the efforts of Pierre de Coubertin and his associates, held for the first time in recent history in Athens in 1896. Coubertin welcomed the competition of women in such Olympic sports that would allow them to demonstrate beauty and grace, considering it suitable for ladies, for example, golf, figure skating, archery, as well as "approving applause" when awarding male Olympians and crowning them with laurel wreaths. But he was categorically against women's competitions, which required strength, endurance, significant muscular or mental tension from them. Coubertin primarily referred to athletics as such sports, so the struggle of women for the opportunity to participate in Olympic cross-country competitions (especially long-distance) has a dramatic history. There were no women's competitions at the first Olympic Games of our time. The marathon race aroused the greatest interest of the public and specialists, because for the Greeks, winning it was a matter of honor. Twenty-year-old Greek woman Stamata Reviti also planned to take part in the race. The main reason that prompted her to take this step was far from the high ideals of Coubertin's Olympism, and this reason was extreme need. At the age of 12, she gave birth to her first child, who died at the age of 7; by the beginning of the marathon, she had a second child in her arms? a one-and-a-half-year-old baby, there was no information about her husband, but it is known that she had no work, family support and money, which made her so exhausted that she looked much S. Reviti wanted to run a marathon in order to get the patronage and help of the Greek authorities, who were caught up in the Olympic hype, in other words, in order to survive herself and save her child. However, her hopes were not destined to come true: the organizing committee, believing that the participation of a woman would reduce the significance of the marathon, give it a comedic character, refused her registration for the race under a far-fetched pretext. The next day, she ran the marathon on her own, covering the forty-kilometer distance in five and a half hours and asking city officials who sympathized with her to fix the start and finish times in order to submit this document to the Greek Olympic Committee in the hope of a reward. The further fate of Stamata Reviti is unknown, but she definitely did not become a national hero like her compatriot Spyridon Luis, who won the official race. The case of Reviti fits into the already considered European carnival-festive paradigm of races of poor women hoping to improve their financial situation in this way, and also corresponds to the ancient pattern of separate women's and men's competitions.

Women have been participating in the Olympic Games since 1900 . In strict accordance with Coubertin's position, separate golf and tennis competitions were organized for them.  As for athletics, the Olympic Committee was adamant here. Therefore, women had no choice but to initiate running competitions themselves. In 1917, the Femina Sport Women's Sports society was founded in France under the leadership of Alice Millau, who is actively engaged in many sports. Having applied to the International Association of Athletics Federations in 1919 with a request to hold women's athletics competitions at the Olympic Games and having been refused, A. Millot creates an International Women's Sports Federation, which decides to hold the Women's Olympic Games in those sports in which women wanted to participate. Unofficially, these Games were held in 1921 in Monte Carlo, and officially - in 1922 in Paris, then under the name "World Women's Games" – in 1926 in Gothenburg. At the last competition, women competed in six cross-country sports, where the longest distance was a thousand-meter. The struggle of women for equal participation in sports activities became part of the multidimensional women's emancipation movement, its most prominent and effective representatives were suffragettes. The success of the individual Women's Games, which gathered tens of thousands of fans and had wide and mostly benevolent press coverage, threatened the most important principles of the Olympic movement revived by Coubertin, aimed at uniting humanity, harmonizing national and interpersonal relations, democracy and equality. All these factors led to the joint decision of the IAAF and the IOC to hold three types of women's cross-country competitions (100 m, 800 m, 4x100 m relay) as part of the IX Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam (1928). 11 women took part in the 800 m race and, as the press reported, five of them fell at the finish line without running the distance from exhaustion (in fact, one participant fell after the finish). Conclusions from the newspaper duck were not long in coming: medium and long running distances are extremely dangerous for women's health. The considerable fatigue generated by them allegedly negatively affects the reproductive abilities of ladies (the threat of pelvic organ prolapse from long running was seriously discussed), besides, "... if a woman runs for a long time, then the body, working according to the principles of cave times, turns off unnecessary functions – first of all, reproductive: they say, since she has to get food on her own (and why else run?) – so, there is no male nearby and the runner is clearly not up to the offspring. As a consequence: menstruation stops so that the body retains energy for more important processes" ^[11]. It should be noted that at that time childlessness was stigmatized and considered as the worst scenario of a woman's fate. Myths such as a woman's inability to run for a long time due to a large amount of adipose tissue, emotional instability, lack of physiological ability to hold urine for a long time, increased risk of injury before ovulation, etc. were also exposed here. Thus, for the sake of preserving a woman's health and fertility, Olympic running sports for women should not exceed 100 m, which and it was practiced for a long 32 years before the Summer Olympics in Rome.

However, at the beginning of the second half of the XX century, having already achieved the opportunity to receive higher education and participate in political activities, European and American feminists began to fight for the dismantling of patriarchal foundations and full equality with men. After dispelling the myths about the negative impact of running on the ability to procreate, athletes faced the traditional rejection of androgynization (and in extreme cases, when using hormonal doping (testosterone), and masculinity), allegedly threatening women runners for medium and long distances. Indeed, female stayers overwhelmingly do not have the splendor of forms, and their professionally staged running technique for a layman has no qualitative differences from the locomotion of male runners. Hence, myths arise that a long run turns a woman into a man: her legs become curved, chest hair grows, breast ptosis is inevitable, etc. – generally speaking, all these physiological changes do not contribute to marriage and finding "female happiness". If society was basically already prepared for the social equality of men and women, then sports-conditioned female androgyny (not to mention masculinity) was definitely considered an unacceptable pathology. The "social contract" of the mid-twentieth century looked like this: women are free to run (as a hobby) as much as they see fit, but the IAAF and the IOC will not promote and cultivate long-term women's running in the official sports sphere, due to unacceptable risks to women's health and "correct" gender identity. The compromise maximum of women's running at the Olympics has been 800 m since 1960, while men had a chance to become Olympic champions in the same year at five more distances over 800 m (1500 m, 5000 m, 10,000 m, 3,000 m steeplechase and marathon). Hence, the women's strategy of fighting for equal participation in Olympic running sports becomes clear – if they prove their ability to run a marathon without harm to their health at official sports competitions, they will be able to qualify for inclusion in the women's program not only the distance of 42,195 m, but also shorter running types, thereby ensuring parity with men. The problem was that no one was going to allow women to participate in a sports marathon, because, as it was believed, even one such run could cause irreparable harm to a woman, for which there were no willing to take responsibility at official competitions. Therefore, women started running sports marathons illegally. The first woman to run the official Boston Marathon in 1966 was twenty-three-year-old Louise Roberta "Bobby" Gibb. She wrote a letter to the organizing committee in advance with a request to give her the opportunity to take part in the race. The answer she received contained a refusal supported by three arguments: women are physiologically unable to overcome this distance; according to the rules of the Amateur Sports Union, the maximum distance of competitive running for women cannot exceed one and a half miles; according to the same rules, women are prohibited from competing in the same race with men. Unable to accept this refusal, Louise Gibb decided to take part in the race without an official registration and number. She took Bermuda shorts from her brother, put a dark hoodie with a hood covering her hair on her bathing suit, and hid in the bushes near the starting line. After the start of the race, having missed about half of the marathon runners, she ran into a group of athletes from her ambush and began moving towards world fame. After a while, the men running next to her recognized her as a woman and reacted with great joy to her participation in the race. Encouraged by their support, Louise took off her hoodie, and now everyone saw a woman running a marathon. The audience specially looked out for her in the crowd of runners, meeting her with enthusiastic shouts, the press quickly oriented itself and began to report on her progress to the finish line. Having overcome the distance in 3.21.40 and having overtaken two-thirds of the men, L. Gibb was awarded a handshake by the governor of Massachusetts, who admired her success. At the same time, the organizing committee of the Boston Marathon, fearing responsibility for her health, denied Louise's participation in the race to the last, since she did not have a number and was not marked by the controllers at the distance. The following year, at the Boston Marathon, Louise Gibb's achievement was repeated by Catherine Virginia "Katie" Schwitzer, who signed her application without specifying her full name as K.V. Switzer and was registered as an official participant with the issuance of a number, since no one suspected that these initials denote a woman. Already at the third kilometer of the race, the director of the marathon, who arrived by car, tried to push her personally and with curses from the track, but Schwitzer was protected by men nearby, and she managed to reach the finish line. After the end of the race, there was blood in her sneakers from her worn feet, but despite the severe pain, Katrin Schwitzer could not leave the race, as she ran not only for herself, but also for all women, who, in case of her failure, could not be allowed to official marathons for a long time.  

The struggle of women for the right to participate in long–distance running competitions gradually began to bear fruit: at the 1972 Olympics, the women's program included a 1500-meter race, in 1982 the women's marathon was run by participants of the European Athletics Championships, in 1983 - participants of the World Championship, and in 1984 the women's marathon and the women's race on 3000 m debuted at the Olympics. Especially noteworthy was the finish of 39-year-old Gabriela Andersen-Schiss at the first Los Angeles Olympic Marathon for women. Having missed the last water distribution point in the 30-degree heat, she lost the ability to run from dehydration before the final lap around the stadium and, limping, barely walked along the track, being half paralyzed due to cramped muscles and having spent five minutes and forty-four seconds for the last 400 meters because of this. The audience at the stadium deafeningly applauded her all this time, observing not the pity-provoking emaciated woman who took 37th place and caused "irreparable harm to her health", but the manifestation in the fragile female body of the colossal power of the human spirit. This fact testified that society was ready to accept a female athlete in this form, if it is due to her desire.  No less fortitude was required by Hassiba Bulmerka, the Algerian Olympic champion in 1992 in the 1500 m, the world champion in 1991 and 1995. Despite the fact that she brought the first Olympic gold medal to her country, Hassiba was subjected to harassment in her homeland and received death threats for not conforming to the ideal of a Muslim woman, running in too open clothes in the presence of men, and even during a lap of honor with the flag of Algeria. These threats forced her to leave to train in France, but not to stop running.  "At the same time, she became a national hero and contributed to political changes in the country at the level of the masses. After her triumph , there was even a saying: "Hassiba Bulmerka did not need his father's permission to win gold medals." Her victory in 1991 contributed significantly to the fact that Algerian women gained the right to vote in the elections" ^{[9, p. 232]}.

The motivation of women to participate in stayer sports races has the same grounds as the motivation of men: the realization of their potential, personal and professional growth, the desire for fame and material well-being.  But additional spiritual power is given to women by a sense of joy from the right to express themselves in the desired way in society, a sense of their strength and a high mission to be an example of liberation from gender prejudice. Therefore, it is not surprising that according to the results of 2018, "45.15% of all American marathon runners are women" ^[15]. It was only at the 2020 Olympics (held in 2021 due to the pandemic) in Tokyo that gender parity of participants was achieved for the first time in the history of Olympic sports, today women run the same distances as men at sports competitions. And this is a great merit of the runners, who, having made considerable efforts, broke gender stereotypes regarding the abilities of women in high-performance sports, thereby contributing to the humanization of society.

Conclusions1. The main types of women's running practices are ritual competitive and out-of-competition running, festive competitive running, wellness and sports running.

2. The goals of women's competitive running in Antiquity were both profane (marriage, material well-being) and sacred (pleasing the gods). The motives of this running activity were gaining patronage (husband or gods), as well as receiving material rewards and glorifying one's name and family. The collisions of the considered running are associated with the misogyny inherent in the Greco-Roman civilization, which caused the separate nature of men's and women's competitions, the exclusion of women from men's competitions as spectators, as well as the imitative and incomplete (in comparison with men's running) nature of women's competitions.

3. The purpose of the ceremonial competitive running of the bride and groom (originally of royal blood) there was a woman's choice of the most physically developed and hardy marriage partner. The motives of this run were to ensure the survival of the social group to which the woman belonged, dependent on the success of the rituals. The conflicts of marital choice were resolved by the definition of running tactics by the bride herself and the direction of support for one of the running by her relatives.

4. The goal of the girls' initiating run was to move into a social group of brides ready to fulfill the roles of wife and mother. The motive is the confirmation of one's socioculturally conditioned sexual and age fullness, as well as the ability to persevere and persevere in overcoming the difficulties of future family life. The collisions of this run were associated with the difficulty of self-overcoming, since the initiating run required a multiple increase in the distance mastered at the maximum of physical capabilities for several days.

5. The purpose of magical running was to liken supernatural beings capable of unusually fast or prolonged running locomotion, or to influence them to achieve results due to the needs of the "life world" of a woman in a traditional society. The motives of these running practices are associated with the belief in the omnipotence of demonic entities, and collisions are associated with the negative perception of women's witchcraft activities by a part of society.           

6. The festive urban competitive running of women of the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Modern Times had a carnival nature and was aimed at ladies from the social bottom (poor commoners, beggars and prostitutes). The main goal of this race for women was to receive material rewards, and the most important motive was the need to overcome at least temporarily the scarcity of life. The collisions of these running practices were associated with their humiliating nature for women's dignity.

7. Women's health-improving running begins to be practiced in the pedagogical systems of the XIX century, focused on the ancient ideal of kalokagathy. He was also stimulated by eugenic projects of the twentieth century, the acquisition by women of the status of military service, the fight against physical inactivity as a consequence of NTR, the fashion for a slim body. The collisions of recreational running were associated with the difficulties of expanding the sphere of public women's space and the acceptance of female emancipation by society.   

8. The goals of women's sports running are related to achieving the desired level of physical fitness (mass sports) or setting records (sports of the highest achievements). The motives of women runners' athletic activity are self-realization, achievement of equality with men in competitive activities and opportunities provided by society to outstanding athletes. Women's right to middle- and long-distance sports running was won by them after overcoming numerous stereotypes, according to which these types of running do not correspond to the gender expecta-tions of society and physiologically hinder women from fulfilling the most important duties of a mother and wife. Largely due to the selfless struggle of runners for equality in realizing their athletic potential, women's identity today is associated not only with femininity, and at the last Olympics in Tokyo, gender parity of participants was achieved for the first time. This testifies to the significance of the contribution of women's health and sports running practices to the humanization of society.