KdF had a number of individual departments. The Beauty of Labour (Schönheit der Arbeit) department was devoted to improvements in the workplace, from general hygiene to reduction of sound pollution. Other departments included the Sports Office (Sportamt), Adult Education Office (Volksbildungswerk), Leisure Time Office (Amt Feierabend), the Office for Folklore and Homeland (Amt für Volkstum und Heimat), and the Office for Travel, Hiking, and Holidays (Amt Reisen, Wandern, und Urlaub).

From the NATOpedia page on the NSDAP's "Strength Through Joy" office.

lt-dbyf-dubois Is... Mountain biking... Fascist?

I'm not even sure I'm kidding, htere are definite and steep class, racial, and cultural elements to outdoor recreation. Fuck, eugenics elements.

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[–] lil_tank@hexbear.net 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm not even sure I'm kidding, htere are definite and steep class, racial, and cultural elements to outdoor recreation. Fuck, eugenics elements.

The cult of the body is reactionary and bourgeois. All bodily activity should be based on care, not performance. Only the privileged can devote time vainly shaping their bodies because they are jealous of workers who have to develop their muscles for survival. Pushing people to do sports rather than cultivating their minds is capital's strategy to preserve itself. Strong bodies with weak minds make perfect reactionaries, weak bodies with strong minds can convince the strong bodies to become revolutionary instead.

Health is precious though, and exercising is good to fight depression, so listen to Mao and go make your blood circulate. Performance bad, care good

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 3 points 3 months ago

Yeah, agreed. Like, if you want to set goals for yourself and then try to reach those goals, hten set further goals? Sure cool go for it. Striving for mastery is fun. But then it turns in to, like, a keeping up with the joneses, I have to constantly be pushing the edge to be better or just keep up with other people to feel like I have worth, that's just so bad. Like how eating disorders and body dysmorphia have skyrocketed among young men over the last two decades as the kind of rigid body image beauty standard marketing that's been aimed at women for a century was shifted to exploit a new market; young men anxious about their bodies. And now we've got kids in highschool doing steroids. : p

I remember reading something like, that without the constant marketing driving the idea that normal people had to be unreasonably beautiful or there was something wrong with them, Soviets had a much more relaxed body image standard than westerners at the time. Like there were beuautiful actors and dancers and models and so forth, but people would say something like "well, it's that person's job to be beautiful. And I can just enjoy their beauty without feeling coerced to look like them because it's not my job and it's not expected of me."

Idk if it's true or If I'm remembering it right but it struck me as so different from the way standards of beauty and physical performance are enforced in the anglosphere now.