# Woke Michigan professor roasted for arguing physical fitness leads to fascism: ‘That’s racialized’

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/woke-michigan-professor-roasted-for-arguing-physical-fitness-leads-to-fascism-thats-racialized/
- Published: 2026-11-14T20:17:35+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-14T21:35:21+00:00
- Original publisher: New York Post (publisher lean: Right)
- Original article: https://nypost.com/2026/11/14/us-news/woke-michigan-professor-stunningly-argues-physical-fitness-leads-to-fascism-thats-racialized/
- Topics: Fitness, Health, World

## Key points

- Ava Purkiss said fitness promotion can reinforce racialised social divisions.
- She described its use as a possible form of “soft fascism”.
- Her comments prompted online criticism.

## Summary

University of Michigan women’s and gender studies professor Ava Purkiss argued on an NPR podcast that promoting physical fitness can reinforce social hierarchies and, in some cases, act as “soft fascism”. Her comments drew criticism online, where users challenged the comparison and mocked the idea that exercise could be linked to authoritarianism.

Purkiss said fitness has been used to judge who is hardworking or lazy, self-restrained or greedy, and contributing to or burdening the nation, with those judgements shaped by race and ideas about body size. The podcast episode was released on 16 October; the article says NPR’s online version omitted the phrase “that’s racialized” from a clip circulating online. Purkiss wrote a 2023 book on the history of Black women’s exercise in the United States.

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.