WOMEN’S SPORTS TOO STRENUOUS

Hokitika Guardian, 12 April 1928, Page 1

WOMEN’S SPORTS TOO STRENUOUS

(By J. AY. Fisher, AI.R.C. S., L.R.C.P., in the “London Daily Mail.”) The present day tendency is for women to break more and more into those snorts which have generally been regarded as pre-eminently masculine. The stronghold of Rugby lias boon stormed and we have heard reports of French women boxing champions, wlio have achieved great prowess in the ring. Muscular women are everywhere, the athletic sports girl is a type one frequently meets, and one wants to know how in the long run these people will fare in the matter of health. Is all this excessive indulgence in sport advisable? Nobody will decry the vallip t>f sport. Exercise in the open air is always beneficial. Lungs are expanded, more oxygen is absorbed, muscles aro toned up, we eat move and feel bettor.

It, is when women overdo things that trouble commences. Then, feminine disorders becomes increasingly frequent. The woman who likes a game of tennis or golf is to he commended, hut tho woman who desires to excel at Rugby or boxing is sell

her womanhood for a mess of pottage. Certain games and sports are eminently suitable for women; Rugby and boxing emphatically ore not. Women should never forget that they

are women, on whom nature has imposed certain restrictions. When they essay to break those bonds, then they can seldom hope for happy motherhood. Having children these days may be considered old-fashioned, but, after all, motherhood is the great end of nature, and wo cannot kick against nature and “get away with it.” Tho modern woman wants to. tries to, and

suffers in consequence. The muscle that is being over-deve-loped. the. body that is being strained by the stress of physical combat in tli ring or in the field, or even of incessant and protracted tennis tournaments. is demanding more and more blood for its sustenance. It gets this blood, but at the expense of the creative organs. And wlien woman’s hig moment comes, something goes wrong.

If a man receives n blow on his chest, ill-effects seldom ensure, hut a Woman's breast is a more delicate

structure, an an abscess or cancer is always a possibility. Lot us ignore tlie ,blather of our professional muscle merchants, who rant that “sports do not harm women,” without any sense of fitness of things. Naturally they have no use for moderation, because tlie more jrnomcn they train and the more muscles they coax up, the more luxuries they will be able to afford. These stimulating people, who think more of the crack of a muscle than the cry of a child, have never to become mothers, which perhaps is a good thing for the world. Despite them, mast women will put children before muscular dexterity.