Misplaced Focus: Assumptions about Sex Hormones and ACL Injury in Female Athletes

Authors

Jennifer Croissant, Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona
Emily Schmit, Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Arizona

Disciplines

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Abstract

Explaining Anterior cruciate ligament {ACL} injury rate differences between female athletes and male athletes by the role of female hormones is misplaced. We are not in 19.th.century to think, that a woman is “unable” because of her hormonal prepositions and to see this as a “women’s problem”. These injuries require further exploration before they can be labeled as “sex-specific” and as having intrinsic or biological causation. There are different sport opportunities (girls are supposed to be focused on some “feminine” sports and are becoming involved in athletic later than boys) and expected results, which are measured in the same age of boys and girls. Also experience with training of sportsmen has a long history and practice compared to women’s training. The body as a physiological entity is produced throughout the life course of an individual and is not some a priory that can be understood or measured independently of the social life that constructs it.

Recommended Citation

Croissant, Jennifer and Schmit, Emily (2007) "Misplaced Focus: Assumptions about Sex Hormones and ACL Injury in Female Athletes," Journal of Interdisciplinary Feminist Thought: Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/jift/vol2/iss1/2