The Gendering of Sports Injury: A Look at ‘Progress’ in Women's Sport through a Case Study of the Biomedical Discourse on the Injured Athletic Body

Abstract

In the 1990s accounts began to appear in the professional and popular press of an ‘epidemic’ of knee injuries among women athletes. The injuries in question are tears to the anterior cruciate ligament. This essay provides a case study of the discourse around these injuries. Data are taken from a content analysis of professional and popular literature. The analysis considers the major themes in the literature, and then explores in detail specific themes of interest. The emerging scientific consensus on the causes of these injuries favours neuromuscular interpretations; this is important because these factors may be modified through physical training and conditioning. Another approach discussed in the literature is hormonal causes. Discussions of hormonal factors frequently are accompanied by cautionary statements, indicating researchers are aware of the ideological and clinical implications of hormonal explanations of women's injuries. This would suggest some progress from previous eras, when biological concerns figured prominently in views of women's physical limitations. The analysis of gendered understandings of sports injuries allows for exploration of the meaning of ‘progress’ in sport, one of the prominent themes in the work of Eric Dunning.