THE MODERN GIRL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21978, 13 June 1933, Page 10

THE MODERN GIRL

“CULT OF THE BODY” STRENUOUS SPORT CONDEMNED. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 1. A controversy which can always be depended upon in Australia to provide a spirited discussion is one concerning the ■ modern girl and her participation in the more strenuous sports. An outspoken statement on this subject has just been published in a Roman Catholic journal issued by Archbishop Duhig, of Brisbane. After stating in no uncertain terms that the “ cult of the .body had become a religion ” it goes on:—“It is much to bo ' regretted/that medical men seem to be afraid to tell these people the truth. No honest medical man could either advise or defend the course that so many young girls are taking to-day with regard to v sport and athletics generally. . Men and women are constitutionally different, and must be physically developed on different lines; what it good for one may be bad for the other. ■ It is not only dangerous, but altogether wrong for girls to be indulging in such sports as rowing, football, cricket, and high jumping, developing their limbs abnormally to the detriment of their bodily strength and proportions. It is about time that some honest doctor spoke out and unmasked this fad of the j • athletic woman/ who, far from being an example to follow, is really abnormal. There are plenty of sports and exercise* for our girls, such as tennis, basket ball, and swimming, without entering into competition with men in sports that have ever been regarded, and rightly so, as the province of their brothers.” Two Sydney doctors closely associated with sport agreed in the verdict against the “ athletic woman.” One asked; “Would you like to marry a champion rower or the captain of a woman’s football team? It takes some thinking over, doesn’t it? ” The other doctor said: “ Strenuous exercise, such as rowing, jumping, or even strenuous tennis .causa certain muscles associated with mother/ hood to become over-developed, with the result that motherhood becomes most difficult. Certain displacements of organs are also likely as the result of excessive forceful exercise.” What have other branches of the Church to say? The moderator of the .. Presbyterian Church in New South Wales (the Rev. D. P. Brandt) said: “There is no reason whatever why women should not take part in sport so long as it is in keeping with the dignity and delicacy that we have always associated with women. v But I fear that some wojpen are so indulging in sport to-day as to cause not only physical injury but also to cause thein to fall from the high platform upon which we have always placed them.” Canon Hammond said that the statement was a very sane one. It was a calamity that in their natural ambition women should invade sport in directions for which Nature had not fitted them. He thought the aftermath was the most serious thing, namely, the evasion of motherhood.