The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls [Paperback]

Colette Dowling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 2001

Can women be equal to men as long as men are physically stronger? And are men, in fact, stronger?
These are key questions that Colette Dowling, author of the bestselling The Cinderella Complex, raises in her provocative new book. The myth of female frailty, with its roots in nineteenth-century medicine and misogyny, has had a damaging effect on women's health, social status, and physical safety. It is Dowling's controversial thesis that women succumb to societal pressures to appear weak in order to seem more "feminine."
The Frailty Myth presents new evidence that girls are weaned from the use of their bodies even before they begin school. By adolescence, their strength and aerobic powers have started to decline unless the girls are exercising vigorously--and most aren't. By sixteen, they have already lost bone density and turned themselves into prime candidates for osteoporosis. They have also been deprived of motor stimulation that is essential for brain growth.
Yet as breakthroughs among elite women athletes grow more and more astounding, it begins to appear that strength and physical skill--for all women--is only a matter of learning and training. Men don't have a monopoly on physical prowess; when women and men are matched in size and level of training, the strength gap closes. In some areas, women are actually equipped to outperform men, due partly to differences in body structure, and partly to the newly discovered strengthening benefits of estrogen.

Drawing on extensive research in motor development, performance assessment, sports physi-ology, and endocrinology, Dowling presents an astonishing picture of the new physical woman. And she creates a powerful argument that true equality isn't possible until women learn how to stand up for themselves--physically.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Rich cultures value thin women, and poor cultures fat women, but all male-dominant cultures value weakness in women. That’s why Colette Dowling’s The Frailty Myth is radical in its well-reasoned, readable, wise exposé of the reality, importance, and future of female strength.”
—Gloria Steinem

“Required reading . . . [a] strong argument against [the] ‘weaker-sex’ stereotype.”
—Chicago Sun-Times


“In the twenty-first century, Americans are going to have to rethink the idea of the physical inferiority of women because of books like The Frailty Myth. Dowling overturns the old Victorian idea that women are the weaker sex. . . . This is a call to arms for female athleticism among girls and women of all ages.”
—Joan Jacobs Brumberg, author of
The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls and
Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa

From the Inside Flap

Can women be equal to men as long as men are physically stronger? And are men, in fact, stronger?
These are key questions that Colette Dowling, author of the bestselling The Cinderella Complex, raises in her provocative new book. The myth of female frailty, with its roots in nineteenth-century medicine and misogyny, has had a damaging effect on women's health, social status, and physical safety. It is Dowling's controversial thesis that women succumb to societal pressures to appear weak in order to seem more "feminine."
The Frailty Myth presents new evidence that girls are weaned from the use of their bodies even before they begin school. By adolescence, their strength and aerobic powers have started to decline unless the girls are exercising vigorously--and most aren't. By sixteen, they have already lost bone density and turned themselves into prime candidates for osteoporosis. They have also been deprived of motor stimulation that is essential for brain growth.
Yet as breakthroughs among elite women athletes grow more and more astounding, it begins to appear that strength and physical skill--for all women--is only a matter of learning and training. Men don't have a monopoly on physical prowess; when women and men are matched in size and level of training, the strength gap closes. In some areas, women are actually equipped to outperform men, due partly to differences in body structure, and partly to the newly discovered strengthening benefits of estrogen.

Drawing on extensive research in motor development, performance assessment, sports physi-ology, and endocrinology, Dowling presents an astonishing picture of the new physical woman. And she creates a powerful argument that true equality isn't possible until women learn how to stand up for themselves--physically.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (September 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375758151
• ISBN-13: 978-0375758157
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What it feels like for a girl: Weakness as femininity, April 13, 2002

By 

Rebecca (Salem, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls (Paperback)

In "The Frailty Myth," Colette Dowling presents a compelling and well-researched analysis of why and how American girls are socialized to be "weak." Dowling examines the myths about the "weaker sex," tracing this myth as a source of the oppression of women handed down to us from Victorian times.

She convincingly explains why men fear strong women: In part, she says, it's because strength is perhaps the only area in which our culture does not say that men and women are equal. Thus, as male-only professions and traits are rapidly disappearing from public discourse, strength is masculinity's last hope.

Further, she carefully details how the media, parents, educators and peers of both sexes encourage girls to be passive and boys to be active (often without realizing it), and gives ample evidence that there is no physiological basis for the belief that women are fated to be weaker than men. It is, in essence, a mere self-fulfilling prophecy.

After demonstrating the mental and physical unhealthiness of this cycle, the author provides advice on breaking out of it. To illustrate the possibilities, she offers inspiring stories of women and girls who have become strong, breaking into "male" sports like football and even playing on co-ed teams.

This book is well-written, well-organized, and an important read for anyone with a daughter or an interest in women's issues. At the very least, it might encourage you to spend more time at the gym -- that's one of the many beneficial things it did for me!

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hate speech, October 27, 2005

By 

Michelle (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls (Paperback)

Is it just me, or do some of the rather inflammatory reviews of this book belie some very insecure minds?
Some of the condescending generalizations these people are making wouldn't be tolerated were this a book on say, racial or religious equality.
Women have been socialized to be a lot smaller and weaker than they need to be, and in a more egalitarian society, they might learn from an early age to properly nourish, exercise, and use their bodies to realize more physical accomplishments and enjoy a greater sense of self. What exactly is it about this thesis that is evoking such a hostile reaction in you? Why are you acting so threatened?
Did any of you misogynists actually bother to read the book? Given your frightened, contemptuous, kneejerk reactions, apparently not.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empowering!Good for Women's Studies, provides Stats & Facts, March 11, 2003

By 

Kelly Mathews - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Frailty Myth: Redefining the Physical Potential of Women and Girls (Paperback)

I am not a fan of Dowling's other books. This one, is a resarch book that is easily read like a novel, while providing important, empowering facts and data on the way males and females develop. Dowling talks about how from an early age, even in our times, girls are still taught it is not "feminine" or attractive to boys or others to be muscular or athletic. She talks about how boys are taken by the majority of theri fathers and taught how to throw a ball, and train their muscles, and engage in rough housing, where girls are not and so "throw like a girl." Boys and girls bodies are similar but as girls starve themselves, and do not use their muscles, their ability to develop larger muscles over all diminishes as they get older. We see female athletes who want to look like covergirls and some who are beautiful and atheltic, and those who really just want to be professional athletes. This book overall shows how women hold themselves back from achieving their true potential starting at an early age, and examines how the image a woman has of herself by thinking a certain kind of beauty is most important keeps a woman from being independant in this way. Dowling also points out that if you take a 5'7" woman who works out and a man of the same height who does not, and one who does, the results are very interesting. She points out that women are often compared to male athletes not in their weight range. While Women and men may not be biologically equal in every area, that should not keep us from being equals as humans. Dowling also talks about how athletes need to work with their menstrual cycles. Also, with the studies done now, we know that women have always been treated tradtionally nutritionally and physically by doctors as if they were skinny men with mood swings. Now we know we have different nutritional requirements, and while during our cycle, we are constantly preparing for a child, wether we want to have one or not, and men do not. When these needs are all met healthily instead of denying ourselves to fit into a body type that does not fit us, we will all have more energy for strength training. There is so much information packed into this book, and it is such a fast read, I recommend it to all women, and especially those who have daughters to see a new way of strengthening them. I find it hilarious that some still question women's strength and dexterity after reading this book.