Essay on Steroids: Anabolic Steroid and Women’s Rights

Submitted By nadia12p
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Pages: 4
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Prospectus The arrival of Steroid use came about in the nineteenth century that created many positive impacts for women athletes of this era. There has always been myths that discuss the weaknesses that exist in women’s performance. Their nature(genetics) is dissimilar to man and so it is seen as “her disability.” Women were always recognized to raise their children and nurture them, and this became a woman’s millstone. The issue that existed for centuries was women trying to gain access to the sporting arena or the right to exercise (Prakash, WS19). This lead me to ask the following question: How did steroid use in the nineteenth century affect women’s rights and performance in the olympics? With this question, I plan to discuss distinct changes steroid use created for women, and how it allowed women to advance their positions in sport, a social phenomena that is socially organized. Furthermore, I plan to contrast these advancements made by women olympians with the time where women had no rights in participating in any sort of physical activity or event. This will in turn clearly show that women had fewer physical sporting rights before the advent of Steroids. Some scientist believe that steroid use can bring about unfavorable consequences and could result in virilization or myopathy. For example, Cullen Murphy points out that scientist Arnold Berthhold discovered that the injection of male hormones called androgens before birth can change a female into a male (Murphy,65). Studies were done on the female rhesus monkeys. They were dosed with immense androgens, and in turn exhibited male behavior, acting rough and aggressive. This consequence is known to be virilization, biological development of sex differences created by androgens. Furthermore, Joanne Donham discusses steroid myopathy- a chronic, painless muscle weakness induced by steroids (Dohman, 918). It is said that steroid myopathy develops more often in women than men. Yet, we see in the 1960s women were on their feet competing in different physical events winning gold medals. In my research paper I plan to argue the following: With the rise of steroid use in the nineteenth century, women gained so much strength and will power to compete in rigorous, challenging physical activities. This androgenic effect allowed women to make remarkable progress to world champions, but they have also surpassed the performance of their male compatriots in international sport (Riordan,131). The steroid use also allowed women to participate in a wider range of competitive events and activities that men would be involved in. I will support my thesis with distinct examples of the positive effects and results that steroids gave to allow women to have excellent performance in the challenging olympics. One example I plan to converse about is how women were know as disable for sports before steroids use came about for women. For example, women “were considered to be permanent invalids-weak, pale and languishing (Prakash, WS19).” A powerful, muscular, athlete was definitely not a female stereotype.
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