These days, when Joan Jacobs Brumberg visits her two young granddaughters, she resists a usual first instinct.
“My first thought is they are so cute,” said Brumberg, a professor at Cornell University and author of “The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls” (Random House, $25). “I want to tell them (so).
“Now I stop myself and start by asking, `What storybooks are you reading?’ or `How fast can you guys run?’ They are already getting too many messages from Disney about long hair and shapely bodies.”
Brumberg’s book contends “contemporary girls are in trouble” because many of them suffer from an unfortunate American female 20th Century tradition of “bad body fever.”
Most girls, like their mothers and aunts and even grandmothers, are preoccupied–and dissatisfied–with their physical appearance, especially as it relates to the airbrushed totem of the fashion model.
“We have to socialize girls differently,” said Brumberg. “We have to teach them about the potential of what a body can do, not what it looks like. Young boys generally benefit from growing up thinking this way.”
Like other experts in female development, Brumberg is heartened by the increasing participation–now 40 million and counting–of girls and women in sports.
“The value comes from less focus on the body,” she said. “Girls can learn about cooperation skills and competition. Plus, very often there is a female coach who is somewhere between the daughter’s and mom’s age. That coach can become an important role model.”
Of course, this is America and our list of sports role models isn’t complete without superstars. The new Women’s National Basketball Association surpassed all expectations this summer, regularly drawing crowds of 17,000 per game and solid television ratings for the championship contest between the New York Liberty and Houston Comets. Players like Cynthia Cooper, Rebecca Lobo, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes (who started her season late to accommodate the delivery of her first child) fit the superstar mold as the young league grows.
In addition, both Conde Nast and Time-Warner have launched sophisticated women’s sports magazines this fall. And Gabrielle Reece, star on the women’s pro volleyball tour, chronicles her story in a new book, “Big Girl in the Middle” (Crown).
“I saw a lot of 8- to 13-year-olds, boys and girls, at games this season,” said Dr. Susan Craig Scott, team physician for the New York Liberty. “This is an age when the children are really starting to connect to the world around them, think about their own prospects.
“It is remarkable for the girls to see women making a living from playing basketball. It’s also good for the boys to see women are fully capable as pro athletes.”
With opportunity comes a risk. Studies show female college basketball players are six to eight times more likely than men to tear an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in a knee. There are several theories as to why that still need to be sufficiently tested by researchers: the more pronounced angle from a woman’s wider hips to the ankles; the skeletal connection between the thigh bone and the ACL; greater amounts of the hormone estrogen, which relaxes the tautness of ligaments; and weaker hamstring muscles.
Scott said she expects the injury gap to lessen as girls are better prepared and trained for sports at younger ages.
For younger girls (and boys) not fully developed, Scott and other sports medicine practitioners warn against intense weight training to boost strength. Scott likes swimming for young girls because it builds muscle and minimizes stress on the growing joints. She said kids can do some running and use one-pound weights for sensible strength training. She prefers several brief exercise sessions during a day rather than one longer session for younger children.
Most of all, Scott prescribes fun–“Girls should try a variety of sports to see what suits them”–and a check on exercise regimens.
“One thing I constantly emphasize is diet,” she said. “But not to restrict calories. Girls in sports need to eat, to get enough calories and even fat in their daily meals. A balanced diet will fuel a girl’s body so she can learn more about herself and her potential.”
Next week: How to determine which sports are best for girls.
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You can follow Bob Condor’s online training log for the LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon at chicago.digitalcity.com.
