'Periodically Weakened' By Richard Bell Analysis

Women’s opportunities for competitive sport was extremely limited in America. The author states that “prior to 1870, sports for women existed in the form of play activities that were recreational rather than competitive...” The author Richard C. Bell explains that there was a dominant belief on the health and wellness of women in sport. Bell states that people believed “each human had a fixed amount of energy” and that women shouldn’t use all their energy towards “hazardous” activity. Bell uses factual evidence from a published author Dr. Edward Clarke, who wrote about women being “periodically weakened” while going through menstruation, and that women should not engage in physical activity. Even though there was a lot of pressure against