I suspect that you realize this is a rhetorical question as I am not in possession of a uterus myself. I guess I could have titled this, “If I exercise, would my scrotum burst?” but I don’t think it would have the same impact.
Back in the Victorian age, when men were men and women were objectified, patronized and ignored there was a prevailing belief that vigorous exercise on the part of the fairer sex would result in terrible physical maladies. This largely led to ivory skin (they never went outside without a parasol), 65% body fat, and vitamin D deficient females who were really good at drinking tea and embroidery. I suspect this misappropriation of energy was largely due to the misogynistic belief that women were incapable of vigorous activity and for them to perspire was tantamount to social isolation. In reality, it was probably related to sex in some fashion, as most everything was. Those poor women who did suffer from uterine prolapse (most likely from having 10 children) could no longer satisfy their Cro-Magnon companion, so they had to come up with a theory as to why. Obviously, it was the “wandering uterus” (hysteria for those Latin scholars) that was to blame, and anything that made you bounce (i.e. exercise) was an obvious culprit.
That reminds me of an interesting aside. The term hysteria today means an uncontrollable emotion or excitement. It is derived from the Latin word for womb (see above). There was a general belief by old white men like Plato (pay close attention, you will start to see a pattern here) that many of a woman’s ills, ranging from physical diseases to mental conditions were due to the uterus literally migrating around the body, the wandering uterus, as it was. To quote a modern paraphrase of an ancient medical text, “The uterus could move upwards, downwards, left or right. It could even collide with the liver or spleen. Depending on its direction, a wandering womb could cause all kinds of hell. One that traveled upwards might cause sluggishness, lack of strength, and vertigo in a patient; while a womb that moved downwards could cause a person to feel as if she were choking. So worrisome was the prospect of a wandering womb during this period, that some women wore amulets to protect themselves against it.” That was the modern medicine of ancient times.
So this hysterical womb has figured as a prominent facilitator of a variety of problems through the ages, so it’s not surprising that many old white men thought, well into the mid 20th century, that vigorous exercise, like distance running, would result in the uterus hitting the pavement at about mile 20. Granted, if you did 50 squats a day with 100-pound weights, you might initiate some organ laxity, but even then, your womb will not stick out of your vajaja. Believe it or not, in our enlightened modern age, some old white men didn’t even let women run marathons in the Olympics until 1984. They felt that they were doing women a favor by not allowing them to train for such an event because surly the highways and byways of the country would be littered with dropped uteruses if they did so.
Needless to say, Joan Benoit Samuelson, the winner of the first women’s Olympic Marathon, still has all her parts, as far as I know, so it became clear to most old white guys that their apprehension of women and extensive training was bunk. Today, in fact, some of the best ultramarathoners (those masochistic souls who run 100 or so miles at a time) are women, and I have yet to see any YouTube videos of ultramarathoners resting at a water stop, refueling and dropping off their uterus.
There is no reason a woman should fear physical damage from vigorous training as long as they are doing it wisely. Chances are they will quickly surpass most old white guys in both physical prowess and mental capability.
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