“Definitely Not for Women”: An Online Community’s Reflections on Women’s Use of Performance Enhancing Drugs in Recreational Sports

Abstract

On the face of it, doping seems to be the most objectionable version of athletic enhancement. It evokes intense reactions and the consequences, if use is detected, seem far more severe than for other means of improving performances, such as for example Fastskin swimsuits (Magdalinski 2009) . Enhancement from the inside not only triggers a sense of injustice and moral panic, but also raises fundamental concerns about human nature. When considering the use of performance enhancing drugs in recreational sports, there is, for good reasons, a tendency to focus on young men's use of androgenic anabolic steroids (AAS). We tend, however, to forget that other segments of the population might use drugs to enhance their performance when exercising too. We especially tend to forget that women might use drugs. Very few women, primarily elite body-builders (Evans-Brown and McVeigh 2009) , use AAS and for obvious reasons: the use of AAS has an irreversible masculizing effect on the female body. Numerous tragic stories from former East Germany show that this is not a desirable effect (Franke and Berendok 1997) . But since women, at least Danish women (Nielsen et al. 2002) , are known to be more likely than men to medicate on an everyday basis, it would be surprising if the situation was completely different when it comes to performance enhancement. Some surveys suggest that men in general are more willing to use (performance) enhancing drugs than women (Møldrup and Hansen 2006 ; Breivik et al. 2009) . Another possible explanation could The article is based upon a study of Danish women's use of performance enhancing drugs. The study is made possible by a grant from The Danish Ministry of Culture Committee on Sports Research (J.nr. TKIF 2010–045) 202 M. Raakilde Jespersen be that women might tend to use other types of drugs (for example ephedrine, human growth hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), clenbuterol) that less often fi gure in surveys, or are ignored due to the focus on AAS. Searching one of the oldest and largest Danish internet fora for exercise and training (www.bodyhouse.nu) reveals that women do in fact have an interest in and do use performance enhancing drugs. Furthermore it becomes apparent that women's use of such drugs in particular ignites discussions and re fl ections upon human nature itself. It seems, therefore, that paradoxically women's use of performance enhancing drugs, although often neglected, is regarded as much more serious when discussed in relation to human nature, than men's use of such substances.