Clint Eastwood’s new movie “Million Dollar Baby” continues to rake in awards and box office millions. The film, about a scrappy female boxer and her curmudgeonly trainer, has shone a spotlight on the somewhat obscure sport of female boxing.

Joyce Carol Oates once wrote of the female boxer: “She is parody. She is cartoon. She is monstrous.” But that is not what writer Leah Hager Cohen found when she followed the lives of four teenage girl pugilists at the Somerville Boxing Club outside Boston. The girls she tracked came from poor neighborhoods. Some of them had gotten into street fights and had other behavioral problems. The boxing ring became a healthy outlet for their aggression, and a crucial component of their emotional development. And to Cohen’s surprise, she herself couldn’t resist the lure of the ring. She began to train and spar with the girls.

Cohen captures her experience in her new book “Without Apology: Girls, Women, and the Desire to Fight.” In this radio diary, she reads a passage from the book and reflects on what drew her to enter the boxing ring.

Guests:

Writer Leah Hager Cohen. Her new book is titled “Without Apology: Girls, Women, and the Desire to Fight.”