Oh, yes. Because being too active and athletic and independent is Dangerous in Girls. But a spinal chord injury will cure that, and make them all pretty and willing to accept help from gentlemen after...

There's a bit of that in Persuasion, by Jane Austen (I wrote about the character Mrs. Smith from that book, recently), when one of the pretty, superficial, girls falls and suffers a head injury and personality change, after (The only defense I can put up in Ms. Austen's defense is that they didn't understand how important the brain really was, to health, back in 1811).