all the debate in sports actually makes me hate my female body... i hate being female. “There’s literally thousands of high school boys that can dominate the best pro women athletes.” Men are always better so why even try? (I know it’s not true but these arguments really make me depressed)
The female body is not inferior, don't let a male model of society trick you into holding capacity for brute strength as the most defining trait of a person's value
Anon, we know that women are better at running supermarathons (vast distances), and at wild swimming/long distance swimming. Please consider - sports in which women regularly outperform men, or methods of judging those sports which result in women outperforming men, would not catch on in a patriarchal environment. There might be numerous ‘sports’ out there that women are better at than men, that we just haven’t discovered, because men aren’t good at them.
And the absurdity of valuing sports over, say, survivability? Which is real physical strength? Moving something heavy, or not fucking dying from cold or disease?
Women are less likely to inherit genetic illnesses (double X bby), can survive longer on significantly less due to fat stores and different types of muscles, and during times of widespread disease, women are more likely to overcome illnesses. When men get sick, they tend to get much sicker. Their biology isn’t geared toward survivability. Even testosterone, the beloved ~tough manly hormone~ decreases their lifespan.
Where men keep producing sperm, expending energy and resources, risking cell mutation.. Women’s bodies enter menopause. Monthly cycles which are very energy intensive stop so that women can live longer. The importance of this is described by “the grandmother theory”, aka, old ladies keep society running and continue to be very valuable even into old age.
Its unreasonable to expect to love your body easily in a society that tells women we are less than and dirty. Practicing body neutrality is a more prudent goal, you can read more about it here: https://www.healthline.com/health/body-neutrality#systemic-change
Just look at the stats on COVID survival - women are hardcore and so are our bodies.
Men’s skills are impressive for one shot deals. Women’s are better for day to day living, even in disaster situations.
I was thinking about American Ninja Warrior the other day - and how most of the contestants are men and the women who do compete are at a disadvantage because a lot of the obstacles require upper body strength which is a lot easier for men to acquire, and reach which you have naturally if you’re tall.
But could you design an obstacle course where women would dominate? Obviously we’d still be talking about very fit and strong people. Could you design an obstacle that was easier for women? They do have some balance obstacles but the men still do them just fine. Often they “brute strength” them by just running across them really fast.
I’d love someone to do a study into this, and into sport in general, and come up with those sports that women are physically more suited for, other than the ones we do know already.
@hating-alison-ashley there’s a show called “the floor is Lava” that has obstacles set up for a variety of different strengths.
Men and women seem to have a pretty even chance of getting to the exit based on which obstacles they choose to navigate. I find it interesting that for things that require team effort alll women teams seem to do better because everybody cooperates and no one tries to be a hero. Mixed teams do well because they tend to utilize the strengths and abilities of all team members (as long as no one goes rogue and tries to be a hero) but all male teams don’t tend to do as well because they don’t communicate as well, everyone tries to follow the same course through the lava rather than playing to their own abilities and there’s always that one guy who beelines for the exit and leaves his teammates to struggle rather than staying in the room and helping them out.
I THINK it’s on Netflix
this is what makes me so angry about this argument. the sports themselves are the issue. when only one sex is permitted to create and participate in sports, of course the ones that get popular are going to cater to that sex
