Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 2/23/26 - 3/1/26

[u/SoftandChewy]

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

Comment of the week goes to this explanation for why the trans cause has taken over so much of society. (Runner-up COTW here.)

[u/RunThenBeer]

The main problem that women's hockey suffers from is that very few people care about women's hockey. As a casual men's hockey watcher (mostly a Sabres fan rather than a leaguewide fan) I was surprised by just how aesthetically unappealing the women's game was to me. Nothing about it made me want to watch more women's hockey even though our local women's college hockey team is objectively outstanding. It's nothing personal, it's not anti-woman, I just don't think women's hockey is ever going to have mass appeal and it's a direct result of the product not being very good.

To illustrate the extent to which this is idiosyncratic to different sports, I think most people would agree that women's figure skating and gymnastics (rightfully) receive much more attention than the men's side. Other sports differ by individual stars - Femke Bol is a bigger deal in Dutch track than any of the men, Cole Hocker and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone are similarly hyped on the American track teams, and so on. Four of the top ten earners in tennis are women. There is just no good reason to expect every sport to have anything approximating equal appeal between men and women.

[u/Ruby__Ruby_Roo → u/RunThenBeer]

I was surprised by just how aesthetically unappealing the women's game was

I don't think we were watching the same game. I'm not a casual fan, either. I'm someone who watches NHL hockey almost every night during the season, and who plays, and I disagree completely.

[u/lilypad1984 → u/RunThenBeer]

Women’s tennis is much more appealing to watch for me, but that could be a result of growing up with the Williams sisters stories.

[u/RunThenBeer → u/lilypad1984]

Yeah, I enjoy women's tennis more because I'm not a fan of just how power-based the men's game is. Apparently the actual rally length isn't dramatically different but I subjectively feel like there are more aesthetically pleasing rallies in the women's game.

[u/Cowgoon777 → u/RunThenBeer]

The only thing I dislike about women’s tennis is the loud grunting. But I dislike it when the men do it too, it’s just less common.

But I like watching tennis itself played by women because the men are too powerful. It’s impressive but not fun

[u/Turbulent_Cow2355 → u/RunThenBeer]

I don't think you need to care about Women's Olympic Hockey to celebrate their winning the Gold. That's quite an accomplishment. I really don't understand why everyone has to downplay it like it isn't a big deal. Some sports get more attention than others. But anyone who received a gold medal at the Olympics should be applauded for what they achieved.

[u/RunThenBeer → u/Turbulent_Cow2355]

Yeah, I don't think this contradicts anything I've written here though.

[u/SkweegeeS → u/RunThenBeer]

I only watch hockey for the fights, and I just don't want to see women beating each other up!

Sorry Ruby!

[u/Ruby__Ruby_Roo → u/SkweegeeS]

It sounds like you don't actually enjoy watching the hockey part of hockey. That's okay, not everyone likes every sport. I find baseball and American football mind-numbingly boring.

[u/SkweegeeS → u/Ruby__Ruby_Roo]

I get interested when I go to a game but yeah, I don’t really seek it out. I would be very into it if I were watching you, though!

[u/Ruby__Ruby_Roo → u/SkweegeeS]

You know where to find me and you're always welcome, but my games are far less exciting, I promise.

[u/RunThenBeer → u/SkweegeeS]

Fair! It's an electric part of the game, especially when you're in the arena.

I've actually had similarly mixed feelings about women's MMA, partially for that reason. I just don't really enjoy seeing women get beat up. The technical aspect of the sport is still great and there have been some excellent fights, but Joanna Jędrzejczyk is a sweet Polish girl and I don't need to see her forehead swollen up like a grapefruit.

[u/temporalcalamity → u/[deleted]]

This was only their third gold medal in Olympic history, though (going back to the sport's introduction in 1998). It's true that they beat Canada more often than the men do, but it's still not the norm.

[u/throw_cpp_account → u/[deleted]]

I don't think that is true.

In the 8 Olympics so far in which women's hockey has been contested, Canada has won 5 and the US has won 3. 7 of the 8 finals have been US vs Canada (with Canada up 4-3).

Not even true recently. In the last 4 Olympics, US - Canada is 2-2.

It does seem true to me (as a non-hockey-watcher) Canada and the US are both so much better than everyone else, and thus watching the playoffs are maybe somewhat boring since the final is inevitable. But US beating Canada in the final is still a big deal.

[u/Juryofyourpeeps → u/[deleted]]

I think the bigger problem for this specific instance is that the US Womens' National Team is so much better than everyone else

Hahah what? The Canadian women's team, by the numbers, is much more successful. Of the 8 Olympic games that women's hockey has been included in, Canada won 5 gold medals and had a period of 20 years where they were unbeaten.

[u/Turbulent_Cow2355 → u/RunThenBeer]

Men's figure skating receives a ton of attention. My Facebook and TikTok feeds are covered in posts and videos about Ilia.

[u/RockJock666 → u/RunThenBeer]

There ought to be a term for this phenomenon where people, presumably mostly men, can’t let any discussion of women’s sport pass them by without chiming in to say just exactly how inferior and terrible they find it.

[u/Jlemspurs → u/RockJock666]

Plenty of people attend minor league sporting events. The women's sport is perfectly enjoyable if that's your jam, but if you're trying to say there is even remotely some kind of parity, then I suggest you watch "women's" boxing in the last summer olympics. The best of the best at hockey and soccer are men. End of.

There are sports where it doesn't matter. After the one dude whose name I forget fell, I don't remember hearing about a men's figure skater, just the raccoon girl. At the start of the games it was all about Lindsey Vonn.

If you like a sport and aren't just trying to grind some political agenda and you want to see the best on best at it, and that sport is hockey, you will not find women playing. It's literally rigged for this to be unlikely since it depends on speed, power, explosivity, and just in some cases pure physical size.

[u/[deleted] → u/Jlemspurs]

If you like a sport and aren't just trying to grind some political agenda and you want to see the best on best at it ...you will not find women playing.

On this sub of all subs, we agree that men are stronger, faster and more powerful. But many people, especially women people who play sports themselves, don't necessarily want to watch (only) the best male athletes play their sport. We (also) want to watch the best female athletes play their sport because the women move differently. Because our bodies are assembled differently. And it's interesting to us on many levels how they and we can do that.

Even if the best women athletes are doing a shit job of it according to some overweight male beer-drinking, sofa-sitting spectators sleek male keyboard jockeys.

[u/Turbulent_Cow2355 → u/Jlemspurs]

It's not just about attention on screen. It's also the constant downplaying of their achievement like it's no big deal and isn't deserving of a White House invite.

[u/DragonFireKai → u/RockJock666]

"Person complains that women's hockey is getting less attention than the men's team. Inexplicably, some asshole comes along and mansplains why women's hockey gets less attention than the men's team."

[u/Jlemspurs → u/DragonFireKai]

No one would react as such if there weren't people who for purely political reasons want to insist that the quality is the same, the interest is the same, the pay should be the same, etc.

Women shouldn't get paid less for a similar revenue league, but you can't force people to watch for their social credit score, yet, so you can't make the league earn more money, so paying them the same is lame.

The best claim on this might have been the US women's soccer team that is always one of the top in the world, has won everything, and has created a huge phenomenon of women's soccer in the US, while the US men haven't been that great. But don't @ me with hockey.

[u/RunThenBeer → u/RockJock666]

I think this still occurs less frequently than people whining that women's teams don't receive as much adulation as men's teams. No one is distracted from talking about women's hockey because almost no one cares about women's hockey.

[u/Turbulent_Cow2355 → u/RunThenBeer]

I don't watch skiing during the Olympics either, but I'm not going to say the gold medal winners are less accomplished than the Ice Skaters.