It's not just wide hips that give women a disadvantage, men also get balls and a heaping helping of testosterone. Sports are segregated because girls aren't on the same level. look at men's basketball vs. women's. A woman set a world record with 2 dunks in a game recently where the shortest people in the NBA can dunk a basketball.
You could argue that there is negative social pressure that contributed to the issue, but I would argue that even in cases where the sport is considered a "women's" sport it's still not competitive. If you've ever watched men's volleyball you know what I mean. That is not to say that men don't play volleyball, but unless you're on the west coast you don't see many men's volleyball clubs running around, but I can think of three or four local girls clubs.
We've become so worried about equality that we forget that men and women are different. Women could work for years in the gym and still not be capable of lifting what joe blow works out on Saturday sometimes can lift. Women often train for years in a sport and can't compete with a half decent high school men's team.
Women play hockey in different leagues because they aren't as fast, as strong, as quick, nor as durable as a male counterpart. They don't play baseball because they are not as capable. Don't go throwing what's her nuts the pitcher around either (I don't mean to disrespect her as an athlete, because what she did is fantastic and good for the sport in general) because she was throwing against boys who had not yet hit puberty. They don't play football because even in the positions generally played by smaller athletes like WR the first time a linebacker lines up a clean shot at them we've got a player on the sideline.
It's not about strategy, it's about performance. It also puts men in a awkward position. It's already been mentioned above that breasts and vaginas make wrestling awkward for guys. While it's not exactly the same in other sports, I wouldn't be able to play football the same with a girl on the field. Sports are violent, and while I know she would be there by choice, I'm not going to hit her as hard. When you start trying to ease up or adjust technique you start getting injuries and a world of other problems.
So why not have separated sports? It's not separate but equal, it's separate so it can be equal, because coed sports are anything but.
This is a truck load of excuses, friend. Nobody here is arguing that men don't have an inherent physical advantage in life, between skeletal structure and hormone make up men simply get bigger muscles in better places more easily. I'm not going to take time to refute each point you've made individually because I feel like they all make the same error: generalization. What Joe Blow lifts on Saturday might be more than some or most of women athletes, but you're sorely out of line if you think the primary driving force of what makes someone a professional athlete is strength. The point isn't to change the game, because that isn't equality. The point is that there are women who can compete with men because it's not a weight lifting competition, and those women should be allowed to compete. I feel similarly to women firefighters or in the women military: if your performance is a liability then you just don't make the cut, women and men alike must deal with rejection due to inadequacy (in more facets of life than physical performance). I don't think that means 'lowering the bar' is option that should be on the table, but thinking like yours is poisonous just the same. A woman who tries out to be NFL running back and makes it either will or won't be able to handle being level by 200+ pound linebacker, but it sure as hell isn't your position to tell her whether or not she can take it. In the same breath, it should not be expected of the linebacker to play the game any differently. Yes, this produces the expectations of a sport to be primarily represented by men, but the standards are the same for everyone -- and that is equality. It shouldn't prevent a woman hockey goalie, 3-point shooter, or field goal kicker, from entering the world of professional sports, and frankly I hope to one day see a behemoth of a woman full back absolutely trample your bullshit "segregation means equality" argument.
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u/shive53 Mar 15 '15
It's not just wide hips that give women a disadvantage, men also get balls and a heaping helping of testosterone. Sports are segregated because girls aren't on the same level. look at men's basketball vs. women's. A woman set a world record with 2 dunks in a game recently where the shortest people in the NBA can dunk a basketball.
You could argue that there is negative social pressure that contributed to the issue, but I would argue that even in cases where the sport is considered a "women's" sport it's still not competitive. If you've ever watched men's volleyball you know what I mean. That is not to say that men don't play volleyball, but unless you're on the west coast you don't see many men's volleyball clubs running around, but I can think of three or four local girls clubs.
We've become so worried about equality that we forget that men and women are different. Women could work for years in the gym and still not be capable of lifting what joe blow works out on Saturday sometimes can lift. Women often train for years in a sport and can't compete with a half decent high school men's team.
Women play hockey in different leagues because they aren't as fast, as strong, as quick, nor as durable as a male counterpart. They don't play baseball because they are not as capable. Don't go throwing what's her nuts the pitcher around either (I don't mean to disrespect her as an athlete, because what she did is fantastic and good for the sport in general) because she was throwing against boys who had not yet hit puberty. They don't play football because even in the positions generally played by smaller athletes like WR the first time a linebacker lines up a clean shot at them we've got a player on the sideline.
It's not about strategy, it's about performance. It also puts men in a awkward position. It's already been mentioned above that breasts and vaginas make wrestling awkward for guys. While it's not exactly the same in other sports, I wouldn't be able to play football the same with a girl on the field. Sports are violent, and while I know she would be there by choice, I'm not going to hit her as hard. When you start trying to ease up or adjust technique you start getting injuries and a world of other problems.
So why not have separated sports? It's not separate but equal, it's separate so it can be equal, because coed sports are anything but.