mrswdk wrote:jimboston wrote:In my mind this invalidates the sport. If people think this is right/fair then we should eliminate ‘female cycling’ competitions and ‘male cycling’ competitions... and just have cycling competitions where both males and females compete against eachother.
You could perfectly validly argue that it makes no sense to segregate any sports on sex, given sex is just used as a proxy for size/strength.
What about all the little men who have no chance at becoming sports stars, simply because they are smaller and weaker and less effective at sports than other men? Basketball stands out as being a particularly height-ist (read: fascist) sport but you could level this criticism at any competitive sport where size or strength are factors in success.
Perhaps it should be like boxing, and sports should all be segregated based on physiological categories? Then unlike the current situation across sports, where everyone watches men's sport and ignores women's sport*, we could have a new, modern, 24th century situation where people watch Gender-Neutral Super Body Sports and ignore all the others.
*except the athletics and maybe the tennis too, you know why
You could argue that... but then you’d be an idiot.
We separate men and women in sporting because men and women are different. It’s called nature.
Yes... nature also provides some individuals with other advantages, like height and strength.
It also provides advantages like brains, and eyesight, and hand-eye coordination, and the ability to think/response fast, and the ability to deal with stress...etc. etc. etc.
Some of these natural advantages can be augmented with training and work and will... others can’t.
This is life.
Even with size / strength advantages and man with other skills and will and work still go on to compete against other men in athletics.
These physiological difference are too great for women to seriously compete against men in sports.
(This does not mean all men are more athletic than all women... please don’t try to put words in my mouth.)
This is why sports are separated by sex.
Other competitions are not separated by sex because the advantages conferred by sex (if any) are not insurmountable.
Men and women can compete fairly in spelling bee’s, in chess, in poker, etc.