sports are so sexist

[Flushed]

I've been pondering this a bit lately. Isn't the object of professional level sports to assemble the best team and win some championship? Are there not any women who are better than the players of say the MLB, NFL, NHL, etc? Would it be plausible to have women in such a league? The tricky part arises when you talk about the women leagues that exists, i.e. WNBA (because that's the only one I'm aware of). I think it's safe to say, and obviously I don't mean disrespect, but there are players in the NBA who are better than those in the WNBA. But would we allow men to play in the WNBA (forget the title for a second)? You can't exactly argue that say having Lebron James on a WNBA team may be an unfair advantage. So idk, discuss I guess. I feel like it seems plausible to have women (whatever number) play in the larger associations, but gender stereotyping doesn't exactly allow men to play in the womens' leagues.

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I do feel girls should be able to play along side boys, be it at school sports, or professionally.
Also I notice that the media tends to focus far more on the male leagues than the females leagues which you only hear about once in a blue moon sadly.

 

[Kanzler]

It's not. You wouldn't believe the effect testosterone concentrations have on performance. Before, I felt that sexism had a part to do with it, but after I got into the fitness thing and read more about the physiology and the hormones involved, I found it hard to believe that women could have the same performance as men, especially when strength and power are involved. For example, players in the MLB are tempted to take steroids, as if they don't have enough growth hormone naturally and through training - women in general are just not physiologically able to create that much power. An exception would be if they have hormonal or a genetic quirk that allows them to generate the same amount or the same effect of androgens as men, but I'm not even sure such an individual would be viable.

An interesting case would be FtM, because they're essentially taking steroids - of course at much lower doses so perhaps this would be a moot point, but still my take is that their performance is enhanced. This is quite the tangent though.

Anyways, in "professional level sports" like the MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL - the stuff that people actually watch and buy tickets too (not leaving you out football/soccer) - strength and power are very very important. However, for sports (maybe I should put that in quotes) like golf and fencing (both of which I enjoy very much ^^) that requirement is not as significant and I strongly believe that women and men should be able to play at the same level. Tradition, conservative, "old school" male chauvinist dudes are probably what holds back mixed tournaments, especially at the national level. I should add though mixed tournaments do exist - the US Open is open to men and women and transgender folks.

Now the reason you don't see women competing alongside men in this case is probably because the level of play for women is relatively low. An example of this would be looking at the performance of boy's and girl's basketball in middle school, if you still remember - you might have a few female players that take the game seriously and actually play in their spare time but there's also a lot of players who don't, whereas for boys they're always on the court every minute of the day. The solution of course is to have more females play the game ^^ Then the people who have the most talent and skills will rise to the top, and the elite women players won't be any worse than men because the sport will be recruiting the players best suited for the game.

 

[Esper]

While biology does tend to treat women and men differently when it comes to physical abilities and limits, society is what determines which sports have the most status. BlahISuck brought up some sports where the typical differences between men's and women's bodies aren't so much an issue, but fencing and golf don't usually trump soccer/football/etc. in the amount of attention and money we give them. That, perhaps, is sexist. Not necessarily on any one group's head since the sports networks are only showing what there is demand for, and the demand for things is reinforced by what is available, but overall there is a kind of sexism at work.

And then there is the spectator side of things. I can remember a professor of mine teaching us about interpolation. She had a story about how she would be watching football (that is, American football) and enjoying herself when a commercial came on which was clearly targeted at men and being pretty blatant about putting a sexy woman in the ad for men to look at and how she was immediately brought back into the mindset of "I'm a woman." Basically, a man can watch most professional sports and just be watching sports, but a woman can watch and have all these constant reminders that she's different or "other."

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

While biology does tend to treat women and men differently when it comes to physical abilities and limits, society is what determines which sports have the most status. BlahISuck brought up some sports where the typical differences between men's and women's bodies aren't so much an issue, but fencing and golf don't usually trump soccer/football/etc. in the amount of attention and money we give them. That, perhaps, is sexist. Not necessarily on any one group's head since the sports networks are only showing what there is demand for, and the demand for things is reinforced by what is available, but overall there is a kind of sexism at work.

And then there is the spectator side of things. I can remember a professor of mine teaching us about interpolation. She had a story about how she would be watching football (that is, American football) and enjoying herself when a commercial came on which was clearly targeted at men and being pretty blatant about putting a sexy woman in the ad for men to look at and how she was immediately brought back into the mindset of "I'm a woman." Basically, a man can watch most professional sports and just be watching sports, but a woman can watch and have all these constant reminders that she's different or "other."

I agree. Sports media is very targetted to males. Rarely do you see a commercial aimed a woman during an event. A lot of the Super Bowl commercials depict sexy women and products traditionally targeted towards males.

I wish the major cable networks would show more women sports teams, to show that those teams actually exist...tbh when I was I kid I didn't even know there was a women version of the NBA...

 

[Flushed]

It's not really a matter of women's sports gaining more attention, but rather if the men's professional leagues could allow women to play. The biology hits what I was trying to say about the theoretical limits of women compared to men, but obviously there are women who outplay some of the men, so would it be plausible to have them on a men's team? Power isn't the only thing that makes up a sport, i.e. nimble players are valued in baseball, or in goaltending. And I apologize, the title was more or less sarcastic, which kinda explains why the replies focus on the media and viewer's perspective, which is fine/relevant.

Now the reason you don't see women competing alongside men in this case is probably because the level of play for women is relatively low. An example of this would be looking at the performance of boy's and girl's basketball in middle school, if you still remember - you might have a few female players that take the game seriously and actually play in their spare time but there's also a lot of players who don't, whereas for boys they're always on the court every minute of the day. The solution of course is to have more females play the game ^^ Then the people who have the most talent and skills will rise to the top, and the elite women players won't be any worse than men because the sport will be recruiting the players best suited for the game.

I think this is only true due to the fact that women's professional leagues aren't as prominent. And we're not exactly talking a 50/50 split in the major leagues, just about the plausibility of having even one woman play alongside on a men's professional team.

 

[Kanzler]

It's not really a matter of women's sports gaining more attention, but rather if the men's professional leagues could allow women to play. The biology hits what I was trying to say about the theoretical limits of women compared to men, but obviously there are women who outplay some of the men, so would it be plausible to have them on a men's team? Power isn't the only thing that makes up a sport, i.e. nimble players are valued in baseball, or in goaltending. And I apologize, the title was more or less sarcastic, which kinda explains why the replies focus on the media and viewer's perspective, which is fine/relevant.

That's not so obvious. Consider the example about swinging power. Somebody's gotta make the home run. If there were women that obvious, they'd make the news. Especially for professional athletes - they are actually incredibly consistent because they play at their personal limits. In school nobody's a professional, but when you get into the professional world, you get the best of the best who are required to be playing at their best all of the time. When everybody is playing at their limits, the difference between men and women in the harder, better, faster, stronger department becomes very clear.

I think this is only true due to the fact that women's professional leagues aren't as prominent. And we're not exactly talking a 50/50 split in the major leagues, just about the plausibility of having even one woman play alongside on a men's professional team.

That's more or less what I meant. The less prominent a sport is, the more "whatever" players you have.

So the moral of the story is to take up fencing. The one who can best manipulate time and space will be the victor, and I'll leave it at that :D

 

[Gfx]

Unless Women are juiced up on steroids and have raging testosterone levels, then they normally can't physically compete with Men. Besides, women are allowed to play sports at any level, it's just unheard of. And people watch softball and volleyball and all the same sports with Women. Some just have different variations. It's not sexist. It's just genetics.

 

[Kanzler]

And while we're on the topic of volleyball, watch women's volleyball, then watch the men's. You will be frightened.

 

[Umanouski]

We all got the "biology" part of it down, but lets look at it from another perspective, the double standard.

Lets take (American) football into consideration. Now I know for a fact that there are girls aged 8-13 (maybe older) playing a sport. Thats really the only time the girls have a biological advantage because they hit puberty earlier (not always, but a fair majority of the time) and are normally bigger than the boys. Now as we get older, the testosterone pumps and the boys become the bigger sex. I've seen this at some High Schools, so hear me out.

Around High School when the boys get bigger, they his...really hard. This means nothing when its guy-on-guy contact. But when its guy-on-girl, I hear many more gasps coming from the crowd, both males and females. This (at least to me) shows that spectators (and referees, they tend to throw more flags at the hitter of the girl, even if it is a clean hit) feel that the teenage girl must be protected more than her breastless teammate.

It still comes down to "You can't hit a girl" complex, where in a physical altercation with a guy she can kick his butt all she wants but if he hits her back he is automatically a bad man and must be punished.

Sorry for the convoluted post, its 12:30 and only meant to come back as a nostalgia trip, not post. :P

 

[BraveNewWorld]

There's no rule that says a woman can't play in any American professional sports league.

I think it's possible for a woman to compete in the NBA, MLB, and NHL. Depending on the position they play. Still, due to body structure they'd be at a disadvantage.

The NFL is a no go.

 

[«Chuckles»]

I agree with BraveNewWorld he is correct they would probably have a hard time being spear tackled by a 120+ kilo man, also Tour De France is not sexist its the teams women cannot compete on the levels that these cyclists are so the teams don't select them.