I was watching pro golf coverage on the news and it seems so odd that men and women compete separately - same goes with pro bowling. Just seems weird to me that a game of skill is gendered when you can’t even raise an argument that someone might have an advantage because of what’s between their legs.
No, there’s just a pervasive, misogynistic, and deeply hateful idea that men will always defeat women in sports, no matter what, no matter the skill level. Just that men are so much stronger and more capable, that they’ll trounce women 100% of the time. It’s the idea that a man who has never picked up a tennis racket in his life can walk onto the court with Serena Williams and win, based solely on the fact that he’s a man. And people try to hide behind faulty, flawed, and wildly incorrect understandings of science to try to justify it.
And it’s just not true.
The reality is, so many male egos are so incredibly fragile, that the idea of losing to a woman is simply inconceivable. So they just never allow the situation to happen.
But since it actually is all skill-based, then there’s no reason to have separate gendered teams.
We’re not talking “average joe” taking on Serena Williams. It’s pro-athletes on both sides.
And in most physical sports, being able to build muscle faster is considered an advantage. Even Serena Williams seems to agree on that point.
And yes, there are a lot of fragile egos in sports. So it makes sense to keep the leagues separate, as I said, it wouldn’t do to have professionals cry foul and blame it on genders when they lost. There’s enough stupid shit like that already.
Plus, if it turned out that it did make a difference, I don’t think it would be as fun for the ones that didn’t end up domineering the top placements.
Why don’t we figure out how to identify differences that do matter and are commonly correlated with sex… the way boxing has weight classes? For instance, if testosterone level is the thing (not a sports scientist, I have no idea if it is), make 3-4 classes based on that. (If you only have 2 classes, people will figure out how to make it a sex-based thing.). Your sex isn’t the issue. That criterion is the issue. That way, differences are dealt with without everyone having to fit into 2 rigid gender categories, and the categories there are based on relevant traits. Plus, it doesn’t exclude intersex people.