Dare To Ask Talk And News About Our Differences - This topic has 6 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 22 years, 5 months ago by
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What do people think of women in sports, especially women in ‘guy’ sports? I ask because I’ve been getting into hockey lately, and many of my friends are kind of shocked because I’m usually so ladylike, but I’ve been getting more aggressive now that I’ve been watching it on TV. And I’ve been noticing that there aren’t many women’s leagues in any sport. Why is this? Are women still ‘delicate,’ as they were thought to be in the early 1900s? Why is it unwomenly to get into guy sports? Is there still gender bias in sports? Which sports?
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Name : Kate, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 13, City : Seattle, State : WA, Country : United States, Education level : Less than High School Diploma,I believe men are stronger than women, and that is why you don’t see women in men’s sports. Men usually have a lot more muscular strength than women and just generally are able to perform much better than women in most sports of all kinds. But of course that doesn’t mean every woman is weaker than every man. That shouldn’t mean that you cannot participate in men’s sports if you want to. But what you will encounter may not be pretty. Men usually feel threatened by women doing non-traditional things, so get ready for an ugly backlash. You may be sabotaged in many ways from pursuing your dreams. Here’s a great site for you to peruse: http://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/templates/index.html Good Luck to you!!
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Name : Cynthia-W31721, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 38, City : Denver, State : CO, Country : United States, Occupation : Computer Programmer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,This is really a great question! I was a wrestler in high school back in the caveman days of the ’70s. Scholastic wrestling (not the current TV junk) is an interesting sport because it is just you and a same-size opponent, with an inch of foam beneath you. For an athlete, wrestling represents the most true of personal contests. You win, you lose, no teammates to blame. Nonetheless, my current wife dismisses wrestling simply as ‘crotch sniffing.’ A few years ago I began to read about high school girls joining and competing on boys wrestling teams. I couldn’t dream of anything sillier. Why on Earth would a girl want to do this? Not only would they get legally groped, but in wrestling the natural muscle mass difference would be a pronounced disadvantage to a girl. A year ago I saw a TV news show on girls wrestling on high school boys teams. And as predicted these girls were getting whipped by the wimpiest boy wrestlers. And the show’s producer had an inordinate interest in determining if the boys on the team were copping endless feels of the girls. All confirming my suspicions. Yet the girls persisted on the team. Then suddenly they asked one of the girl wrestlers why she was doing this, and she said, ‘It was the most assertive thing I could do.’ Bingo! The light went off for me. She felt exactly as I had about wrestling. The feeling was the same, the motivation was the same, and for a female, she wanted to test herself in the hardest of situations. I was really proud of her. So I say if you want to play hockey, even on a boys team, go for it.
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Name : Steve27598, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 44, City : Houston, State : TX, Country : United States, Occupation : Corporate Cubicle Kind of Guy, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class,We’ve all been conditioned to believe that aggression, action and physicality are unfeminine. There is also the rampant belief that women are naturally physically weaker than men. Not so. Physical strength and stamina are a matter of work, exercise and conditioning, not gender. A male couch potato is not going to be any stronger than a female one. Slowly but surely, women ARE breaking into ‘guy’ sports, and playing them well. We just got a women’s pro football league – women’s pro hockey can’t be far behind (my favorite sport, too). Let ’em be shocked: Keep watching hockey, and any other sports that strike you. And go play them – more and more women and girls are registering with such entities as USAHockey. It’s an uphill battle, but the double standard is slowly being eroded.
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Name : Rusty, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Human, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 24, City : Denver, State : CO, Country : United States, Occupation : graphic designer, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,Women aren’t ‘delicate’ and never were – everyone just said so until we proved them wrong. I don’t think of sports as being “guy” sports or “girl” sports because I’ve seen males and females play just about every sport I can think of (except gridiron, but then…!). It’s funny, because in Australia, hockey was considered more a girls’ sport in years gone by, according to my mum. Do you play field hockey or ice hockey? Perhaps that’s the difference.
I can’t understand why there isn’t more coverage of women playing sports – for example, it really annoys me that I can’t watch the Australian women’s cricket team. It’s not unwomanly to play sports; as long as it’s something you like to do, you shouldn’t worry about whether someone thinks you’re not being womanly.
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Name : Netta, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 18, City : Armidale, State : NA, Country : Australia, Occupation : Student, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class,After re-reading your question, it sounds like you’re asking why there aren’t more women’s league versions of typically male sports, such as women’s hockey, women’s baseball and so on. I think it has to do with culture, and the way women are pressured into acting ‘ladylike.’ In North America, girls are typically encouraged (by parents/guardian/schools) to participate in sports to develop and maintain a healthy body and good social skills. But once women reach their twenties, they are pressured into finding a good job, or more commonly, a husband to settle down with and have children. A lot of times it’s the parents who pressure their daughters to ‘give them a grandchild.’ There is no doubt there are physiological differences between men and women, and having mixed leagues is not always a good idea (example: boxing and American football).
But as for women’s leagues, I think if people would take more interest in them, there would probably be more women in professional sports rather than giving it up after they graduate school. An example of this is the WNBA (Women’s National Basketball Association).
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Name : Taz, Gender : M, Race : White/Caucasian, Age : 30, City : Windsor, Ontario, State : NA, Country : Canada, Social class : Middle class,Keep playing hockey. Don’t let anyone discourage you. I played rugby on a men’s team, since there wasn’t a women’s team at my school. There were never any problems with it, except I was told I was too small to be a hooker and had to play at wing. I play on a women’s team now and having generally smaller teammates helps because I play hooker, flanker, and prop. Some of the positions require players to be certain sizes relative to each other. In hockey, being small (if you are) shouldn’t be much of a problem; it just means you can’t check as hard as someone bigger.
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Name : Greta, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : undefined, Race : unknown, Age : 27, City : Olmsted Falls, State : OH, Country : United States, Occupation : graphic designer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class,
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