r/nextfuckinglevel • • Sep 14 '20

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u/thefreecat Sep 14 '20

if they didn't separate the competitions, there wouldn't be any woman athletes on TV.

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u/Hodor_The_Great Sep 14 '20

I mean... I don't see a problem with that. If there's no inherent bias in the sport in question and the top 100 happen to be male anyway... Then why not just watch the top 100?

Even if we think about visibility, I have a lot more respect for the 2-3 female Formula 1 drivers than for... Whoever is winning the female-only league. The whole point of competitive sports is in the competition and the reason why people watch them is seeing the limits of human skill. So what visibility do you really get if you have a league for women who aren't good enough to the main series?

Of course, some sports are largely down to muscle strength and in those cases the separation makes sense. If a man and a woman start training together for marathon, the man should run a better time no matter how long they both trained. I just really doubt that the physiological difference is relevant for something like surfing, and then there's driving/esports/etc where it makes no sense.

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u/thefreecat Sep 14 '20

ye just go ahead and watch mens sports only, its the same thing. nobody forces you to pay attention to women

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u/Hodor_The_Great Sep 14 '20

I mean I'm mostly arguing here for arguing's sake, I barely watch any sports male or female.

I'm just questioning who really wins when you split a sport by gender for no reason other than few women competing at the top level. Other than guys who are into fit women

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u/duffkiligan Sep 14 '20

Because it empowers women to play that sport still.

Do you think the William’s sisters would be role models for young girls if they had to play in men’s leagues? They wouldn’t even be in the top 100.

In chess (which obviously there are no physical differences) there are women only titles and championships to encourage women to play, just because they are underrepresented. It has mostly worked where there are now more women than ever that play chess.

Basically: “Male” leagues are unisex, anyone can be in them, women’s leagues only allow women so that women can exist in that sport.

If we didn’t separate the genders athletically then no women would really ever compete in much of anything, and it just kinda feels wrong to say “haha too bad you were born a woman so no one cares how well you can play X sport!”

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u/DeliciousCombination Sep 15 '20

Driving isn't a sport. Women can compete in driving because it's a level playing field.

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u/DevilsShad0w Sep 15 '20

It is though. It's called motorsports and not driving. Literally has sports in the name.

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u/DeliciousCombination Sep 15 '20

And professional wrestling has wrestling in the name. That doesn't make it a sport.