Are girls sports teams appropriate?

My state has a girls wrestling league. I understand that the male and female wrestlers practice together, but competition is segregated by gender.

too hasty on my part.

Edit: I don't even really know what the poll is asking!

a) 94% of DU'ers believe that sex-segregated HS sports teams are appropriate.
b) Only DU's "sexist fools" think that girls should not wrestle in sex-integrated events.

It's cognitive dissonance writ large.

If it was sexism which caused the wrestler to forfeit his match with a girl, then why are boys and girls basketball teams appropriate?

If the self esteem of the female athletes who would otherwise seek positions on the more competitive boys team is the issue, then why not allow boys on the girls basketball team? Surely that would improve the self esteem of the less athletic boys.

Some states don't have enough girls for a girls team, or even a girls league. In which case their only opportunity to compete is with the boys.

Some girls like to play traditional boys sports (there are female football players) and shouldn't be excluded even if they could get injured (Little League). Even basketball has it's share of "small" players who are the same size as a woman.

You're arguing both sides. Girls play sports with boys and do just fine, but girls teams are necessary when lots of girls want to play.

If the issue is that too many kids will be competing for too few spots on the team, then simply make more sex-integrated teams. A, B, C, and JV teams.

Assuming there are plenty of girls who want to wrestle, why are girls teams appropriate? Do those reasons only pertain when there are lots of girls wanting to do it?

There are lots of women wanting to be doctors and join the AMA. Why isn't there (like golf) an LAMA?

The obvious reason is the physical nature of sport; some sports are segregated because physical differences make even the most athletic women unable to compete with the most athletic men, often to the point of it being dangerous.

If it's sexist to say that girls shouldn't wrestle on the boys team then how can girls teams be justified?

I think a girls' basketball team might be at some disadvantage in a male-dominated league, for example, while in certain other sports they would compete on an equal footing. I would imagine that there are possible sports in which women would do better than men as well--for example, games requiring language skills. Most male games don't require much more fluent communication than grunting, and maybe there's a reason for that.

Not sports.



































:sarcasm:

So she can have a hot meal ready for him
when he comes home...........

Females should not have to compete with Males when it comes to physical action.

Mental stuff..sure..Physical...no.

So that would mean no soccer, martial arts, or little league for example, for girls since there aren't enough girls to typically make up their own team let alone their own league.

You really believe girls don't get to have those opportunities because... they may get hurt? What. The. Fuck. These are sports injuries that happen to ANYONE who wants to play. It's not a gender thing at all.

..about one on one competition that it's not fair to judge the average Female with the Average Male.
Men are naturally stronger.
Why do you think there is "Weight Classes" in Boxing ?
Do you think a 135 lb fighter would stand a chance against a 220 lb heavyweight fighter ?
Of course not.

Maybe there are not enough Females to make up a team because they are beaten down trying to compete with
people who outweigh them by 70-110 lbs.

If society would let Females have the respect...and support...And I mean $$$$$$ ...they deserve, then they
could have their own teams and wouldn't feel they have to compete against 240 lb males.

The bottom line...it just ain't fair.

by weight.

The girls in question WERE competing against boys their own size. You are getting way off topic and trying to change this into very unequal situations but that's not the case here. These are children who aren't as physically developed as adults. These are children's sports leagues where there aren't any opportunities for girls unless they play against boys. If everyone agrees, they should be given that chance vs. having no chance to compete at all. You seem to be arguing that girls may get hurt playing a sport so they shouldn't have that chance at all. I disagree. Sometimes it's not even about $$, there simply aren't enough players to make a girls team. Then it's coed. So be it imho

I would stipulate though that women police officers DO take down grown men who are bigger than them, regularly. Women combat troops are also similarly skilled in ways to outmaneuver heavier male opponents. So are female kickboxers, martial artists etc.

Even basketball where size may be self-evident, sometimes isnt. The sport has it's share of smaller, more agile players who can outmaneuver the big guys for all their size and bulk to throw around.

..rather embarrassed by the headline that usually says "Girl/Woman beats Boys/Men"

Of course the occasional Woman will beat the Males but it's still stacking one species (Yes, I know)
against the other.

I suppose I'm more concerned about the 120 lb Girl/Woman sitting on the sidelines thinking
"Damn, I'd LOVE to play that sport but I would be eaten up by the size of the other players"
or even FAR worse "I'm just not good enough"

Look..I'm a Feminist and I believe in both sides getting a fair deal.

...and even if I am off-base here..my hearts in the right place.

Saying Women's sports is sexist is like saying Affirmative Action is racist.

"So that would mean no soccer, martial arts, or little league for example, for girls since there aren't enough girls to typically make up their own team let alone their own league."

That girls make up roughly 50% of all children.

Let a 120 pound girl wrestle a 120 pound boy. As far as I'm concerned, it's a fair match.

No matter how they try the mats are disgusting germ spreaders, how about a round of ring worm.

The kids go to ridiculous lengths to maintain there weight class - to the point they purge after they eat, go without water the day of meets, find ways to sweat off the weight. If the coach tells you they don't, the coach is either lying or clueless.

It's just gross (okay that's just my opinion)

have the courage to say so.

i'm not answering the poll.

I mean, there aren't coed wrestling teams, are there?

Anyway, I wouldn't want a daughter of mine wrestling with boys. Wrestling....good. Wrestling with boys....I wouldn't approve.

BTW, I am a woman and very much a feminist. But there are gender differences, esp. biological. I wouldn't want my minor daughter grabbing the other wrestler around his cajones, or risk the chance of him harming her because he is, biologically, much stronger in his upper torso and arms.

But then, I wouldn't want my teenage son playing football, because I think he'd be risking getting an injury that would affect him the rest of his life.

So maybe I'm the overprotective type? I never would've thought so, but .....

What kind of man wants to engage in a combat sport with women?

my husband had one fight in his life. i know many men that can make it thru life without fighting.

i have two brothers that fight at a drop of a hat, cant keep a woman, whine about how lonely they are, and have been in and out of jail for their behavior.

just sayin

You do your gender a disfavor.

I would also venture to say that boxing is not all that popular. I have never known a man that has watched or participated in this sport.

Boxing, IMHO, exists for the moneymakers.

I would guess, at that level, it is more about brains than brawn.

Children actually DO play LOTS of sports with each other, including combat sports like martial arts, boxing and wrestling. That girl 3rd baseman in Little League isn't going to have any problem running over the boy guarding second base if she's got a good hit, and I am damn sure she expects she'll get the same when the boy gets a chance to score.

Furthermore lots of men engage in combat with women. Sports and in the military. Most learn that women will kick their ass just as easily as any guy they are contending with.

This is about giving them equal opportunity to participate. Or are you against equal opportunities for women and girls? Cause that's sexist.

-or tougher- than men, right? It's the same as two drinking buddies slugging it our over a perceived slight. To say otherwise would be sexist, correct?

separated. I think you're going way out on a limb on this one.

a guy beating on his girlfriend. EXACTLY like it. :eyes:

The thread is about children's sports teams.

Not adult relationships. Sorry if nobody wants to make the same warped conflation of two totally different things as you, but most human beings get the difference between the two.

So it's ok for 16 year old boys to fight girls like they were boys, then?

the competition knowing that girls were participating in the sport. This was the 112 lb weight class. I would venture to guess Joel Northrup isn't as developed as most if he's that slight at 16 years old.

Beyond all of that, it DOESN'T MATTER! The girls entered the competition and won their shot to wrestle fair and square! They were fully competent. The girl who was to face Joel Northrup had won 20 matches. He's the one who dissed her by wimping out claiming he didn't want to fight a girl.

I'd have liked to have seen that match. I'm one of 4 girls and I can tell you from experience wrestling my sisters, that wrestling girls are mean bitches. I have very strong legs (I'm a professional horse rider) and my sisters will tell you I am merciless in a fight.

If a young man wants to beat up a young woman without her consent, that's illegal. You're just trying to be cute.

and possibly getting hurt in a slide vs. a grown woman getting the shit beat out of her by her boyfriend? Or a girl sparring in martial arts with a boy vs. a wife getting hit by her husband?

Are you drunk? Because otherwise you are so far out on a limb it's inexcusable.

This is sports. Not a relationship. Sports injuries happen. Getting a broken arm by your boyfriend doesn't quite compare.

Either women are as tough as men or they are not.

of the two is bizarre enough.

in the Nutcracker over Christmas at the top theater in St. Louis play basketball today. Let me put it to you this way "Hell yes!".

i was in a competitive sport for two decades. we practiced together. our meets were together, but the races per gender. i am all for women athletes.

out of luck? Should they combine with the next district or town or county over?

I should add I never feared getting whacked by guys with a shinai, (bamboo sword) however
not many guys looked forward to a match with me, it must have been my samurai kansai blood, because
I was relentless. :D

Most state high school athletic associations don't have "girls wrestling," for instance--they just have "wrestling."

It's a good thing.

Couldn't resist condescending.....

I kind of figured that you might!

I know you have many fine women in your life. Think of me as one of their feisty cousins.

Peace. :P

as my one my very favorite sisters.

:hug:

Now I have to wrestle you to the ground like a true sister would....

that the other evening, I gave you chance after chance to say, "What is your problem? Are you afraid to wrestle with me here?" I was a little disappointed that you didn't!

The Olympic officials literally claimed. Literally. That women should be barred from ski-jumping competition because it could harm their ability to bear children.

They claimed that sports could cause harm to women's genitalia - deep inside their bodies, while men got to go ski-jumping with their gonads dangling in a sack of skin outside their bodies. (and yes, there were doctors confirming the observations of Captain Obvious - that women's genitalia were better-protected from blunt trauma than men's.)

I'm wondering how long until some dipshit makes that argument here - we can't let girls wrestle because it could harm their naughty bits, while boys are allowed to wrestle all they want.

Get rid of that and you get rid of the patriarchy. Keep that, and "equality" is a head-fake.

you can fight against the patriarchy in order to have a just society that values all people.

:shrug: