You are wrong- UCONN women’s had more of a crowd last season at their games than the mens team did. Check your facts.

I appreciate the writer, Miss Friedman’s, opinions, and she makes some valid points. However, I could not disagree more. At least twice, she refers to ‘female physical inferiority’. I think her definition of this concept is inaccurate. Just because men genetically tend to be bigger, faster, and stronger than women does not mean that women are physically inferior to men. There are many physical things that women tend to do better than men such as smaller motor movements and things that involve more fine muscle control. As well, women tend to be more elegant and graceful in their movements than men. Further, men and women tend to have a different distribution of strength relative to each other. For instance, women’s strength tends to be more balanced throughout their bodies, whereas men tend to have a higher percentage than women do of strength in their upper bodies. As well, women are equipped with the ability to carry and deliver offspring, which men cannot do. I could list many more things that sound like male physical inferiority to females, but I need to stop somewhere. My point is that the tendency of men to be bigger, faster, and stronger than women doesn’t mean that women are physically inferior: it just means that men and women are different.

I don’t think there is any validity to the argument that women’s sports are boring to watch. People tend to like watching men play sports better because they tend to be bigger, faster, and stronger, so people are drawn to that since the sports that have developed into being the ‘big’ sports in society are mostly sports that cater to men’s strengths more than women’s strengths. However, women’s sports as a whole is a multi-billion dollar a year industry, so just because people prefer watching men’s sports in general does not mean women’s sports are boring. In fact, in the NBA, then men are now so big, tall, strong, and fast, that it’s like having ten giants out on the court at once. They make the court look small and I assert that the sport was more entertaining when the focus was on basketball rather than the gigantic men themselves. That’s why so many people prefer men’s college basketball to pro basketball: there’s much more “purity of sport” left. In the same way, I must say that the WNBA is much more entertaining than the NBA when it comes to the purity of the sport of basketball.

As for men and women competing against each other, that would be a very unfair answer for women. As stated before, the sports that have mass popularity and in which people can be at the professional level are sports that are geared more towards men’s strengths than women’s strengths. Since there are genetic physiological differences between men and women that tend to make men bigger, taller, faster, and stronger (as well as having greater internal capacity too such as a bigger heart and lungs), there obviously needs to be different leagues for men and women. Everybody falls on a Bell Curve in their abilities, so it goes without saying that there will be the occasional woman who has gifts that, for a woman, are at the extreme high end of the Bell Curve for women, which will put her in the ability areas of many very good men (such as Billie Jean King), but that is rare and would keep the vast majority of women out of sports. Furthermore, as advances have been made in the science of sports, performances have exploded across the board. Most men who played in the NBA in the 1970s could not compete against men in the NBA today. In the same way, although a couple women made it in the NBA 30+ years ago, they would not have a chance today. Even in tennis, athletes such as the Williams sisters have been compared in many ways to male tennis players. However, if they were to actually play against their male counterparts, they would not have a chance.

As for auto racing, although a big part of why it is a male-dominated sport is due to the cultural aspects and the fact that men tend to be much more interested in cars and related things than women, there is yet another reason why men tend to dominate. Just as a big reason why men tend to be genetically bigger, faster, and stronger than women is due to their higher levels of testosterone, this hormone is also connected to aggression. It has been shown than high levels of testosterone and aggressive and even sometimes violent behavior are closely-related. Being a very aggressive person is one of the most necessary traits in order to be a successful auto racer. Being that men usually have a far greater amount of testosterone than women, they also tend to be better auto racers. This is also a physical (however internal) difference between men and women, however does not mean that women are ‘hormonally inferior’.

My whole point is to say that the existence of female sports is not highlighting ‘female physical inferiority’. I do not think there is such a thing. I think that men and women are simply different physically, with different areas of strength and weakness (i.e. if synchronized swimming were a ‘big-time moneymaker’-type sport, it would be dominated by women (as it already is), as it happens to be a sport that plays more to the strengths of women. Something similar could be said for the sport of rhythmic gymnastics. Female professional sports is definitely not sexist, as male professional sports is also not sexist. The reason why there doesn’t need to be ‘male’ and ‘female’ journalism (or most any category like that), is simply because the differences between men and women don’t come into play when it comes to how good a journalist is at his or her work. In physical endeavors, though, the physical differences between men and women are very great, so they need to be acknowledged, and they are acknowledged by the fact that we have separate men’s and women’s sports.

everyone is entitled to their opinion, and it’s unfortunate that some people actually voice theirs.
If you think ligically about the situation, you will understand that it makes complete sense for the sexes to be separate with regard to sports. Men are bigger, stronger, and faster than women. period. It’s not a level playing field.
Yes, you tried to back up your argument with instances with which women competed with men, and in one instance, dominated one, but those are EXCEPTIONS to what is a fact.
I play professional women’s tackle football, if I, or any of my teammates, had the opportunity to play/scrimmage against men, i can promise you that we wouldn’t take the offer. I couldn’t imagine getting sacked by a linbacker/defensive end who is the male equivalent to my adversaries…not gonna happen.
with regard to sport, it makes all the sense in the world that they are separated by sex.
and as far as women’s sport lacking the same popularity as men’s…SO WHAT?
If people don’t want to tune into basketball played in it’s purest form, then so be it…women athletes shouldn’t stop playing a sport because people don’t want to watch it, you play for the love of the game first and foremost. There are sports in the Olympics that don’t even get televised, but you don’t hear about them being eliminated from the Games.
You are a female, yes. Maybe even sexist.
But it’s obvious that you’re not an athlete.