this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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To highlight the points you're making, Sport England itself has data on its main page that stipulates that women are less active than men in general and that starts at a young age.
https://www.sportengland.org/research-and-data/research/gender
So, surprise, it's probably not just "genetics" or "testosterone" as people keep claiming that all men are naturally stronger, when the statistics say that women are by and large less active, and that since this starts at a young age, it can have a long-term affect on women's sports abilities.
On top of this, socially, women with lots of muscles are often not viewed as sexually desirable, despite being stronger than a lot of men in their weight class. So it's also justified to consider maybe women don't pursue strength as a virtue in the way a lot of men do, due to social expectations.
As Sport England points out, they're often not being told socially that they can and should be active and involved, and on top of that, they often have negative social consequences for doing so.
Literally a huge part of what Sport England is supposed to do is supposed to be about outreach and inclusivity, to make all Britons more active.
That should include making trans people more active, instead of looking for more reasons to remove them from activities.
So much this. As a woman without testosterone, the only way I'm able to do well in roller derby is my previous experience playing ice hockey from a young age.