this post was submitted on 12 Oct 2023
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Why not make leagues separated by performance only? Because when talented women work hard to excel at a sport, they deserve recognition for that beyond merely being allowed to compete with people who have testosterone increasing their physical abilities.
I compete in Taekwon-Do tournaments, and I train others to compete. I have a really badass young woman who trains really hard, and on top of it all she's extremely talented. If she keeps it up, after a few years she could be up there with the best in the world... among women. ALSO she literally won the [redacted because I realized someone could find her name lol, it's a small sport with few seriously competitive people] women's world championship for the US, just as a side project. That girl cannot compete with men at a high level. I'm still leagues below the guys who go to the world championships, never mind win them. I would blow her and her competition out of the water if you made me seriously compete with them. She deserves an environment where she can compete with people at the same weight class and born with a similar enough body, and when she wins she deserves to be called the best. Not "congratulations, you're good enough to spar with the lower end of the guys."
Isn't that exactly what I proposed? There's lots of women (and men) that aren't born extremely talented, that don't build muscle easily etc.
Don't they deserve to compete against people of similar abilities too? 'Cause seperating by gender only doesn't help them one bit
No, it's not "exactly what you proposed." Your proposal would see a system where women would never reach the top tier of any physical sport, perhaps with few exceptions. There would always be a tier out of reach, and believe it or not it means a lot to know that winning is achieveable. This idea is so detrimental to a woman who wants to seriously compete in anything.
In fact, comparing a talented, hard-working woman to a man without the same level of talent or effort is such an insult. "They both have a disadvantage, one was born short and lazy, and the other was born a woman." It's not the same.
Also people who aren't talented and who don't put in extraordinary effort have lots of spaces to compete with each other. Co-ed leagues exist and they're lots of fun. Amateur leagues exist too, at different levels of competitiveness, for those who are competitive but like you said can't hack it at a professional level. But just because those spaces exist doesn't mean that should be enough for women who are inspired to be the best.
I give up, go play a sport.