• OccamsRazer@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Your study is about transgenders, which is a different topic than the women boxers in question, and debatable anyway since there are also contradictory studies on that topic. Regardless, women’s sports were definitely created to exclude men, if not explicitly, then by necessity, since prior to that there was only one category that men or women were allowed to compete in, but women couldn’t truly compete in those sports against the men. I don’t think there are any men’s sports that deliberately exclude women, and every once in a while an exceptional woman talent breaks through, but it’s pretty rare. The only one I can think of right now is Michelle Wie, who played a few PGA events. Men aren’t allowed to play in LPGA WNBA or any other professional women’s sports, but women are allowed to play against men if they are good enough. Women’s sports HAVE to exclude men if the goal is to include women, and if the goal is to be competitive. Casual sports for fun are totally different.

    • amber (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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      3 months ago

      Regardless, women’s sports were definitely created to exclude men, if not explicitly, then by necessity, since prior to that there was only one category that men or women were allowed to compete in, but women couldn’t truly compete in those sports against the men.

      I’m pretty sure we are talking about the same thing here, but you are attributing it to women being physically unable to compete versus men, which while it can be a relevant concern depending on the sport, was historically not really the reason they were excluded. Women were heavily discouraged by men to participate even though they were technically allowed to. There’s actually some really interesting connections between women’s sports and feminist movements that help make this connection more apparent, particularly biking and the suffragette movement. I don’t have anything to link on hand but I definitely recommend reading about it. It’s still easy to see this in the modern day if you look at competitive activities where there is no possible argument of a biological advantage, like e-sports or chess, where women could easily be just as successful as men, if the cultures of those games weren’t so dominated by men who view those spaces as theirs, and who view women who come to participate as invaders.