Within the world of sports, there are many sports that men and women play together. This allows team bonding and building of great relationships on a social level, but this is something that should not carry over to a professional level. I will be the first to admit, it is neat seeing women referees in leagues today, but on a playing aspect that is a little extreme. For the simple fact, women can not compete with and/or against men. This might work when you are 8-9 years old on a youth soccer team, but once men mature it simply becomes an unfair advantage. I know Dr. Spencer hates this terminology, but that is just the way it is. There will have to be extreme advancements in training technology for this to be fair by any means.
Also, if it becomes acceptable for women to compete in men's sports, does that mean that men can play women's sports? If this were to happen records would be shattered and disregarded that have been around for centuries. I mean have you seen the men's fast pitch championships on TV! Talk about an exciting softball game!
I know I may be biased, but this is the only way it can be! Men and women should never compete on the same level!
If you can see there is a little bit of a difference!
Nathan Riley
Good Morning Nate,
ReplyDeleteI should have known this would be your view of things and its nothing wrong with this opinion either. I understand where you're coming from but there could be women out in the world who are built to play with men. What about in the case of Caster Semenya, she was born with the testosterone level higher than the norm for women. Could she compete with men without it being an unfair advantage? I believe that there could be some women who can compete with men without getting beat so bad its embarrassing. Yes not all of us can play and compete with men but there is a big possibility that some can. Why should society determine who men and women compete with within sport? If that person feels they can win or want to challenge themselves why should they be limited?
-Sparkle Robinson
Nate,
ReplyDeleteCaster Semenya is what I would call a rare breed. Not every woman player has the dominance that she has. In saying that, if women were to play with men, how would they determine which women gets to play with the men? And just because she has the higher testosterone levels, does that mean she will be dominate when she plays with the men? I think just because a woman is dominate in playing a sport with other women doesn't mean she will be able to keep up and compete with men. Even though most of us think that women shouldn't and couldn't play with men, nowadays women are actually getting more involved with men sports. There is supposedly a women NFL referee now, there are anchorwomen that are reading off football and basketball highlights, there's NBA women announcers, and as time goes on I think that women will become more and more involved with men sports. Nate I agree with everything you said and I don't think that women should ever play with men and I don't think they will ever be able to compete with men professionally.
Kody Burlingame
Nate,
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% that women should not play with men in sports because it doesn't benefit anyone. A woman trying to compete in a male sport has nothing but a negative effect for the male opponent. If the male competes his hardest in a physical sport such as Soccer, Football, Basketball, Hockey, etc., he would be scrutinized for being too physical with a female. On the other hand, if he doesn't try his hardest, he would be criticized as letting the female win and this would also be problematic. I don't think females should try to compete against males because it just wouldn't be fair.
Ollie Goss
Nate,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree that it wouldn't be fair for men and women to compete in the arena of sport. It is interesting that you brought up the comment of if women can compete in men sports can men compete in women's. I remember when i was younger when Annika Sorenstam was allowed to compete against the PGA tour i found that very odd. I remember feeling some sort of reverse sexism and asking if she can compete with the men does that mean the men can compete with the women? if not isn't that sexist? It at least felt like it was. I just don't think there is any fair way to decide which females can compete with the men. And if no men can compete with the women in their leagues it cannot work. In my opinion the best way is to keep it. Two leagues for two different sexes.
-Aaron Mehling
There were reasons why Annika would have wanted to compete against men that probably would not hold true for men competing against women. Annika had dominated the LPGA tour even more than Tiger had dominated on the PGA Tour. And yet, Tiger had earned between 8-10 million, while Annika won about 1.5 million. So she would stand to earn more money by competing on the men's tour - and as I recall, she was offered an exemption. Even Tiger encouraged her to play - not just once, but several more times. Why would a top male player want to compete on the LPGA tour if there is not as much money offered as they could earn on the PGA Tour?
DeleteI agree that men and women should play in separate leagues. It would no be fair for women to be allowed to play against men but men not allowed to play against women. If you are going to allow one you need to allow the other. It is very evident that men have an unfair advantage physically over women, so it just wouldn't be fair to have women competing against men when they are not at the same athletic and physical ability. Although it is great that women have the same opportunities as men they should continue to have different leagues. We should let the women's league develop at its own pace. It will take longer to develop because their leagues have not been around as long as men's leagues, but we have seen how the men's leagues have evolved so in time the women's leagues will evolve and become better as well.
ReplyDelete-Jacob Beverly
I think that men and women should have separate leagues but I also think that if women want the chance to try and play in a man's league then she should be allowed to try. It not only pushes them to try harder but if they are the best in their league and if things come easy to them then I think they should be allowed to try and increase their level of play and work on their own skills. I can guarantee you that a women who isn't strong enough to handle it will quit.
ReplyDeleteSam Melchor
Nate,
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything that you said and you made some really solid points. In one of your first opinions, you stated that women's sports deserve to be taken seriously and that you appreciate some of their leagues. I couldn't agree more. When a women's team is good at what they do and they bring a lot of energy to the playing field, any real sports fan would enjoy watching them. The women's national soccer team is a perfect example. The 1999 World Cup opened up a lot of people's eyes about how good a women's team can be and therefore more and more general sports fans have been tuning in to watch them for every major tournament. I also liked your point that you appreciate some of their leagues. Two summers ago, I had the opportunity to go to Rochester, NY to see Team Magic Jack versus the Western New York Flash in the WPS (Women's Professional Soccer). Many players from the USA Women's National Team played for both squads including Abby Wambach who grew up in Rochester. It was Wambach's first homecoming match since leading the U.S to the World Cup finals where they lost in penalty kicks. The WPS game in Rochester was a sellout because of Wambach's homecoming and it was a great game to be at. Being at the game, made me too appreciate the WPS and made me wonder how women's professional soccer hasn't been able to survive on a national level within the U.S. It was an exciting game to watch because of so many recognizable names from various different countries. If more and more sports fans are tuning in to major tournaments such as the Summer Olympics and the World Cup, you'd think that more of them would become familiar with more and more women's soccer players and how good they really are and so it boggles my mind to think that there hasn't been one consistent women's league since the splash the women made in '99.
-Chris Cournan
Hello Nate,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this subject. Females should be given the opportunity to compete against each other at the highest level. If a female feels that she can compete against a male then she should have to "earn her stripes", it should not just be given to her. What I mean by this is if she earns the spot on the roster or depth chart, then why shouldn't she be able to compete against other high level males. Plus females do have their own leagues such as WNBA and WFA. There is high quality leagues out there for women to play in that don't include of male dominant leagues.
-Brett Creamer
Nate,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that women sports deserve more attention and respect. Being a male, I've never really thought about this issue until this class because I have always been satisfied with male sports. I do believe women sports will eventually grow to be much popular; I'm not sure if it will become as male sports, but some day women sports will definitely get more attention and respect. The only thing I have a problem with in your blog is that you said women competing with men can only work in 8-9 years old soccer leagues. While this is true, there are girls that compete in just about every boy sport at that age. Other than that, I completely agree with you.
-Michael Discipio