Fox Sports gives women athletes very little credit

insist in comparing them, because that's all that's still left of felt former superiority - and that probably won't ever disappear. maybe some of you know the german female-to male transsexual balian buschbaum who used to be called yvonne and to be professional pole vault (is that the right word? leo says so..) athlete. in his blog and in a german newspaper he talked about how the testosteron boosted his physical abilities - without him having to do anything to it.

still, in sports, success is somehow always founded on something you did not earn but just got - talent, support. so i don't know - fo me, it feels unfair that female athletes aren't getting as much attention and recognition, but then on the other hand, third league male soccer players aren't getting it either and it's probably not their  fault that they can't do what ronaldo does.

anyways, female top athletes have a entitlement other than record as well: they inspire other women. i am, for example, absolutely aware of the fact that birgit prinz would probably not succeed in in professional male soccer, even though she got an offer once. but i don't care if she could. what she does makes me happy, somehow  - watching it and then going back to training with a smile on my face, thinking of how incredibly good that looked and how i can get nearer to it with my own play. so that's my reason for watching women soccer games and stuff. not because they do it better, but because they do it, and for me, they do it just fine.

I think one main point is hardly ever mentioned: about 40% of a man's body is made up of muscles. with women, that figure is only at about 23%!! so when a woman beats a man at any sport, it actually means that she is way better at that sport than the man! Just because men have it easier biology-wise doesn't mean that these women don't deserve just as much - or maybe even more! - recognition for their hard work and training.

I'm not interested in sports much, but I think any person, whether male or female, who is good at what they do and who trains hard to be that good deserves to be praised. but quite frankly, do we really think fox isn't openly sexist?

http://babydyke.blogspot.com/ - my take on all things lesbian

I have always thought that women should not be allowed to compete in men's sports anymore than men can compete in women's sports.  Having it only one way implies that we are somehow the second best already.

I'm surprised that they didn't mention any equestrians - it's the one Olympic sport that is actually co-ed.  I think that's fine too - if it's simply co-ed, especially if it's something that you really don't have particularly an advantage by being bigger and stronger, like equestrians, car racing, maybe...shooting?

But if you are going to have gender segregation, it should go both ways, and both should be equally prestigious.

I think all the posters made some great points and so far I feel like the only thing I feel like I need to add is the fact that women are projected to out do the men e.g in the 100 meters run in the future. There was a study done and they came up with a conclusion that the women body has been (in athletics) changing rapidly in the last 100 or more yrs and I think they even calculated a year when women would run the 100 m more faster than men do. I think this was very interesting and Im DEFINITELY waiting for this to happen (even though I will be long gone before it happens).

If you wanna take a look at the study, go ahead

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6462-women-on-fasttrack-to-outrun-...

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Believe only half of what you see and nothing of what you hear

  What really irritates me about articles like this is that they usually are done in a tongue-in-cheek way.  It's as if the writers or segment hosts(on sports shows) find the whole topic somewhat amusing or comical.  "Women can be great athletes too<wink and a nod>." 

  Im not even going to do my rant about having girls play softball rather than hardball.  I'll get angry and stomp around the apartment if I do.

  They included a horse....wow...

 "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Hate me because I'm with your girlfriend." -The Ki

What about Mia Hamm, or Kristine Lilly? There are many amazing female athletes that they neglected to mention in this article but yet a horse makes the list...a horse really?

"Celebrate we will cause life is short but sweet for certain."

This article isn't scientific or anything, but it's empowering and exciting.  Helps you put your energy somewhere positive.  I posted it on From the Cheap Seats, but here it is again.

http://phoenix.fanster.com/mercury/2009/05/24/think-youre-better-than-a-wnba-player-think-again/

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman

http://depts.washington.edu/aspuw 

Seriously, can any better be expected of Fox? The news division is nothing more than a stooge for the extreme right wing, and the sports division is a joke. Ever try watching a sporting event on Fox? It's painful, not to mention annoying. The commentators are idiots, who make one stupid statement after another.

It's specious to even compare men's and women's sports, even when it's the same game. Men's and women's soccer and basketball are played by the same rules on a field or court of the same size, yet are different just by nature of the fact that they're played by different sexes. Each not any better than the other, but different (although, to me, the WNBA is better basketball than the NBA. It involves more skill, whereas the NBA is more theater, ie dunking, which is a display of size and strength, not game-smarts or ability).

And I must disagree with the contention that softball is an inferior form of hardball. Anyone who thinks so hasn't played, or watched, much softball, because it's a legitimate sport all on its own. Ever tried to hit a 65-mph softball thrown by an experienced windmiller? It takes a lot of talent. That was evidenced when softball ace Jenny Finch pitched to a group of major leaguers a couple of years back, and struck a few of them out, including Barry Bonds, who commented afterward, "Girls hit that?"

Wow, this makes two amazing articles concerned with sports that I have read in the past few days. What makes this ,and the softball article I found amazing, is that they are filled with bizarre and misleading bigotry. A fantastic athlete is a fantastic athlete. In some cases women and men having different strengths is a concept that society is unable to recognize. The chance that women could be held on equal terms with men in sports that are populated by both is darn near impossible.  I played football and baseball against boys when I was younger and gained more athletic accomplishments than most. I was just as good or better than all of them. The problem is that this is when the name calling started. If you are on par with male athletes you start to really be under the microscope. The psyche is a delicate thing when you push on the barriers of understanding and norms. Every sport has its challenges and every athlete whatever gender they are deserves respect for their accomplishments. The problem is that we as humans tend to be too petty on a base level to give that respect in all cases. I will not even attempt to type what I think about horses being on this list and most of all being number one. Again, wow... this is truly been a smack to the face last couple of weeks for women athletes.

Additionally, here is a link to the article I referenced in the beginning of my comment: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_19_54/ai_92049025/pg_2/?tag=content;col1

"I refuse to call the hogs... oh, what the hell. Woo Pig Sooie! There are you happy. Why do we have to do this at the end of every game we win?" - after my first college softball game

grew up playing sports. did soccerr, basketball,and track throughout middle n high schools, and soccer for all 4 years of college. FOX is out of their minds. simply said. Give females the props they so rightfully deserve.

NpR

Personally, I don't see anything that wrong with comparing male and female atheltes. Yes, there are biological differences, but it's the same sport. Apples and oranges are different, but they are both fruit. Some comparison can still be made.

Just so long as it doesn't end with "See? The best female athelete is not as good as the best male athelete, even though she's still better than half of the other male athletes. But since the best girl doesn't beat the best boy, she's worthless."

And the even worse, "Women suck at sports. Basketball, hockey, NASCAR. Those are men's sports. Oh, that chick just won at racing? Well, racing isn't really a sport."Basically labeling something as "not really a sport" because women are good at it.

There's a certain cultural bias in which we only value things that only men are good at. The minute women start succeeding at things only men used to do, that thing loses it's value.

The said sports that women compete in are designed by men. Obviously men will have an advantage.

I quote Megan, she said it so lucidly: There's a certain cultural bias in which we only value things that only men are good at. The minute women start succeeding at things only men used to do, that thing loses it's value.

There's this article on Blink (Malcolm Gladwell). I quote:

"He tells a story about the Munich Philharmonic, and a woman trombonist named Abby Conan who applied, not knowing that the Philharmonic was anti-… hmm. Anti-not-white-German-male. (I hear there’s a word for that.) They do their audition behind a screen. She blows the maestro away, to the point that he sends away the rest of the trombonists and demands to see his new first chair. On discovering that this first trombonist was a woman, the maestro, after a period of science, was heard to utter: “Mein Gott.”

All kinds of theories exist to explain superiority based on prejudice. But when controls are in place to mask those prejudices, you will often find that those theories and their undermining prejudices are false. When that screen is put between the maestro and the performer, you find that rather than 5% of the winners being women, it turns out to be more like 50%."

articles like this piss the hell out of me. i grew up playing sports with the local guys, and i was always better than most of them. now they're all bigger than me an have an unfair advantage, but i can still hold my own against them. i've played football with guys in school and it's generally accepted that i'm just as good, if not better, than most of them. my mom was the same way, always playing with the boys and easily keeping up.

i read an interview with jennie finch (an olympic gold medalist softball pitcher who is model-gorgeous, in case anyone doesn't know who she is) a few years ago where she said shewas hanging out with some pro baseball guys (i can't remember all of them, but david ortiz comes to mind) and he declared that he could bat off of her just as well as they could off any baseball pitcher they face. she challenged him, and he struck out multiple times. he couldn't figure out how to hit a 70 mph rise ball, even though he could hit a 90 mph fastball.

it's expected that men are better athletes; their bodes are better built for sports. they're physically bigger and more muscular, and on avereage men are taller, but that doesn't mean that there aren't female athletes that are better than the guys. mia hamm, danica patrick, jennie finch and lisa fernandez are the first few that come time mind, but there are tons of others.

the other thing that always pisses me off (and this may be just me, i don't know) is how women's college teams are always called the 'lady' whatever-their-mascot-is. like rutgers has the scarlet knights and the lady knights, or my high school was the roadrunners and lady roadrunners (yes, we had the dumbest mascot in history). it always seemed so sexist to me, like why can't both teams just be whatever the mascots are, why does there have to be a difference between the men;s and women's teams at all? it just always bothered me.

it's not society - it's Fox Sports! the ones screaming the loudest usually don't represent the majority - hence the loud screaming ;)

just in case someone doesn't get what I'm trying to say with the above statement, let me try n clarify:

Fox Sports doesn't represent all of society or all of sports newscasting. Fox News is very biased in its conservative coverage and points of view. they, imo, represent a minority surrounded by a vast majority that doesn't agree. hence the statement about the loud screaming cos the backwards, conservative FOX POV wants tomake itself heard.

*off soapbox*

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To this day people still say that she was and is a better basketball player than her brother Reggie.

"Come On Then Get These Good Done Debbies"

I play flat-track roller derby. In its current incarnation/revival, roller derby is female-centered. Women are the skaters, and manage/own their own leagues. The guiding organization is Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). There is no MFTDA. Men's leagues/teams exist, but are relatively very few and far between (though they are growing, bless 'em).

Like all sports, I'd say, derby is a mix of showmanship and athletics. It's considered by most men (who probably have never seen a proper bout, by my estimation) to be more show than athletics. More and more now, the opposite is true. I think the reason for this misapprehension is because men don't play derby. (That is, they don't play in anything but negligible numbers compared to women.)

In summary, derby is women-driven, but is not considered a "real" sport, because men don't play it as much as women do. This is my theory.

Oh, what a dumb article.

Rachel was awesome, and a well written article about other great fillies, as in equines, from the past would have been far more appreciated and useful. Comparing or expecting women to compete with men in athletics is stupid. It ain't going to happen. NEXT!

One word... wrestling.

On average men are bigger and faster than women.  This is because, on average, men produce more testosterone than women.  Testosterone causes hypertrophy (muscle growth)

It's already been said that women are closing the gap in speed

and in all actuality, pound for pound (lean mass) women are actually just as strong.

Men vs. Women - Muscle, Strength, Exercise

this is definitely cultural.  people cry about women getting hurt but nobody cares if men get hurt?   boys are encouraged to participate in physical activities and contact sports.  women are still discouraged from lifting weights because it makes them 'look manly'.  

If women were actually put on a level playing field,  As in, let them participate in the same level of physical activity from birth, we'd see that gap disappear. 

 I'll be glad when the day comes where coed teams are the norm.  

Myth Busters: Women and Upper-Body Strength « Mandingueira 

Reading is Fundamental

I don't care if men have a natural ease with sports, they bore me to tears except for the exceptional, the most talented ones. I love seeing women train hard and play, I love their presence even when they're masculine... There is something different for me than with ordinary men. Whether they're conventionnally beautiful or they're superb athletic machines, I love watching them.

 The only thing I ask: girls, women, do the best you can. Don't get lazy and think: 'We're just among women anyway'.