Does anyone wonder why professional womens and mens sports still exist and we dont just have open sports for all?
In the past it made sense because the thought of men tackling or pushing away a women just wasnt socially acceptable. Women simply werent allowed to compete with men regardless how good they were so we needed to give them their own code.
Now this is no longer the case and the only reason to have womens professional sport is because the majority arent competitive with the men. However, for the same reason we could argue there should be professional basketball for men shorter then 180cm, professional horse racing for people over 80 kg, 100m races for people with slow twitch muscles etc. I.e we could sub divide based on numerous genetic reasons that greatly limit a person from being the best person at their sport regardless of effort and training. And there is no end to how much sub division we could do because genetics is the main trait which defines how good at sport we are. Effort and training certainly helps but for most sports its genetics that is the overwhelming determinator of who is the best.
By creating genetic subdivisions in professional sport we create ridiculous scenarios where boxers try to make themselves worse at their sport by losing weight just to fit into a weight class. Or we debate what actually constitutes a women. Its not just naturally born women vs transgender women. But we are actually looking at things like hormone levels and putting in a line about what levels are women and what are not.
You might say its unfair to rule out these subdividisions. And if you do you clearly havent understood what is written above. I will put it more simply: Why do we give ridiculous money to the best shrimp at boxing even though there are hundreds and hundreds of boxers who are far better but dont get any money because they weigh more but suffer in other genetic traits that due to luck we simply dont sub divide.
When we bring in sub divisions we take away from the notion of who is the best. Lets get rid of men and womens professional sport (and weight divisions in boxing) and make profesional sport that is open to all. This results in less split of the fan base and gives greater meaning and prestige to the actual best sportspeople.
In the past it made sense because the thought of men tackling or pushing away a women just wasnt socially acceptable. Women simply werent allowed to compete with men regardless how good they were so we needed to give them their own code.
Now this is no longer the case and the only reason to have womens professional sport is because the majority arent competitive with the men. However, for the same reason we could argue there should be professional basketball for men shorter then 180cm, professional horse racing for people over 80 kg, 100m races for people with slow twitch muscles etc. I.e we could sub divide based on numerous genetic reasons that greatly limit a person from being the best person at their sport regardless of effort and training. And there is no end to how much sub division we could do because genetics is the main trait which defines how good at sport we are. Effort and training certainly helps but for most sports its genetics that is the overwhelming determinator of who is the best.
By creating genetic subdivisions in professional sport we create ridiculous scenarios where boxers try to make themselves worse at their sport by losing weight just to fit into a weight class. Or we debate what actually constitutes a women. Its not just naturally born women vs transgender women. But we are actually looking at things like hormone levels and putting in a line about what levels are women and what are not.
You might say its unfair to rule out these subdividisions. And if you do you clearly havent understood what is written above. I will put it more simply: Why do we give ridiculous money to the best shrimp at boxing even though there are hundreds and hundreds of boxers who are far better but dont get any money because they weigh more but suffer in other genetic traits that due to luck we simply dont sub divide.
When we bring in sub divisions we take away from the notion of who is the best. Lets get rid of men and womens professional sport (and weight divisions in boxing) and make profesional sport that is open to all. This results in less split of the fan base and gives greater meaning and prestige to the actual best sportspeople.
