I've always thought it was strange that we separated some sports by gender, and I still do. Especially because plenty of sports don't separate by gender, and there's no issue.

[–] teslasaur@lemmy.world -3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Its not strange at all.

Google world records in literally any sport. There is a 10 - 30 percent difference depending on the sport.

Sports that are explosive in nature, like soccer or hockey are especially bad in comparison. There are countless examples of womens national teams in football(soccer) losing to 15 year old boys. That doesn't happen in, for example, 100m dash or even longer events until about the age of 18-20.

[–] Signtist@lemmynsfw.com 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Great, so we should take advantage of the fact that we have major and minor leagues and separate by ability into those. If it happens to separate by gender, so be it, but if someone is higher or lower than the average for their gender then they can compete among other people on their level.

The fact that we separate by gender in spite of how, as this thread points out, there is a large amount of variability within that category that goes against the idea that this addresses the ability gap, just shows that we're not separating for that reason, we're separating for sexual discrimination.

[–] teslasaur@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It doesn't "happen" to be separated by gender. It is because there are physical differences which lead to it naturally. At least in the sports where women wouldn't even qualify for a mens tournament with world record results.

Most sports have an open category, where women are free to compete. But they can't compete, though not for a lack of effort in their pursuit in a sport.