This is an interesting opinion post about the gender split in sports, as well as the pay gap in sports. This raises the question that if it’s about about physical performance, then why aren’t sports just divided by physical performance?
Media Chomp
Internet & Geek Culture
Copyright © 2024 Media Chomp
The gender divide in sports exists for sound MEDICAL reasons. There are significant differences between the skeletons and musculature of those who have been through a male puberty and those who have not. This is the reason for the current protests against trans-women as athletes – they possess an unfair biological advantage that in certain sports can put their fellow competitors at risk of injury. This difference has recently been confirmed beyond all doubt by a meta-analysis of the scientific literature on the subject – so it’s not even a debatable point, regardless of what those of a certain political persuasion might like to claim.
As to why there’s a pay gap – that’s not all down to male sexism by any means. Ask yourselves, women – when you watch sports, whom do you watch more? The male sports, or the female? We all know the answer – overwhelmingly the male, because most women are heterosexual and male sports performers are very sexually attractive to a lot of straight women. So YOU heavily weight viewership towards male sports – which increases its market share, making advertising more attractive during male sports, raising the price of said advertising and encouraging sponsorship thereof.
Heterosexual men are nowhere near so attracted to sportswomen as heterosexual women are to sportsmen – and there’s a biological imperative to that. Sportswomen compromise their fertility in order to compete, whereas men increase it. And yes, that’s a medical fact – sportswomen often lose their menses entirely while competing due to their high testosterone levels and low body fat (body fat produces a surprisingly large amount of oestrogen – hence man-boobs). Men on the other hand become hyper-fertile as athletes, due to the same increase in testosterone and decrease in oestrogen levels through loss of body fat. So men are less attracted, as they subconsciously recognise lower fertility in the potential mate and reject it; and women are more attracted, as they recognise optimum fertility and are drawn to it.
As a result, male sports have a far higher viewership, and thus a far higher revenue pool – which means a far higher paycheck for the men in the sports industry than the women. It’s not a function of sexism – it’s a function of economics driven by a biological imperative possessing strong sexual dimorphism. Is it unfair to women athletes, in relation to the amount of work they put in? Sure is. But since when did biology have to be fair?
Way to prove the point.
Remember the time the female soccer star stripped off her shirt to her sports bra to wave the shirt at the crowd after they won and the world went mental calling her indecent? Yeah. Get a grip.
À blanket statement implying all sports should naturally be gender seperate is not supported by objective facts. Indeed many sports it makes sense to seperate but many there’s no good reason. Motorcycle racing grand prix. You had a woman I watched who was who was competing and winning major races. She had eager sponsers lined up and was very popular with the public. The international race committee instituted a rule you had to be a certain weight to compete for saftey sake that happened to be just under the weight of the lightest male and just over her weight with her bike. This disqualifed her two days before the championship race of the season and they ignored her appeal. She was in comfortable points reach of winning the season. Chess no reason to force seperate if female wants to compete against male in a tournament. More competition pulls up everyone and mixed competitions have generated very good viewership though it tends to skew towards younger more accepting audiences but these audiences stick around even as they age and become more conservative in some views. I was on chess team. Girls were actively discouraged from playing the guys. A much smaller pool for them to play against as they were discouraged from joining or dismissed as not as serious just a hobby they weren’t offered the opportunity to grow into their game. Andrea Möller I 2023 first female Surfer to be a recognized big wave rider not because of strength or public disinterest, because she as well as other female big wave surfers had boards vandalized, men who literally pretended she didn’t exist, Surfer mags that ignored when she won competitions and when a network tried to cover her and other females in the sport the association refused to give the network support
I think the wording “by physical ability” is wrong. They don’t separate boxers by physical ability, they do it by *weight*.
Which would be an interesting metric to separate sports (some) by.
Honestly, I’m pissed off that women don’t compete against men in chess. I want to see the top woman and top man against each other!
Too many sports shouldn’t be separated *at all* and if we combine them, the women athletes will start getting attention and viewers. Remember when the US men’s and US women’s soccer teams decided to combine their FIFA winnings and split it evenly between them? (honestly, I still think that’s unfair given the women are better). There’s no good reason the pay should be different. You want to know why everyone watches the NBA and no one watches the WNBA? Advertising. For decades they have thrown tons of money at the NBA for advertising and prime time spots and all sorts of crap. But they don’t do ANY of that for the WNBA. How different would it be if we spent the same money on both?
By separating certain sports by weight, it reduces any perceived bias against trans-athletes. Want to remove every single argument they have? Also allow the non-trans athletes to control their testosterone levels the way trans athletes have to (if anything, that’s the only real argument, and it’s usually because cis-MEN are worried they’ll be beat by a trans athlete because trans athletes can set their testosterone levels to the max allowed).
I think the only sport they shouldn’t allow men and women to play together is American football. But that’s because football causes terrible injuries and chronic brain damage… so I frankly don’t think *anyone* should be playing football.
On the pay thing. It’s not universal but in tennis competition because women play fewer sets per match and fewer games per set, even though the prize is generally smaller the woman who wins something like Wimbledon will get more per game played than the man who wins the men’s competition at the same event. This is also one reason why if a man plays in the mixed doubles competition he’s less likely to also play in the singles than his female partner.
In terms of salaries and sponsorship for team sports players, and probably the 250lb+ weight lifters, a lot of that comes down to ticket sales. More people will buy tickets or premium sports channel subscriptions to watch men than women. If you want to see women paid more then go watch them play. When the stadium is as full for a women’s game as for a men’s salaries and sponsorships will rise.
Chess has two categories – open and women only. Yes it is sexist, but it favours women and few men have a problem with it. Look up Judit Polgar, who was the strangest ever women player, but didn’t compete in the women’s competitions. She was in the top 10 of all players for a while.