I have a lot of feelings about women's sports and athletics

[thedeadparrot]

There was a good thread about gender performance in sport, how the way sport are constructed itself can limit certain types of women's (generally queer) bodies from competing and thereby limiting the ceiling of what female athletes can do. It wasn't a bad thread, really, but what irked me was the way it kind of glossed over just how difficult it is to be female-bodied and athletic, just on a biological level.

I understand why not, because men like to pretend it makes them superior. Blah blah blah, the best women's teams can be beaten by high school boys. There's a lot to be said about how sport itself is constructed to be advantageous to male bodies on top of how much more support and encouragement boys get from the early stages of life.

But I think of every time a dude has said to me, "oh, before I started working out, I could only do one pull up," and I want to punch him in the face.

I can kind of do one pull up. It took me over two years to get to this point. I can't do it that consistently. If I skip a week of training it, it can take me weeks to get it back. Maybe at some point, I'll get two in a row. I'm not super super dedicated to the training or diet parts of getting and maintaining it. But that's the point. I have to put in way more work for my body to build and maintain the muscle mass, for my body to get to the right body fat percentages, in order to make this as possible for me as it does for many of the men I know who have it without even trying.

One thing that gets obscured in this conversation is what sorts of training and work and sacrifices women have to go through in order to even perform at these levels even before we talk about the sociological issues. One thing that female athletes is that dropping your body fat will fuck up your hormonal cycles until you lose your period and then mess your bone density. Not to mention that your hormonal cycles themselves can have a big impact on your athletic performance, to the point where many scientists don't even study female athletes because of the extra work needed to control for where they are in their cycles.

Anyway, the point is: fuck the patriarchy, but fuck biology, too.

Comments

[monanotlisa]

Yes, that's a great point -- points, I suppose.

I think one reason I love water polo, for example, is that it does NOT require female athletes to abandon their bodies; the different body types and strengths that come with them are part of the (admittedly rough ;) sport. Or take swimming in general: No girl is or can be a stick, although of course for swimming, your natural built comes into place (broad shoulders, strong arms -- strong legs are a given in women, of course).

As for the building of muscle mass, it's not even close to everything: I build muscle mass easily thanks to the good parts of my decidedly mixed-bag genetic profile. But it doesn't mean my joints aren't fucked up, because MY JOINTS ARE FUCKED UP. My muscle strength would allow me to do pushups...if it weren't for the pain levels rising like the tide, only a hundred times as fast. Same for running: I can do a 10k in an hour and grit my teeth -- but that is where it ends, because my knees are in too much pain, and I know that running is not good for them, so I can't even tell myself it's good to bear it and get through it (whereas every lap I swim, I feel it's a good thing, sweet and centering and drowning out the world).

[thedeadparrot]

Oh yeah, I wasn't trying to make it all about muscle mass and strength. It was just an example of one of the ways in which many/most female bodies behave/perform differently than male ones.

I'm glad that swimming works for you and your joints! I have a whole other rant about exercise and morality that I have given to many people in person but have not posted here and probably should.

[bironic]

The intersections of biological challenges and societal expectations are frustrating and messy. :( As someone who tries to be physically active in a body that doesn't conform to the cultural ideal of femininity and that has a handful of physical issues, I both identified with that Twitter thread and sympathize with what you describe.

[thedeadparrot]

It's a toxic mix of all of it! Wheeeeeeeee.

[zulu]

Great link! If figure skaters had thighs like hockey players they'd probably get more lift, but then wouldn't the world collapse from the sight of said thighs? Sigh.

[thedeadparrot]

Maybe! I would like to hear what figure skaters have to say about it, to be honest. I know for like, climbers, a lot of muscle mass can be detrimental because it makes you heavier and bulkier on the walls. But I am not a figure skater, so I don't know what they would have to say.

[zulu]

Yeah, we'd have to ask a figure skater. My aunt, who's probably 100 pounds soaking wet, is an excellent and decorated climber; what made it challenging for her was not muscles or weight but her reach, because she's like 5'.

[starlady]

I found that thread irritating because it didn't seem like the writer had any idea about how sports like figure skating and snowboarding have changed over time and even now are changing rapidly. Which does not necessarily invalidate the argument of the thread, but to me it just seemed like they were criticizing the sports without bothering to check their facts.

[thedeadparrot]

Yeah, I feel like the writer makes some assumptions that aren't necessarily wrong but aren't as informed as they could be. I don't know snowboarding in particular, but as someone who participates in a counter-cultural sport, I would be super irritated that the internal conversations, arguments, and discussions about access and community and all of that get glossed over by an outsider. Because I know in parkour we have a ton of them. I'm sure there's been a ton of them in snowboarding as well.

[lovelythings]

Agreed.

[thedeadparrot]

*fistbump*

[merisunshine36]

The high amount of gender segregation in the U.S. yoga universe is quite frankly one of the reasons I am really into it now. If the woman leading class can stand on her head or balance her whole body weight on one forearm, then it seems like a realistic goal rather than something forever relegated to the pile of "grueling effort to do this even once". I also experience deep joy at the fact that I can easily outstretch the average dude.

One thing that gets obscured in this conversation is what sorts of training and work and sacrifices women have to go through in order to even perform at these levels even before we talk about the sociological issues.

My feelings are all over the place on this one. It seems to me part of the socially accepted life cycle of an elite athlete of any gender is that at the end of your run, your body will be ground to shit. You are sacrificing the other practical uses of your body to the altar of Sport.

I also feel sad about the idea of "fuck biology", because for me that strays too close to the idea that the male body and its strengths are the goal to which we should aspire to. I definitely experience bouts of disgust towards this organ I have that has the ability to throw me off physically as well as mentally, but, agh, I don't know, it's the body I have. I would rather that we find more ways to celebrate it, even if that means plugging my figurative ears and "la la la-ing" most stuff about men and athletics.

Anyway, the point is: fuck the patriarchy and put all cis-men in a breeding center so we can run the world and no longer have to care about their foolish opinions, mwa ha ha ha ha.

[thedeadparrot]

Yeah, I get what you're saying. I was going off the premise in the thread that women at the Olympics can and should be doing all the things that the men can do, which, yeah, is problematic in and of itself. But I just wanted to point out that there's a lot of other things that come into play biologically on top of all the other things. (What sports are considered important and valuable enough to be considered in the Olympics. How they are judged. The whole idea that sports must be about competition in and of itself.)

I don't want this to make it seem like I dislike my body. If anything, becoming athletic has made me like it more and take pleasure in what it's capable of. There's even pleasure in doing the work to make it more capable of things. It's just hard not to feel a little bit jealous of the men who I train with who just have an easier time of everything. :/

And yes, cis-men should be banned from having opinions on things.

[merisunshine36]

I hope I didn't come across as telling how you should feel about body stuff! I just cry a little whenever this topic comes up because it so easily turns into another way of reinforcing the supposed inferiority of women. I very much have felt the jealousy though. Even if it's with dumb stuff like, jars. Why can't I open the stupid jar and then Mr. Merisunshine36 makes it look so easy?

[minoanmiss]

This is an awesome post on important subjects. (Which is an excessively dry way o thanking you. argh, words.)

[thedeadparrot]

I'm glad you got something out of it!

[cesy]

I appreciate this discussion, and I wish there could be more studies of female athletes and women and exercise that actually look into how cycles affect things.

[thedeadparrot]

Thanks! Yeah, me too. It's just frustrating how the way men's bodies behave is considered 'normal'.