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Just because you were born male doesn't make you automatically a sports fan but that is what poppa and society told you to be like. So you were groomed from an early age to watch and participate in sports. Not as many women like sports basically because they were not groomed by their parents to like it or opportunities to engage in sports was not available to them.
What schools across America aren’t giving women the opportunity to participate in sports? Ever hear of Title 9?? Women have the same opportunities to participate in sports as men do. Every school has both male and female sports. At most high school the women support the sports teams as much as the males. They attend football and basketball games the same as the men.
Women aren’t as into sports based on personal choice and dare I say it, men are different from women! Oh no! I said it! It’s really okay to admit it. Do men not paint their nails and wear makeup because of society?
What schools across America aren’t giving women the opportunity to participate in sports? Ever hear of Title 9?? Women have the same opportunities to participate in sports as men do. Every school has both male and female sports. At most high school the women support the sports teams as much as the males. They attend football and basketball games the same as the men.
Women aren’t as into sports based on personal choice and dare I say it, men are different from women! Oh no! I said it! It’s really okay to admit it. Do men not paint their nails and wear makeup because of society?
That was a weird response to a pretty mild assertion about how parents don't encourage daughters as much as sons to participate in sports.
Me personally? No. But lots of social scientists have demonstrated that gender is largely a social construct. You can look them up (or not, it makes no difference to me).
I run 8-16 miles a week AND watch and talk about sports. It is possible to do both, but me running doesn't bring a city or school or whatver status and togetherness. How many people gather to watch you run every week?
But then by your logic whats the point of watching anything on TV or seeing anything live? Whats the point of going to a concert or seeing a move or show? Sports is the superior form of entertainment evident by the "yelling at the tv". It also brings people together.
Fair point about sports bringing people together. I hadn’t thought of that.
Live music sounds better than music on tv. I have no objection to live entertainment.
My issue is the slews of out-of-shape men in their 40s and 50s who sit on the sofa, yelling at the tv but do little if anything athletic on their own, and who somehow think that sitting on the sofa and yelling at the tv makes them more athletic and more normal than people who actually go to the gym and play sports.
Years ago when I went away to college, the first time a football game came on I was shocked when my roommate told me he wasn't interested in watching. I later discovered he had no interest in joining me to play pickup basketball, volleyball, softball, or even weight lifting.
Until that time I always assumed that every male was interested in sports as I grew up with them being such an integral part of my life. All of my friends were also into sports as well, so I never realized there were men out there that didn't share the same interests.
Ever since then I've been fascinated with men that aren't into sports. What don't they like about them? Do they just dislike competition in general? (something that I love) How do they handle conversations about them in social settings?
Incidentally, I'm just as into sports now as I was then- at least when it comes to playing them. The amount of time I spend these says watching them has been tempered a bit due to a busy schedule.
I'm a man and I hate sports.
Now, that said, I've played most sports, I'm hyper-competitive when I'm engaged in a sport (to the point where I was the only "non-athlete" to win the "physical education effort award" my senior year in high school), and I have my kid in sports.
There are benefits in sports. Most of them are good exercise, and even the ones that don't seem to involve much physicality (i.e. the motorsports my kid loves) still require a sharp mind and good coordination, meaning participation therein develops both.
What I hate about sports is how they have been so venerated by our culture that they're the pride of any area and by connection the pride of any participant. You see it on signs as you enter a new town: "Welcome to Ourtownville - Home of the MUSTANGS!" And then underneath that you see: "2000 Division 3 State Champs - Girls Softball 2002 Division 3 State Champs - Boys Lacrosse 2003 Division 3 State Champs - Boys Lacrosse" etc, etc, etc. They put up pictures of the people on the varsity football team, along with their names and numbers, on the light posts in the center of town.
You know what you never see? The name and picture of the most recent high school valedictorian.
My go-to story about this is 100% true. In high school (mid-90's), a guy two years ahead of me was ridiculously smart. Now, the way the PA system announcements went in the morning, they always gave the athletes their props. They'd mention who scored touchdowns in Friday night's football game (and how many field goals the kicker hit), who scored runs in baseball/softball, who scored goals in soccer/lacrosse, the top three point scorers in basketball, etc. Plenty of public announcement time for the athletes.
They never once made mention of scholastic achievements. I was named one of the top 200 math students in the country (IN THE COUNTRY!) by Stanford University due to my performance on a combination of standardized tests... and nobody knew about it. The guy who was my year's valedictorian had a stratospheric GPA and received only one grade lower than an A in his entire high school career (even then it was "only an A-"); no announcement. What -did- it take, scholastically, to get your name out there with the big dogs who scored points in glorified playground games involving balls? It took the previously mentioned ridiculously smart guy becoming ONE OF THE TOP FIVE HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS STUDENTS IN THE WORLD. He went to some competitions and rose through the ranks, and they actually announced congratulations to him over the PA system for having made the top five in the world.
Top five in the world, academically, is what it took to get equal announcement time with the top point scorers in one sportsball game. If that doesn't illustrate the incredible perversion of human values associated with sports, I don't know what does.
And then on top of that, now in the adult world, so many people get obsessed with the performance of some sportsball team. They make these people constant topics of conversation, when their time would be better spent, oh, I dunno, trying to figure out how to make the world a better place, mayhaps?
Then for the icing on the cake, let's talk about how much money people are paid to run around with balls. It shows how there is an inverse correlation between how much money people make and how useful they are to humankind. I once read something that went like, "In my life, I have needed farmers to feed me, doctors when I'm sick, teachers to educate me, and police officers to keep me safe. I have NEVER ONCE needed a football player."
This is why I hate sports and immediately form negative opinions of those who appear to be sports fans. (It has yet to happen even one time, at least in my adult years, when someone's other characteristics overturned that knee-jerk negative opinion. I always give people a chance, and the stereotype is currently, to use a sportsball analogy, batting a thousand.)
Now, if my kid decides to be an athlete, will I support him? That depends. Another reason why I hate sports is the hyperfocus on winning at all costs no matter what always. It starts much younger than I ever imagined. My kid is almost 5 and this past summer I ran him in some Power Wheels racing and demolition derby events because he wanted to participate. I found out, to my shock, that there is no enforcement of the rules governing how vehicles can be spec'ed out, and as a result, there is rampant cheating. It was even more shocking to find out that the promoters know this is happening, and that they are vehemently opposed to doing anything about it. It's bad enough when kids who are crashing into each other, in vehicles never designed for such, are doing so with more powerful batteries than the rules mandate (meaning harder hits, raising the risk of damaging some other kid's toy car and/or injuring kids), but it's worse in events like a drag race where the fastest vehicle wins. I had to tell my 4 1/2 year old son, at one point, "You will not win this drag race. A cheater is going to win, because they aren't enforcing the rules here. Knowing that, do you still want to do the drag race?" Fortunately he's still a little young and naive about stuff like this (he said yes), but he won't be that way for long.
I don't want my kids involved in anything where you have to cheat to win. That teaches them lessons that are diametrically opposed to what I want them to learn for how I want them to live their lives. The problems in the world right now are all caused by cheating in one way or another, and I don't want my kids being part of that problem in any way. They're going to be part of the solution if I have any control over that.
If I could get my kids into sports where there were no cheating and I could verify that (along with knowing that any revealed cheating would be met with zero tolerance), I'd let them participate in all but the most dangerous sports. They're never playing football. That's just plain out. The risk of traumatic injury is too high. Same goes for combat sports, though I will encourage them to become skilled at martial arts if they have any desire to do so. If they choose to stick to somewhat less dangerous sports like the racing and demolition derby my older guy enjoys, or other things like baseball or wrestling, I'll let them do it and I'll cheer them on in the stands. (Yeah, I know, Dale Earnhardt died in a crash 20 or so years ago, but neither of my kids seems to enjoy NASCAR-style racing. Tell me the last time someone was killed, or traumatically injured, in a demolition derby. They actually inspect vehicles for rule compliance in real derbies.) But I will also, at all times, reinforce the idea that sports are not life, refuse to allow sports to become their life, and rein them in if I see them becoming too obsessed with sports.
Fortunately, right now anyway, they seem to be well balanced.
Now, that said, I've played most sports, I'm hyper-competitive when I'm engaged in a sport (to the point where I was the only "non-athlete" to win the "physical education effort award" my senior year in high school), and I have my kid in sports.
. . ..
This reminds me of my last quarter in gym my senior year. I hate sports but I got my first and only A in gym ever. I suspect I was the only one who received the A, because one time, I heard there was all this unused gym equipment. Everyone else wanted to play volleyball for the "11,946th", and I just started bringing these devices that I didn't know what they were. I tried to play around with as much as I could on that one day. My classmates were surprised at some of the stuff none of us knew about and I think even the gym teachers themselves didn't know everything randomly stored in the back. I put it back when I was done.
Maybe if gym wasn't overly competitive for me or if I had at least one authentic friend I could be with, I think maybe I'd actually like some sports. I long to belong, but in the real world, if you don't jive, you get shoved to the side or they let you participate but you don't matter as a person outside of that space basically.
Now, that said, I've played most sports, I'm hyper-competitive when I'm engaged in a sport (to the point where I was the only "non-athlete" to win the "physical education effort award" my senior year in high school), and I have my kid in sports.
There are benefits in sports. Most of them are good exercise, and even the ones that don't seem to involve much physicality (i.e. the motorsports my kid loves) still require a sharp mind and good coordination, meaning participation therein develops both.
What I hate about sports is how they have been so venerated by our culture that they're the pride of any area and by connection the pride of any participant. You see it on signs as you enter a new town: "Welcome to Ourtownville - Home of the MUSTANGS!" And then underneath that you see: "2000 Division 3 State Champs - Girls Softball 2002 Division 3 State Champs - Boys Lacrosse 2003 Division 3 State Champs - Boys Lacrosse" etc, etc, etc. They put up pictures of the people on the varsity football team, along with their names and numbers, on the light posts in the center of town.
You know what you never see? The name and picture of the most recent high school valedictorian.
My go-to story about this is 100% true. In high school (mid-90's), a guy two years ahead of me was ridiculously smart. Now, the way the PA system announcements went in the morning, they always gave the athletes their props. They'd mention who scored touchdowns in Friday night's football game (and how many field goals the kicker hit), who scored runs in baseball/softball, who scored goals in soccer/lacrosse, the top three point scorers in basketball, etc. Plenty of public announcement time for the athletes.
They never once made mention of scholastic achievements. I was named one of the top 200 math students in the country (IN THE COUNTRY!) by Stanford University due to my performance on a combination of standardized tests... and nobody knew about it. The guy who was my year's valedictorian had a stratospheric GPA and received only one grade lower than an A in his entire high school career (even then it was "only an A-"); no announcement. What -did- it take, scholastically, to get your name out there with the big dogs who scored points in glorified playground games involving balls? It took the previously mentioned ridiculously smart guy becoming ONE OF THE TOP FIVE HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS STUDENTS IN THE WORLD. He went to some competitions and rose through the ranks, and they actually announced congratulations to him over the PA system for having made the top five in the world.
Top five in the world, academically, is what it took to get equal announcement time with the top point scorers in one sportsball game. If that doesn't illustrate the incredible perversion of human values associated with sports, I don't know what does.
And then on top of that, now in the adult world, so many people get obsessed with the performance of some sportsball team. They make these people constant topics of conversation, when their time would be better spent, oh, I dunno, trying to figure out how to make the world a better place, mayhaps?
Then for the icing on the cake, let's talk about how much money people are paid to run around with balls. It shows how there is an inverse correlation between how much money people make and how useful they are to humankind. I once read something that went like, "In my life, I have needed farmers to feed me, doctors when I'm sick, teachers to educate me, and police officers to keep me safe. I have NEVER ONCE needed a football player."
This is why I hate sports and immediately form negative opinions of those who appear to be sports fans. (It has yet to happen even one time, at least in my adult years, when someone's other characteristics overturned that knee-jerk negative opinion. I always give people a chance, and the stereotype is currently, to use a sportsball analogy, batting a thousand.)
Now, if my kid decides to be an athlete, will I support him? That depends. Another reason why I hate sports is the hyperfocus on winning at all costs no matter what always. It starts much younger than I ever imagined. My kid is almost 5 and this past summer I ran him in some Power Wheels racing and demolition derby events because he wanted to participate. I found out, to my shock, that there is no enforcement of the rules governing how vehicles can be spec'ed out, and as a result, there is rampant cheating. It was even more shocking to find out that the promoters know this is happening, and that they are vehemently opposed to doing anything about it. It's bad enough when kids who are crashing into each other, in vehicles never designed for such, are doing so with more powerful batteries than the rules mandate (meaning harder hits, raising the risk of damaging some other kid's toy car and/or injuring kids), but it's worse in events like a drag race where the fastest vehicle wins. I had to tell my 4 1/2 year old son, at one point, "You will not win this drag race. A cheater is going to win, because they aren't enforcing the rules here. Knowing that, do you still want to do the drag race?" Fortunately he's still a little young and naive about stuff like this (he said yes), but he won't be that way for long.
I don't want my kids involved in anything where you have to cheat to win. That teaches them lessons that are diametrically opposed to what I want them to learn for how I want them to live their lives. The problems in the world right now are all caused by cheating in one way or another, and I don't want my kids being part of that problem in any way. They're going to be part of the solution if I have any control over that.
If I could get my kids into sports where there were no cheating and I could verify that (along with knowing that any revealed cheating would be met with zero tolerance), I'd let them participate in all but the most dangerous sports. They're never playing football. That's just plain out. The risk of traumatic injury is too high. Same goes for combat sports, though I will encourage them to become skilled at martial arts if they have any desire to do so. If they choose to stick to somewhat less dangerous sports like the racing and demolition derby my older guy enjoys, or other things like baseball or wrestling, I'll let them do it and I'll cheer them on in the stands. (Yeah, I know, Dale Earnhardt died in a crash 20 or so years ago, but neither of my kids seems to enjoy NASCAR-style racing. Tell me the last time someone was killed, or traumatically injured, in a demolition derby. They actually inspect vehicles for rule compliance in real derbies.) But I will also, at all times, reinforce the idea that sports are not life, refuse to allow sports to become their life, and rein them in if I see them becoming too obsessed with sports.
Fortunately, right now anyway, they seem to be well balanced.
Sounds like you still have hang-ups from HS.
I didn't care that I didn't get noticed on the announcements. The people I knew, knew what I had accomplished. And a lot of time the announcements were whatever teacher sponsors turned in to the office.
My son finished 1st in the state in two different non-sports competitions and 2nd in the nation in one of those. He really didn't want it announced.
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