414
Use your big girl words (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/memes@lemmy.world
196 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 child)

The high end of height, upper body strength and mass, sprinting speed, etc definitely favors higher-test systems. .

But I remember reading an ethnography of a Chinese village in the early days of the PRC, when they were still basically living the Imperial-peasant lifestyle.

Women there at the time of writing were not generally esteemed as beautiful slender luxury possessions, but instead for virtues such as their ability to carry heavy loads on a yoke, and the male/female strength split was not nearly that big.

We don't need to live in a society where we assume that "generic man" is assumed to have an essential advantage in physical combat over "generic woman". That's a choice.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 6 days ago (1 child)

    As a counter example, I remember listening to a radio interview with a woman who accidentally joined a boxing gym, and decided to roll with it. Even after 3 years training, it apparently took new men about 6 weeks to blast past her in strength.

    And jumping back to my earlier comment. Societies tend to amplify differences. Men are stronger, so are expected to do jobs requiring strength. This, in turn leads to stronger men, reinforcing the stereotype.

    In short, there's not much baseline difference between men and women. There are however differences. Societies and cultures often amplify them, particularly when it improves division of labour. In an agrarian society they might not be able to afford the split, so the situation you read about plays out. Men can't afford to powerhouse, while women need to pick up significant physical labour.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 6 days ago

    I trained shotokan for a bit having come from a gridiron/rugby background, and there were some exercises (like ring-out shoving exercises) where I was a laughable mismatch with anybody else in the room. One of the trainers was a woman that I had 35cm and 50kg on, if she tried to square up, it would have been hopeless.

    But strength isn't all of it. There was another three-step positional sparring exercise, and that one trainer tied me into knots every time. I wouldn't have been able to touch her in a real fight, and she would have popped my kidney like a balloon every time.

    I'm mostly pissed off about stuff like amateur rugby and field hockey not letting trans women compete. In sports like that, at the pro level, the top team would be all men no question.

    But for a bunch of random people in their 20s playing amateur rugby? Piff, the safety/dominance issue is really overblown.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent