Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
Big, big Hat Tip to Joe Carter over at First Things blog for this one. I'm curious what Ricochet members think about male versus female competitions in combat or contact sports?
“Wrestling is a combat sport and it can get violent at times. As a matter of conscience and my faith I do not believe that it is appropriate for a boy to engage a girl in this manner. It is unfortunate that I have been placed in a situation not seen in most other high school sports in Iowa.”
Rather than wrestle a girl, the wrestler in question chose to forfeit the match and end a strong possibility of a state championship for himself. Please read the whole article. Neither set of parents or child is bitter, and the boy in question had nothing but praise for his female opponent. But, in his mind, this was a question of honor.
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Sep '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
You don't want to live in a world where men have no problems applying unrestrained force against women.
May '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
I played soccer at the same high school as Mia Hamm. She was two years ahead of me, but during my freshman year, the JV boys squad that I was a part a of scrimmaged the girls varsity team several times. Mia Hamm led this team to two state championships and they did not lose a game in competition, but we regularly slaughtered them in shortened matches.
They never even mustered a goal. It's true that our JV team could've competed at the varsity level in any league (the varsity boys won states regularly), but Mia Hamm is the best female soccer player of all time, and arguably the best female athlete of all time. Even at 14-18 years old, we were faster, stronger and more agile than anyone on Mia's team (including her).
Jun '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
Sadly that world exists ---- in the Middle East.
Jun '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
"Even at 14-18 years old, we were faster, stronger and more agile than anyone on Mia's team (including her)."
No doubt you were faster & stronger. But more agile than Mia Hamm? That's one area where women often have the edge.
Sep '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
StickerShock
Sadly that world exists ---- in the Middle East. · Feb 25 at 9:10am
If you read Theodore Dalrymple's Life at the Bottom, you'll find that world exists in England, too.
May '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
Never heard of the Blue Devils? You just made me cry a little on the inside.
Jun '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
Life at the Bottom is a terrifying book.
David, I'm pretty sure katievs is just teasing you.
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
I write this as the father of three girls, all of whom play basketball and play it competitively. My favorite Saturdays are spent watching them play. And I welcome the opening of sports to women, so that they can enjoy the teamwork and the physical exertion, etc.
That said, the wrestling case strikes me that this is like much of the feminist nonsense: behind every double standard is a single standard. My rule would be this. Every school/city would be free to open up their boys teams to girls -- provided that every girls team was open up to boys all the way through high school.
That latter will never happen for obvious reasons. Yes, a handful of gals can compete even at the best levels. But open up the gals teams to the guys, and a lot of gals, including my daughters, would not play. That we would never tolerate. But we allow girls to do it for the boys teams -- precisely because there's not enough en masse to threaten a whole team.
However you slice it, that's a double standard, and hard to campaign for equal treatment while upholding a double standard.
May '10
Re: Gentlemen Don’t Wrestle With Ladies
StickerShock: "Even at 14-18 years old, we were faster, stronger and more agile than anyone on Mia's team (including her)."
No doubt you were faster & stronger. But more agile than Mia Hamm? That's one area where women often have the edge. · Feb 25 at 9:14am
That's an interesting supposition. Agility is simply the ability to move quickly and easily, and yes I was more agile than Mia Hamm. She may have been more graceful, but when it comes to stopping and starting, explosive quickness and all out athletic ability, we were all superior to her.
I love womens' soccer, and Mia's national team put my favorite sport in the spotlight in the US for the first time. But I am reporting a first hand experience against one of the worlds best female athletes. I could also tell you that my under 14 club team from Annandale, Va used to share a practice field w/ the US womens national under 18 team. Our respective coaches lined up a 60 minute scrimmage in which we beat them 3-0. We were 13 years old, and some of these girls were in college.