|
It's high school swimming.
Either the kid swims in this girl team or he can't swim at all. That is the end of it.
Why this parade of "men are better then women but not really but they really are" eludes me. Nowhere in this article is it ever suggested that the olympics are going to mingle their swimmers.
It's high school swimming. Get a little perspective seriously.
|
IMO the proper thing to do would be to have them compete against males on the other people's teams. If this is not the case, have them compete in lower level competition. Since swimming is an individual sport (opposed to both footballs, basketball, baseballs, etc) if they make it far enough, they should have to compete against other males. Likewise, even though they're training and are technically on the girl's team, they should have their records applied to the state/regional/score BOYS record, rather than the girls, which makes no sense to me.
I'm gonna say this again, because this should never be a problem for a sport like swimming. Individual based sports (IE Track & Field, Swimming, Weightlifting, etc) should never have to deal with restrictions or integration of sexes, as the efforts of the individual are unaffected by the performance of their teammates. I can see this being an issue in scoring, but otherwise, it's not like the male is gonna jump across the lanes and attempt to wrestle the girls down, as would be the case in say, water polo. I say let them swim, but put restrictions on what titles they can earn or what points they can earn.
|
On November 20 2011 18:11 Synapze wrote:
Funny then, how no female has ever broken through in any scene as a top level player. (Or even remotely close and DON'T even try to mention Tossgirl)
sociological/economic/political reasons are why there are no top level female players. Its all numbers, gaming is a majorly male dominated area, its less common for girls to play games. Its slowly becoming more common, there are sure to be some girls out there that are as good as Flash. But they dont have the same chance to perform at it as males do.
The same argument could be made for professional magic players, they are all male, its a male dominated area and it is difficult for women to get in the sport.
|
On November 20 2011 19:28 mistermetal wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2011 18:11 Synapze wrote:
Funny then, how no female has ever broken through in any scene as a top level player. (Or even remotely close and DON'T even try to mention Tossgirl) sociological/economic/political reasons are why there are no top level female players. Its all numbers, gaming is a majorly male dominated area, its less common for girls to play games. Its slowly becoming more common, there are sure to be some girls out there that are as good as Flash. But they dont have the same chance to perform at it as males do. The same argument could be made for professional magic players, they are all male, its a male dominated area and it is difficult for women to get in the sport.
I disagree, but have no contradicting evidence to back up my thoughts, so withdraw from this argument. If you can think of any sports that challenge you like sc2 and aren't as male dominated, please post though! (Unless derailing thread).
|
its fair to boys but unfair to girls.
|
On November 20 2011 19:52 xM(Z wrote: its fair to boys but unfair to girls.
a small boy has no choice but to compete against a "large" boy in swimming, there are no weight classes. how is that fair on a guy who has no choice that he is 1ft shorter than the other guy or a bad build for swimming. its just school league swimming let them both swim even though its 'unfair' on 1 guy.
then based on that how is it any different than a mid sized boy (small in sporting terms) competing against a girl? its not her fault, but its not his fault either. swimming doesnt have weight categories, its just a good vs bad situation. whether its right or wrong to have sex segregation is an argument on its own but probably not for this thread. my point is that swimming is imbalanced all the time and therefore to make the best of the situation they can they should just let the boys swim, however it is feasible for their school funding.
|
you know what i first thought when i saw the picture? the boy is DRESSING in girl's swimsuit to swim in some high school. not that bizarre compare to many more bizarre news that we have heard from US all these years.
+ Show Spoiler +
|
On November 20 2011 20:04 turdburgler wrote:a small boy has no choice but to compete against a "large" boy in swimming, there are no weight classes. how is that fair on a guy who has no choice that he is 1ft shorter than the other guy or a bad build for swimming. its just school league swimming let him swim. then based on that how is it any different than a mid sized boy (small in sporting terms) competing against a girl? its not her fault, but its not his fault either. swimming doesnt have weight categories, its just a good vs bad situation. whether its right or wrong to have sex segregation is an argument on its own but probably not for this thread. my point is that swimming is imbalanced all the time and therefore to make the best of the situation they can they should just let the boys swim, however it is feasible for their school funding. To expand upon this point. There are even more inequalities that we don't account for in situations like this. What if there was an incredibly rich team who could buy good private training for all the athletes? Should their individual contribution be controlled as well since it gives them an "unfair" advantage? What about kids who get held back a year? Or, on the flipside, should we make swim leagues for kids with minor disabilities, like asthma? It's certainly unfair they must compete on the same stage as kids with no health problems.
Compensating for so many variables is a luxury. These kids don't have that luxury, so they must compete in whatever way possible.
|
On November 20 2011 20:13 BurningSera wrote: you know what i first thought when i saw the picture? the boy is DRESSING in girl's swimsuit to swim in some high school. not that bizarre compare to many more bizarre news that we have heard from US all these years.
My thought exatly .. But srsly tho dont see problem with if they are allowed to do it by law
|
On November 20 2011 16:04 Runnin wrote: This. How anyone can not understand the physical difference between men and women is beyond me - they are important in all sports but even more so in purely physical sports like running and swimming.
Not sure what you mean by this. In general, men have a bigger proportional advantage in non-'pure' sports like basketball or football or whatever. This is partially because such sports are a bit exploitative in nature, in the sense that a physical advantage is often magnified many times by the nature of the sport (i.e., a top man may beat a top woman by about 10% in a sprint, but a top male tennis player will beat a top female tennis player 6-0,6-0, or a top men's basketball team would beat a top female team by a hundred plus points).
The other reason is that such sports select for a wide range of athletic ability. Consider an elite wide receiver in the NFL, for example, or an elite linebacker, corner, or safety. Not only does such a man often run a 100m time faster than any woman on the planet, but he also has a greater vertical leap than any woman on the planet, greater agility, and has world-class strength by female standards (probably there are a few women who could bench more or whatever, but they obviously don't have any sort of speed or agility). Having inadequate ability in any single athletic aspect will be completely exploited in these sports.
|
On November 20 2011 20:34 blah_blah wrote:Show nested quote +On November 20 2011 16:04 Runnin wrote: This. How anyone can not understand the physical difference between men and women is beyond me - they are important in all sports but even more so in purely physical sports like running and swimming. Not sure what you mean by this. In general, men have a bigger proportional advantage in non-'pure' sports like basketball or football or whatever. This is partially because such sports are a bit exploitative in nature, in the sense that a physical advantage is often magnified many times by the nature of the sport (i.e., a top man may beat a top woman by about 10% in a sprint, but a top male tennis player will beat a top female tennis player 6-0,6-0, or a top men's basketball team would beat a top female team by a hundred plus points). The other reason is that such sports select for a wide range of athletic ability. Consider an elite wide receiver in the NFL, for example, or an elite linebacker, corner, or safety. Not only does such a man often run a 100m time faster than any woman on the planet, but he also has a greater vertical leap than any woman on the planet, greater agility, and has world-class strength by female standards (probably there are a few women who could bench more or whatever, but they obviously don't have any sort of speed or agility). Having inadequate ability in any single athletic aspect will be completely exploited in these sports.
Yeah, and similarly you can argue that different races have different genetic makeups that makes some races predisposed to do well in certain sports. For example, Africans are physically more suited for running, Caucasians are better at swimming, etc. So why don't they segregate sportsmen by race? Because it's special pleading, and the whole purpose of sport is to determine who has better ability in the first place. The same should go for gender.
User was warned for this post
edit: Well, I meant that there is strong evidence that race is correlated to physical differences, as genes that determine race (although an arbitrary concept) correlate with genes that determine physicality. I didn't mean or say anywhere that skin colour or origin determines abilities, and I know that that is untrue. Not racist in any way, but I guess it was misconstrued by a mod who made assumptions..
|
The pendulum swings both ways.
|
Damn the title threw me off. i was expecting to see boys wearing girl's swimsuits. oh well...
|
I'd never considered the racial vs sex split before, but it actually makes a lot of sense, how can you argue for sex based discrimination based on physical differences but then refuse the same split based on racial differences.
|
For people thinking that there is any sort of athletic similarity in competitive sports you should see the brandi chastain(us womens soccer player) who said the womens team cannot beat the u15 boys team in scrims on a regular basis and have no hope against u17 due to just not matching up at all. I don't know if the east coast is different but high school is second rate swim competition for many states as club swimming is much higher level.
|
Uh... ok... I don't see any problems?
|
What i don't really get is why this whole thing should even be necessary. Swimming is an individual sport. For the training, it should not matter at all, just let them train together if you don't have enough people/trainers to train seperately. And for competitions, why can't they simply compete in the male competitions? Just get someones parents to drive them there if the school really can't afford a car at all, and the competition is not at the same place and time as the one for females.
I really don't understand why that would be so hard.
|
The BEST way would just to give the girls a handicap if there are boys competing in the same competition. so if a boy and a girl have the same time the girl wins. Anything else really is just too complicated
|
it is good to see the "gender equality" argument used to benefit males for a change
|
High school swimming doesn't matter at all.
Everyone swimming seriously swims on club swimming teams, but most clubs assume their high school swimmers are also swimming for their high school team, therefore they have lighter practice schedules during the high school season. The only reason these guys are doing this is to stay in shape and practice for club swimming. They aren't doing it so they can beat girls ect ect.
Another reason it doesn't matter is all anyone cares about in swimming is states. All the events prior to states are just to practice and to qualify for states. The article said the guys compete up to states meaning they don't compete in states. Qualifying for states is all based on time it doesn't matter if you come in last in your heat as long as you are under the set time for that event which is set at the start of the year.
If anything these guys are helping the girls around them by giving the girls who are normally the fastest something to chase, and its a lot easier to get better when you have something to chase. Oh and at lots of schools guys and girls swimming practice together anyways.
TL;DR: Swimming is practice and qualifying till states, guys dont go to states, they should be allowed.
|
|
|
|