The Misconception of the Female Athlete

        Society has viewed women throughout history as the weaker of the two genders, and people use all sorts of arguments to defend this line of thinking. Proponents of this notion claim to justify their view using everything from God to biological differences, but as any independent and ambitious girl knows, the notion that women cannot be strong, feminine, and intelligent is crap.

        Some people in society (and I am not talking about everyone or anyone in particular) feel that women do not have the ability to push through the pain as well as men, or are not capable of being as intense of athletes as men. In other words women are sometimes thought of as less legitimate athletes than men. They feel that we should not be competitive and offensive, they feel that we should be vulnerable and bow down from a challenge. They feel threatened when we do not. 

          I want to make two components of my view clear right now, the first is that I realize times have changed, and women’s sports now receive far more respect than they did in the days of the 91’ World Cup when the US Women’s Soccer Team won and came back to the United States to find that their accomplishment had not even been aired on any television station. They received no recognition for being the best team in the nation. However there is still a discrepancy between men and women in modern day sports, for example, the men’s national team in the World Cup earlier this year received more money for not making it to the quarterfinals than the women did for being the champions of the nation once again.

          The second point that I want to clarify, is that I am not denying that men are not biologically more adapted to generally perform better than women. I am not saying that every man is better than every women at sports, I would like to see 99% of the male population go against Serena Williams in a match and last two minutes, but the best males are better than the best females when it comes to their maximum capability of strength and speed. This fact has its basis in science, but that is not to say that there are not exceptions, it is biological and stems from simply the amount of testosterone one has versus estrogen. However, the things that define what make men men and women women do not determine the value of them as athletes. 

          My point in writing this blog today is simply to state that women can be just as intense and successful as male athletes in their own right and that they should not be counted out just because of their gender and the air of vulnerability surrounding them. I didn't mean to turn any heads or offend anyone, this is just my point of view on an ever present topic in the context of feminism in sports.