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This seems to be pretty much the universal experience of people that advocate for trans participation in women's sports. They have no idea how large the gaps are between men and women because they have somehow managed to take pride in avoiding anything to do with physical fitness. I guess I can kind of, sort of squint and see how that happens, but the part I don't understand is their willingness to jump into arguments about a topic that they just don't care about at all.
They care because trans, not because sports.
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The more charitable explanation is that women and men never compete in sports directly past puberty . In the sports with comparable outcomes, it’s not clear if women do worse because there are so few of them or they are less competitive generally. Basically, anyone who grew up without a brother has no way of naturally disabusing themself of the notion that women are just as strong as men.
That isn't just more charitable, it is maximally charitable. In the post the OP is talking about the author describes the almost insane and pathological amount of avoidance he had for physical activity throughout much of his life, particularly post puberty. This is a guy who not only didn't participate or watch high school sports; in PE he sat out or walked the track; he had basically no friends, no brothers with girlfriends, and no sisters that he actually interacts with; and certainly no friends of the opposite sex willing to touch him in a playful manner. I dont know if it is a real story, but it is a literal one in a 100 million story sort of thing.
Not sure if 1:1M. I buy it, really. It's not too far off from my own teenage experiences. All it takes is the right brain wiring to accept statements by authority at face value. "Men and women can be equally physically capable? Sure thing, I trust you mom/teacher/book.". Add a few examples of exceptionally physically capable girls/women (as were present around me at the time, though of course they were given extra spotlight and never put into direct competition against equally ambitious boys/men.) and it can seem quite credible. Especially when you yourself are a bookworm for whom taking a walk is peak physical activity, and those guys/girls running marathons seem like aliens and you have no interest in observing their activities at all, nevermind gender disparities.
I'm glad I grew out of it, but I suppose there's ways enough for similar teenagers to instead double down and become physically illiterate adults instad.
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I don't understand your incredulity. "Not participating in or watching high school sports" describes half my high school - every once in a while the principal would beg people to come to games, but few showed up. While you're going to have to do some sports in PE, you can basically brush it off and half-heartedly sort of participate. Even the fitness exams aren't really pushed any more, they'll do them but no one is even mildly criticized for a poor score.
The "picking up your sister" thing is itself complicated by the fact that women are on average heavier than before. Sure, even a fairly weak man could pick up a thin woman, but you try and pick up someone who weighs 250lbs while also having weak arms. This is complicated by the fact that people assortively interact and date, so a boy who doesn't exercise is likely to spend time with girls who don't exercise. Does it only count as an "interaction" if you're wrestling, or something?
Playful roughhousing is also much less common, especially cross-gender. I had female friends in school, but there was never any sort of "playful touching" of the sort you apparently imagine would uncover physical strength differences like a revelation from Mount Sinai. There might be a playful poke or a shove, but never from the male side; the "men are stronger than women" truth has decayed, but the "men don't hit women" truth abides, even though large numbers of people couldn't explain why - maybe something to do with the patriarchy or domestic violence statistics?
As for the sex part... well, we've already litigated that a thousand times. Personally I think a huge portion of the romance crisis is due to men and women being much less fit than in the past, and therefore not finding each other particularly attractive. You can notice that in how men seem to recoil as from a snake when you suggest dating a fat chick. We even had one user with a pathological complex about ending up with a wildly obese woman: it was literally the worst thing he could imagine. If we're all being honest with each other, I think we've located the male ick.
You describe this as insane and pathological, but this describes a large set of younger generations. However little you might think the zoomers are working out and roughhousing, I assure you they're doing less. There's obviously a prescriptive angle you can take on this, but as a description of experience it rings completely true to me.
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Eh. This is just the "but how does it affect you PERSONALLY" meme seen from the other side. Trans advocates argue about it because letting people say 'there is a physical difference between trans women and women-women and we're justified in treating trans people differently' goes against the heart of the project; they care about it because of trans, not because of sports.
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