Women's sports
There's just something about women's sports that is unentertaining. Whether it be softball, basketball, golf, field hockey, pie bake-off, etc. There are two exceptions, however, that I do enjoy watching women compete. One is Beach Volleyball, the other is Tennis. As I watched the Venus Williams v Maria Sharapova match today, I was more than just entertained, I was into it. "Sitting on the edge of the chair, cheering after a rally" type of into it. So that left me to ponder: What makes these two women's sports more entertaining than the rest.I've come up with a couple of suggestions.
First is the most obvious: Little uniforms. Let's face it, no matter how hard we try to suppress it, men like to look at pretty girls. In Beach Volleyball, the competitors are wearing bikinis...that's entertaining. In tennis they have the little skirts and dresses, not to mention that female tennis players have gotten a lot more attractive since Billie Jean King.
I think this same theory helps to explain why men in general dislike the majority of female sports. To men, women are supposed to be delicate, cute, submissive, and nurturing. Not physical, competitive, ruthless, and powerful. When women compete with each other physically, it a lot of times makes them less attractive, and guys don't like that.
The second is the team aspect. Personally, I don't think women work well as a team, especially the larger the team gets. With women, they are always analyzing each other and forming attitudes right off the bat about other people.
Tennis is largely an individual sport, beach volleyball is usually a duo.
This argument has a ton of holes, which I will help you shoot. I think the "women not working well as a team" argument is more true is social situations than sports. I actually don't think that women's sports teams work poorly as a team, in general.
So where does that leave us? I've got one more thought...Women are not physical and competitive enough. Watching the Spurs vs Pistons battle it out against each other is a matchup worth watching, but seeing WNBA Team A vs WNBA Team B run up and down the court missing shots and not capitalizing on rebounds is a snooze. If Rebecca Lobo played like Shaq would we watch?
Let's see what the internet has to say about this topic. And any women who want to make comments about how this is sexist and I should be ashamed of myself for talking about this can save themselves the trouble of that argument and go make me a sandwich. Of course intelligent dialogue from the female readers of Philthy Laundry is, as always, encouraged.
posted by philthy @ 6:01 PM
8 Comments:
Phil, I don't think you are sexist in the least. I also don't like watching women play sports, not even tennis or volleyball, and I even used to play volleyball (apparently the tiny skirts and bikinis don't do it for me). I will watch women's volleyball during the Olympics, but catching a game or two every 4 years is more than enough for me.
I do on the other hand, LOVE watching men play sports...college basketball, professional/college football, and pro baseball. And it's not because of the tight pants.
I think it's just the level of play in women's sports that don't appeal to me. My parents always buy season tickets for ISU women's volleyball and they get really into it, but I couldn't care less (and not just because it's ISU). I went to games all the time when I was growing up, and it just never floated my boat.
For four years of college I had season tickets to men's football and basketball...but I went to exactly zero women's games. I guess that says it all.
XX yours,
Teresa
I agree with most of what you say, philthy, however, I was shocked when I once gave the Women's Olympic B-ball Team a chance to prove me wrong about girls in sports.
Last summer, I was flipping channels, and the women were ballin, so I lingered, and I was somewhat impressed, especially contrasting their game with the men's pitiful performance. We don't have to get into how the men's team bronze medal was more due to terrible decisions by David Stern and bad coaching by Larry Brown than the automatic claims that players nowadays "don't care".
But, the women had an excellent team game in terms of X's and O's. The finished product lacked the florish of the NBA, but is was surprisingly entertaining for 3.7 minutes. Then, I put on Maury.
Philthy, I feel you with the women's sports. MJ makes a good point about girls being more apt to listen when you tell them to do something, but then again you have the problem of them not being able to actually do whatever it is you tell them to do. Like jump, for instance.
Women might have better fundamentals then the men, but that's exactly what makes them less interesting and less entertaining. Anyone can learn the fundamentals. I could teach my grandma tonight how to pivot and how to shoot with proper form. We want to watch people do things that we can't do, and do things better than we can do. Honestly, I'm not really interested in watching a girl who has perfected the jump stop or the chest pass.
And what's up with MJ ballin with WNBA and NBA peeps? Did you ever play Khalid?
Sharapova is overrated.
MJ, you dropped 52 on "a team full of ex-pro and college players"?
Is this Michael Jordan, or Magic Johnson, or Mark Jackson, or Marc Jackson?
Or were you playing against George Mikan right before he passed?
philthy, can you verify is "mj" is a real person? 52 points is a lot. i've never put up more than 17 in an organized game, and people call me the white Ray Allen.
I also was curious about this MJ character. Does he have his own blog with highlights and stuff?
And how did you come to know this guy, Phil? Also, are there any pictures available with you and MJ together in the same picture? I will take one, please.
rest assured he is real.
I met him when I was eight and he invinted me over to his place for "Jesus Juice" and to sleep in his bed. He had lots of fun toys and stuff, although his nose fell off a couple times.
But seriously, I think he's legit...he used to be my customer when I worked at Satan's workshop (aka CDW) I think we can take his word that he's a pretty big baller, and as for the 52 points...he's a ballhog, so it wouldn't surprise me.
I don't know why he doesn't have his own blog, because I know he has time to play on the internet. I used to talk to him at least an hour a day, and he was never working.
So get on it MJ, share your knowledge with the world. And put up some hot pics of your wife!
Wow, UNCLE PHILLIP.
You're such a moose.
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