Stella Christ

WR 123

22 October 2015

Born with Boxing Gloves: The Differences Between Men and Women in Relation to Their

Abilities in Sports.

Many people strive to create some sort of level playing field in sports or making

competitive sports fair so all competitors have equal opportunity to excel in competition. But

how can we create a level playing field? There are many ways to create a level playing field in

competitive sports that may or may not work well. One is the possible combination of mens and

womens leagues so men and women compete together and against each other. However, We

should not combine mens a womens leagues in competitive sports because the differences of

men and women provides to the interest of competitive sports.

Some argue that men and womens leagues should be combined because the sexes are

actually not much different physically and the only reason for their separation is based on their

biological sex. One of these physical similarities is an overlap in hormone levels between the

sexes. Matt Slater writing on gender verification tests in his article Sport and Gender: A History

of Bad Science and Biological Racism writes about a study showing that six percent of male

athletes have testosterone levels that are lower than usual and thirteen percent of women have

higher testosterone levels than expected creating an overlap between the sexes when it comes to

athletes. An example of one of the women with higher testosterone levels is Maria Jose

Martinez-Patino who has a condition giving her more testosterone in her blood stream (Slater).

The argument made is that if there is an overlap between the sexes in hormone levels, then those

athletes must not be very different and should be capable of the same actions in sports; they
should be able to compete together. However, Only thirteen percent of women actually fall into

this overlapping area with higher testosterone. For the most part women biologically have less

testosterone than men; it is important for creating a level playing field that we are dealing with

the majority of male and female athletes. Speaking on testosterone, the hormone alone would not

contribute to a females ability to compete against male athletes in certain sports.

Other physical qualities have a much greater impact on ability and performance.

Biologically men have always been built differently than women, built in a way that gives them a

natural advantage over most women in most sports. As Slater puts it, For them, men's greater

height, leaner body mass, narrower hips and higher counts of oxygen-carrying red blood cells are

all more persuasive than testosterone (Slater). These qualities in particular give men a greater

advantage in racing competition. In most cases, men will have a natural advantage over women

because of the way they are physically built. I, for example, am naturally built with a very small

frame, as are all other females in my family. My brother, on the other hand, coming from the

same family has the type of large frame built that naturally gives him more physical capabilities.

I always wanted to box in the ring but simply do not have the physical qualities and frame to

excel; even if I worked up the muscle and built my body, my natural frame would not support me

in that fighting style in the same way it would support my own blood brother. Men, simply and

naturally, have the physical upper hand in competitive sports.

Of course there are cases where some female athletes are perfectly capable of competing

against men, like Ronda Rousey, arguably the best female UFC fighter who has been known to

dominate over some men. Not all women fall behind the male skill level and ability; however,

most women do and this is partially because of cultural influences. Women are constantly

pressured and influenced by society to fit certain feminine ideals like suppressing physical
aggression. Charlene Weaving, a Human Kinetics professor at St. Francis Xavier University,

agrees with the point Iris Marion Young makes in her essay Throwing Like a Girl that girls

use their bodies in ways that take up less space and argues that while women are capable of

using more physical space in sports like UFC fighting, they usually do not (Weaving).

The reason that women take up less space than men, or do not use as much physical

aggression, is not only because of their physical build but because of what they have been taught

by society. Our culture pushes girls at a young age to be feminine, the exact opposite of what

the media portrays for boys; boys are typically encouraged to compete in sports and often

portrayed as the more aggressive sex. Even if a woman ends up competing in sports like UFC

fighting, as young girls they grow up in the ideal way where they are used to taking up much

less physical space than men and then later in their lives make the transition into fighting. In

other words, women are not born into this world with boxing gloves on their hands, they are

typically not trained as toddlers to someday become the best female fighters like boys are; rather

the sport will spark their fancy at some point and they will dive into it after having lived many

years as a typical girl taking up less physical space than men. Males are typically exposed to

their sport much earlier than females which gives them a definite advantage over females. This is

not true for all women but I would say the majority of women competing in sports are not born

as fighting prodigies or encouraged the way boys are and still grow up in a society that pushes

them to be feminine.

It would not be fair to let men and women compete in the same league because of these

differences between men and women. If the two were combined it would create a huge gap in

skill level where some would excel far beyond others. The range of ability and skill would be

way too spread out and eliminate most of the interest of sports; if a sport is heavily dominated by
one group and they always win, is it even interesting to watch anymore? Even the strongest, most

built of all women could not compare to the strongest, most built of men. The way competitive

sports are already separated by sex provides plenty of variety of skill to keep the sports

interesting. After all, sports are entirely dependent on advantages and disadvantages but if those

advantages and disadvantages are too extreme, then the competition becomes less fascinating.

Keeping mens and womens leagues separated focuses in the skill level so that there is more

chance for close exciting competition, as opposed to constant dominating competition.

Is there a way to create a more level playing field other than the way sports are already

set up? Certainly we cannot create a completely level playing field because that would banish all

chances of variety and competition all together. But keeping the leagues separate is definitely

one way to keep competition fair and interesting due to the differences of the sexes.

Works Cited

Slater, Matt. Sport & gender: A history of bad science & 'biological racism. BBC Sports

Athletics. 28 July 2015. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.

Weaving, Charlene. Cage Fighting like a Girl: Exploring gender constructions in the Ultimate

Fighting Championship (UFC). Journal of the Philosophy of Sport (2014). 129-142.

Web. 13 Oct. 2015.