Girls and guys competing against each other in sports?

I read that a 16 year old girl hockey player wanted to try out for the boys team even though there was a girls team at her school. I adamantly oppose this. I don't think it's fair to the guys to have to compete against girls in CONTACT SPORTS ONLY.





Men are taught to never ever their greater strength and physically aggressiveness to dominate or intimidate a women (yes, there is a ton of domestic violence, but those perps are despicable).





Yet, now girls/women want to prove they are physically tougher than men? I was taught it is ok to hit a guy if he invades your space, gets in your face, and threatens to kick your ***. I was also taught that if this hostile person was a girl, then you are not allowed to hit her; you have to walk away.





Yet, if you grew up in an environment where girls were trying to forecheck and tackle you during sports, you would probably hit this hostile person, even if it was a woman.





Do these same 16 year old girls also get separate locker rooms?

Girls and guys competing against each other in sports?
The mere fact that there is a Women's Studies category should tell you that our society has strong differences in the treatment of male and females.





The same culture that allows females to "compete" against males in the regular classrooms despite differences in maturation rates that can give females a slight advantage for a few years, tends to separate the students for physical classes where the males might have an advantage.





I find it odd that people would rather argue over gender differences in current sports than spend time developing new innovative sports where males and females could play the same games and not have to worry about their differences.





If sports are to help students learn about competition and cooperation then perhaps it is time to leave traditional games based upon the concepts of warfare and create sports for the 21st century. (...and I don't mean Rollerball).
Reply:I also think its BS, because lets face it, is daddy gonna let some guy on the opposite team, body check his daughter into a wall and not call him a coward? Technically, hes not a coward, and its just what people do when they play the game, but there are always those a**holes who want to have their cake and eat it too. Women should not be able to play with men, simply because they will never end up playing by the rules, and there will always be some moron screaming for an exception. In football (American), if some guy tackled a woman as hard as he would another man, the press would be all over that story, and they would accuse that man of doing it on purpose. So you see hypocrites are the reason coed sports cant work. When everyone is ready to play fair, then we can think about including women in with men.
Reply:I play co-ed sports (racquet sports, volleyball, ultimate, etc.) with women and find there is no difference in how I play, they are just another player that I want to win against.





When I play rougher sports (soccer for example) I have this innate sense to tone down my play when defending a women, I cant help it. I think it takes away from the game as well. One thing everyone who play sports have in common is competitiveness.





As an adult, we have a choice as to whether we want to play co-ed sports or not. As children there are many instances where that choice is not there. I think parents should discourage their daughters from playing on mens teams. There are many social advantages to playing sports with people of the same sex.
Reply:A lot of reponses here say we should include women playing sports with men when people act more fair. I'll say this, as one who used to always play neighborhood tackle football to the extreme, most females wouldn't be able to handle the hits guys give. Sometimes people go flying into the streets, slammed against trees, blasted in the mud, rotated in the air, elbowed in the eye, massive headache but still have to finish the game. Most females don't have the body for it. Some do, but breasts are sensitive, especially when getting hammered in the chest.





Some sports women and men can play together, like tennis, golf, or maybe even baseball, but football and other tough sports like it, very dangerous.
Reply:Men would get used to it. Martial arts classes are almost always coed for exampel.


We should get rid of gender seperated sports alotegether and have cooed teams only, even if it means there will be less girls involved in sports. In return girls get the chance to a juicy pro career instead of beeing stuck in no cash womens sports. A Quarterback for exampel needs more accuracy than strentgh to deliver that pass.
Reply:When I played soccer back in high school, we went up against a few teams who didn't have enough female interest for a separate girls' team, but instead had one or two mixed in with the guys.





Needless to say, it was a disaster. The first time any of them would take a serious hit (and it's inevitable; soccer is a very rough game), then would come the water works. It was embarrassing to have to watch.





Also, a few times we played scrimmages against our school's female team. Every time we played, we were always told to take it easy, don't run up the score too much, blah blah blah. Even when I was a freshman playing on junior varsity against the girls' varsity team, it was the same song and dance. Basically, it was a joke and a waste of a practice.





But the latter example really underscores what our society considers to be "equal" competition between men and women. Like the fact that women in the New York City marathon receive a 16 minute head start, BARELY win the event, then crow about how strong women are. Or remember the tennis match with Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs? The guy was an aging, retired tennis player against one of the top-ranked women in her prime, and this was once again considered "equal." Or hell, I saw an ad not too long ago for a team of professional women's football players (snort) to play in a "battle of the sexes" against a bunch of 30+ year old guys with no experience.





In other words, women want a SEMBLANCE of competition because it gives them the warm fuzzies when they win, but it's a harsh slap from reality to realize that men are naturally stronger. And knowing the society we live in, I doubt they'll ever receive that reality check.
Reply:Girls should not compete in cotact sports against men... i have a friend who played hockey, he was very aggressive and his whole team was, sometimes, on scrimmage they played against other team, this other team had one girl, and my firiend's team wouldn't play as usual cause they had to be careful who to hit, they were afraid to hit the girl... cause when they did she was hurt or the hits were nasty, the girl would fly and land BAD! It is well known men have more physical strength than women, and are much more heavier and aggresive, some girls are too, but not many... this girl would hit them, and she would take all their hits... but they were all the time trying not to hit her... the game was not fair. We are in this culture used to respect women, or, to respect the other sex.





A different locker room? that means lots of trouble for a team.





No no, let they boys alone, yeah some girls are as agressive and as strong and heavy, but guys will never see them as another guy.