#gymnastics doesn't just have a separate league for men and women - men's gymnastics and women's gymnastics are separate sports | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

say-duhnelle · 8 months ago

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I'm not sure that naming gymnastics as the antithesis to sports with "ghettoized leagues for the frail and delicate" where traits more common in cis men give you an inherent advantage is quite the W you think it is, mate

crazy that in the 1970s they were like, "fine, women can play sports. but because they're innately less athletic than men, only in a special ghettoized League For The Frail And Delicate where they get paid less 😊". And not only is that still the system in 2023, but viciously lashing out at the smallest challenges to that system gets framed as Feminist Praxis

#gymnastics doesn't just have a separate league for men and women - men's gymnastics and women's gymnastics are separate sports #with different events and completely different rules #on the planes where they are comparable the men are lightyears ahead #the hardest floor skill in women's gym is a tuck triple twisting double & there are like three female gymnasts in the WORLD who can do that #men's has the same skill in a layout position (harder) as well as two variations on the (much harder) triple back #uneven bars has similar skills to MAG high bar but high bar has an entire class of releases (Kovacs type skills) that no woman has attempte #simone's yurchenko pike double back that dropped so many jaws in WAG is a 5.6 DV in MAG; their hardest vaults are 6.0 #if you want a sport where men and women compete on an equal playing field and the women actually win a lot of the time #the first one that comes to my mind is equestrian #although even that one is a Good Question because like #the grassroots base of equestrian is OVERWHELMINGLY female but the elite levels of the sport have a far more equal balance #making you wonder what the limiting factor is that keeps that overwhelming female proportion from making it into the upper echelons too #i do not mean this in a transphobic/gender essentialist/men and women should be separated way #I compete gymnastics in a league that allows co-ed competition in both the ''men's'' and ''women's'' disciplines and I have a lot of fun #what I mean is that the best paradigm here is not a settled question and may actually lie outside of any model that's currently common #(for example co-ed teams which must play a certain number of men AND a certain number of women at all times)#gymnastics

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