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Comment by Dalewyn | Hacker News Reader

Not parent commenter; I believe that any sport which looks at gender/sex is undeniably sexist, this includes the Olympic games which are by far the most blatant and prominent examples.

True equality can only be achieved by not considering if someone is a man, woman, or whatever they might want to classify as. Lump everyone together, equal opportunities given, and may the best man as in mankind win.

And no, don't give me "Women will almost always lose!". That is sexist bullshit. Equality is equality, we can't have our cake and eat it too. There is no line to be drawn.

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This is silly for a bunch of reasons, not the least of which is that there are already "weight classes" for many sports as a way to have different body types compete on a more equal playing field. Perhaps dividing competitors by gender is arbitrary, but all game rules are arbitrary.

If we want to remove gender from the equation, perhaps we should have "testosterone classes" where athletes compete against others with a similar testosterone level.

But then males could pharmaceutically suppress testosterone, compete in the low testosterone class, and still make use of the male physical advantage they have from going through male puberty and having had testosterone shape their body for many years. You can't unbuild a male, even by adjusting testosterone.

I understand the point you're trying to make, but this entire thread misses the forest for the trees. Rules & regulations don't exist to create equality or fairness, it's to foster competition. We don't watch competitions for how equal and fair they are. By separating competition by gender, we have increased the opportunities to witness competitiveness. How, going forward, can we maximize that metric? That will be the future of sport.

What you are describing is the end of women playing sports. What is the point of competing in something you are guaranteed to lose?

This is the exact definition of Mansplaining.

The past few weeks have seen men in droves mansplaining to women.. ‘what is a woman?’

Do you know how low the highest ranked man Serena could beat (at her prime) was?

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