Thanks to Suzanne at the People Under the Stairmasters, I read this article about why women shouldn’t be runners. Basically the author’s point (did I even need to point out that the author is a man?) is that women shouldn’t be runners because then they look like men. They have small boobs and narrow hips. He does make a disclaimer that its ok for professional runners, but most of us shouldn’t even try.
Well I’m sorry Mr. Guy. Women do run. And this does not lead to them looking “like men.” Yes, there are anatomical differences between the sexes. Men are stronger, and generally more athletic – they process energy differently and their metabolism is different. Actually, most species of animals, especially mammals, are like this*.
However, the problem with humans is that some time ago, we chose to walk upright. This has made it impossible for thousands of generations of human women to give birth to our big-brained babies unaided, because our hips got narrower to supposrt our upright carriage. So the humans (male and female) traded bipedal walking for wider hips. According to this guy, they would have looked more feminine before - when the hips were oh-so-curvy. Maybe I’m just behind the times, but Neanderthals generally don’t look feminine to me, at least by our culture’s standards.
Lucky for us, today’s women are not running to impress men, especially this particular man. We are running to stay healthy, to combat the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and plenty of other things. But we’ll trade all that for the assurance that we do not look too manly. This is why I’m always sure to wear a big pink bow on my head and a frilly dress while doing any type of physical activity.
* Except for lions, where the lioness is the food-catcher, and the male lies around all day and then expends a lot of effort trying to get his lethargic sperm to impregnate a female when she has time for it. But we won’t make any comparisons with the author of this article.
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11 comments:
I thought he was saying that women can only be runners if they happen to look like men. Either way, he is an utter douche bag.
I meant Suzanne, not sr393. I'm losing it...
And I got all excited because I thought I had a new reader. Just kidding.
I like the line "Lucky for us, today’s women are not running to impress men, especially this particular man." !
What a jerk.
Exactly what kind of aid do we need to give birth? I wasn't sure what you meant by that part. There are many women who give birth completely alone and catch their babies themselves.
If women give birth by themselves, it's extremely difficult. Other animals just pop 'em out, but humans are in labor for hours, and we are positioned so that your arms can't reach something that is squeezing out of your vagina. That's why there is generally someone there to deliver the baby.
Aah, it seems that you're going off the American myths about labor and birth. You need to research Unassisted Birth, Laura Shanley, painless birth/hypnobirthing, stuff like that :-)
Pain and difficulty during labor is not normal in some cultures. They don't believe it exists, so they don't experience it. Americans have bought into the idea of pain, and now most of us believe that's how labor has to be.
Animals *do* have pain and difficult labors if people watch them and interfere and they get scared. If humans feel completely secure and don't believe that birth is difficult or painful, they can have easy and painless births. Many women do not feel totally secure with anyone else there, which is the main reason they choose unassisted birth. Often times they'll have their family there, but many women do it completely alone.
Unassisted birth is not something I am into any more, but women do it, and have easy, quick labors, and catch their own babies with their own hands as they come out.
I am still interested in painless labor/birth, however :-) I personally know several women who learned how to have painless births (even after having long, painful, difficult births in the past). It's certainly attainable!
You can tell that birth is a passion of mine! I'd think that as a feminist you'd really enjoy learning about these ideas, rather than believing that labor is painful, difficult, and requires doctors.
I'm just speaking from an evolutionary point of view. I have no experience with giving birth myself. Walking upright led to narrower hips, and as bigger brains developed, birthing became more difficult (i.e. squeezing that massive skull through those narrow hips). Of course the bigger brains have also led humans to find ways around the painful birth, but the majority of women in industrialized cultures still experience "traditional" birth, featuring doctors and pain.
I don't think it's a feminist issue because it's not like the men are imposing this process onto us. I think that a lot of women just don't bother with the kind of research you're talking about.
As for me, when I am ready to go through labor, you can bet I'll look into painless birth, because I've never been one for pain, and that is the main turnoff about having a kid right now. :)
"I don't think it's a feminist issue because it's not like the men are imposing this process onto us."
Do you mean the process of birth in general? I agree with that. But a lot of natural birth activists believe that the pain of labor/birth and violence against women during labor/birth (such as episiotomies and painful birthing positions) is perpetuated by men. I just ran across this website this morning and thought of this discussion: http://www.takebackthebirth.com/
I never thought about it that way. One hand, feminists (myself included) can find issue with anything. On the other hand, I'll definitely be researching it more when I have kids!
Thanks for all your comments Katie! They are very interesting!
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