Weaker Sex? :: Sports Women Feminist Papers

Weaker Sex? "Psychologically, men are more explosive, inconsistent, not enduring, a nd in pain exertion - especially among high performance athletes - somewhat sniveling. A woman is the opposite: tough, constant, enduring, level and calm under the pain to which her biology exposes her. On the average she is more patient than a man. Armed with these advantages, women are in a position to do endurance feats previously considered by men to be impossible."(Noakes 598) Not many sports exist in the world today in which women can be competitive with men. Although this is not true with many other things in life, it has always seemed that males dominate the sports world, no matter how hard women have tried to break through this. Upon taking this class, I thought I had found such a sport. From quotes such as the one above by Dr. Ernst van Aaken and other findings in the class text books, I developed the thesis that Ultra Marathon Running might be just the sport for women to show their ability to best men in sports arenas that which they had previously been excluded from. As I look deeper into this statement, I realize that there are many different ideas and theories on this topic. Many women say, "Yes, of course women can compete with men", while men tend to laugh at the question and scoff at even the thought. So my question remains unanswered, can women of the ultra species compete with males? In 1971, American woman, Natalie Cullimore surprised the all male ultra world by running a 16:11 for the one hundred-mile race. Not only was she second in the race, but this was the fourth fastest time for a male or female at this distance. She caught the attention of the males of the sport with her speed and helped many other women to find a place in this field with her determination. As women's ultra running became more popular world wide, people began to take notice. Onlookers realized that the women always seemed to look more fresh at the end of a race, as if it were not as much of a struggle for them as it was for the men. This observation prompted many studies and the theory that women could beat competitive men. The first doctors to make a statement about this theory were Dr. Joan Ulloyt and Dr.