I imagine it's like the large number of African Americans in football and basketball: it's one of the only areas where being part of that minority is not a treated as a liability.
Essentially all women's sports are overly gay and vice-versa for men's sports.
Part of early identity formation for most queer kids I ever interacted with (and there were a bunch of "gay" kids and "dyky" kids before any of us figured out that the other sex didn't have actual cuties or had a conception of what actual homosexuality was) involves a rejection of gender norms. I don't believe gay women inherently love sports or that gay boys inherently love musical theater, it's just that those are the stereotypically non-feminine/non-masculine identifiers. So women end up in sports because that's how an 8 year old asserts their non-girlishness. They play aggressively, they don't cry when they skin a knee, they don't care to look "pretty" (although everyone recognizes, Pinoe in all her dykiness is still hot af and if she wants help to crank one out she has my twitter handle)
Of course, elite sports are dominated by kinesthophiles (my made up word for people who's fundamental self-expression is via moving their body, rather than painters, writers, etc who gain fundamental joys in other ways) who are also the right height and weight. That gay women are routinely out-competing straight women for the same spots is a function of how relatively shallow the competitive pool is for most women's sports (ie, desire to play is more important than having an elite body). We're just now beginning to see a generation of kids grow up with parents who have never known an era where women's sports weren't at least on a moral level with men's sports.
It's always fun to see Katie Herzog apply one of her refreshingly counterintuitive hot takes to a topic she apparently doesn't know much about.
Speaking as a sports fan, what's remarkable to me is how NON-dykey American women's soccer is.
And I'm embarrassed a bit even to make that observation. Speaking as someone who thoroughly enjoyed this year's Women's World Cup--and who enjoyed last year's (men's) World Cup too--the sexual orientations of the players was not exactly the preeminent thought in my mind.
@5 "Males are more attracted to sports than females. " Speak for yourself. I'm far more attracted to females than sports. Try and focus more on your sports kink, and less on hate speech.
"equal pay" except more people watch Men's Soccer than Women's soccer so technically it is equal but you want to steal from Men's Soccer to pay Women more. Sounds fair.
Maybe we should force Pharmacy and Nursing to have an equal men & women ratio too.
Used to be great circulating theory about how there were three types of collegiate lesbians. Centers, non-centers, and varsity athletes. Center was a someone who spent an inordinate amount of time at the LGBT center, hanging out with other centers, doing center stuff etc. Club sport players are not included in the varsity athlete section. This makes any rugby queers and any queer on a Evergreen state college team a non-center. Still rings true.
Next up, does it seem like there are more gay male fashion designers than one would expect by chance? Let’s do some back of the envelope math to find out! Yes? Now explain it by saying science says it could be genetic, environmental, or maybe both. Okay, let’s knock off early and go out for beers!
I imagine it's like the large number of African Americans in football and basketball: it's one of the only areas where being part of that minority is not a treated as a liability.
Trolls will be out just in case any of you gays start getting uppity.
Essentially all women's sports are overly gay and vice-versa for men's sports.
Part of early identity formation for most queer kids I ever interacted with (and there were a bunch of "gay" kids and "dyky" kids before any of us figured out that the other sex didn't have actual cuties or had a conception of what actual homosexuality was) involves a rejection of gender norms. I don't believe gay women inherently love sports or that gay boys inherently love musical theater, it's just that those are the stereotypically non-feminine/non-masculine identifiers. So women end up in sports because that's how an 8 year old asserts their non-girlishness. They play aggressively, they don't cry when they skin a knee, they don't care to look "pretty" (although everyone recognizes, Pinoe in all her dykiness is still hot af and if she wants help to crank one out she has my twitter handle)
Of course, elite sports are dominated by kinesthophiles (my made up word for people who's fundamental self-expression is via moving their body, rather than painters, writers, etc who gain fundamental joys in other ways) who are also the right height and weight. That gay women are routinely out-competing straight women for the same spots is a function of how relatively shallow the competitive pool is for most women's sports (ie, desire to play is more important than having an elite body). We're just now beginning to see a generation of kids grow up with parents who have never known an era where women's sports weren't at least on a moral level with men's sports.
It's always fun to see Katie Herzog apply one of her refreshingly counterintuitive hot takes to a topic she apparently doesn't know much about.
Speaking as a sports fan, what's remarkable to me is how NON-dykey American women's soccer is.
And I'm embarrassed a bit even to make that observation. Speaking as someone who thoroughly enjoyed this year's Women's World Cup--and who enjoyed last year's (men's) World Cup too--the sexual orientations of the players was not exactly the preeminent thought in my mind.
"there were a bunch of "gay" kids and "dyky" kids before any of us figured out that the other sex didn't have actual cuties"
Isn't a belief that the other sex lacks "cuties" part of what makes one gay?
@5 "Males are more attracted to sports than females. " Speak for yourself. I'm far more attracted to females than sports. Try and focus more on your sports kink, and less on hate speech.
My goodness, homosexuals in ladies' sports? And academics who have opinions about it, too?
Crackerjack reporting from The Stranger, top stuff.
@6 my b I meant Cooties. not cuties.
I was promised a Parade.
When is it?
"equal pay" except more people watch Men's Soccer than Women's soccer so technically it is equal but you want to steal from Men's Soccer to pay Women more. Sounds fair.
Maybe we should force Pharmacy and Nursing to have an equal men & women ratio too.
you're over-thinking this.
Turns out butch dykes are butch.
Congrats, Megan Rapinoe and World Cup champs!
wait, so you're telling me that the Chicago Bears have nothing to do with...
Used to be great circulating theory about how there were three types of collegiate lesbians. Centers, non-centers, and varsity athletes. Center was a someone who spent an inordinate amount of time at the LGBT center, hanging out with other centers, doing center stuff etc. Club sport players are not included in the varsity athlete section. This makes any rugby queers and any queer on a Evergreen state college team a non-center. Still rings true.
Next up, does it seem like there are more gay male fashion designers than one would expect by chance? Let’s do some back of the envelope math to find out! Yes? Now explain it by saying science says it could be genetic, environmental, or maybe both. Okay, let’s knock off early and go out for beers!
@13, women’s soccer brings in more revenue then men’s, according to those radical gender activists over at the Wall Street Journal.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-womens-soccer-games-out-earned-mens-games-11560765600
But, you know, US Soccer is a non profit, so maybe revenue raised isn’t the right measure...