"when the spirit moves" from the February 14, 1978 Door County Advocate
By Chan Harris
when the spirit moves
By CHAN HARRIS
This furor over girls in boys varsity sports is interesting because it shows an emotional side of the women's movement. Some women are so caught up, so angry, that they view any comparison which appears to favor the male as a put-down when it is only presented as factual difference.
The fact that the best men milers run 30 seconds faster than the best women milers is no more an indictment of women than the fact that males cannot give birth is to men.
We would advise those who talk loosely about unisex sports at varsity level and beyond to talk to any competent physiologists, male or female. The one area in track where women may catch men is in the marathon but even there there is a half-hour spread at this point.
Where the radicals may go wrong is in comparing the gifted female with the average male. At my physical prime I could never have run a 440 at fast as the state Class A girls champions have run it, around 55 seconds. But 55 seconds won't even get you a place in the Packerland boys meet and the best boys in state run in the 48's and 49's.
You have to compare best with best. In early life girls are often superior in size and speed but after a certain age it's a whole different ball game. The large male is larger than the large female. The fast male is faster. Another element in varsity athletics is quickness and that is an adjunct of power.
Some say it's just a matter of training. The communist countries have pushed training to the ultimate in men's and women's athletics and you don't see them mixing the sexes.
All this is not to put women down. I'm crazy about girls track. The absolute speed doesn't count, it's the competition.
No man is ever going to skate as beautifully as Peggy Fleming or dance like Makarova. Neither will those two skate like Toller Cranston or dance like Baryshnikov, respectively. Come to think of it ballet would be pretty dull without the difference of the sexes.
Men and women are equal in personhood but physically different. It is conceivable that a change in culture and generations of deliberate selection could produce a physically female-dominant human species but as for now the male is stronger. So what? Big deal. Life is more than a sporting event. It's the person you are that counts, not who you can knock down. Besides, in the big competition, life, women win it by a mile, six more years than men say the actuaries. They may not be able to make the Packers but they outlive 'em.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Previous posts about girls sports
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/girls-sports