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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 26, 2022

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It is so dumb, because if you take two men - say a lightweight boxer and a middleweight boxer - you don't put them in the same fight (unless it's some kind of gimmick stunt). Everybody recognises this. A good lightweight will be beaten by a good middleweight. It's down to physical difference in height, weight, reach, etc.

But then you get people trying to deny that women in general are smaller, lighter, slower and weaker than men in general and it's just - do you not have eyes? Have you ever struggled with opening a jar and had to get a male family member to do it? Or lift something heavy for you?

The boxing analogy is instructive, heavyweight was the big draw but I don't know if that is still the case today (my late father used to watch boxing, so I absorbed some by osmosis but haven't watched any myself in years). There is a difference between fighters and boxers, one is generally considered to be more skilful in the art of boxing. The ideal, of course, is to have someone like Ali who could both box beautifully and also slog it out, soaking up punishment and landing heavy hits.

Heavyweight went down for a while because too many big, heavy, guys who were slow and clumsy but their main advantage was they could soak up punishment for the majority of the bout, then if they landed one big punch that was it for their opponent. (That's why lighter weight bouts were more enjoyable, because you got actual fighting and boxing, not one big behemoth lumbering around the ring being a human punching bag until he landed the killer punch). So a big, heavy, clumsy guy will slaughter (metaphorically) a woman who may be more skilled and faster than him, but who can't take the same beating and certainly can't stand up to one huge punch.

Katie Taylor is a great female boxer. She is never gonna stand in a ring with a guy, because he'd hammer her. You watch her bouts for the same reason you'd watch men boxing: skill and stamina. But there is never going to be a man versus woman boxing match, even at the same weights, because it just would not be level. Okay, maybe get a flyweight guy and some Soviet-era style big heavyweight female athlete, but even then I don't think it would be that equal.