FireDancer, I'm surprised you're so fired up not to support Disney's sexism only now... Have you not seen any Disney films? They're filled with sexism and racism.
You say, "Running isn't other sports. The separation that happens in other sports based on gender doesn't, well shouldn't, happen here. In other sports like baseball, football, or hockey you would also never see a 70 year old man compete with the 20 year old guys that do play but running is different. Here my grandpa or grandma could line up right beside me."
Do you boycot professional sports organizations? You should, ir you're choosing not to support any "sexist" organizations.
I'm not trying to cause controversy here; I can (kind of) understand the frustrations from the male perspective here. You can't win...though men do seem to finish first in every other Disney race. You do get a medal. I guess what would really anger me if I were a man is that I wouldn't get a men's race t-shirt.
Many professional sports have physiological reasons why men and women can't compete together. I'm not delusional, I think there are situations in which the sexes can compete together and some where they just can't. Running and triathlon are one of the rare instances where men and women can compete because they are not directly competing against each other. On an NFL field everyone competes directly with everyone on the other. It doesn't matter if 200 men cross the finish line before the first woman in racing. That 201st finisher, if she is the first woman, is just as much the winner as the 1st man was. Mirinda Carfrae is just as much the current Ironman World Champion as Chris McCormack is.
I do, however, fully support any woman who is good enough to play in any professional sports league. If a woman is good enough to pitch in the major leagues or play goalie in the NHL I think they should be able to play in that professional league. You get no argument there from me. There also isn't a double standard in most professional sports because
both men and women are allowed single gender leagues. Here,
only women are allowed gender-specific races. You also have things like Title IX that mandate equality because women weren't being treated as equal. The problem was addressed not explained away with a balance sheet. On another note though I wouldn't consider golfing at Augusta because they don't allow women and that is just as wrong, IMO, as Disney not allowing men to fully participate.
Most of the Disney films that people point to as sexist or racist are historical stores told at a point in history when those things were unfortunately a fact. A story that takes place in the pre-civil war era and depicts African Americans as slaves isn't racist, it is historical accuracy. A fairytale that takes place in the 17th century and treats women as not equal to men isn't sexist, it is historically accurate. It doesn't matter when a film is made, it matters what point in history the film depicts. It doesn't make those things right but it tells the story from the standpoint that the story would have been told at that point in time. Contemporary stories, absolutely, but then you have characters like Lilo who are contemporary and as far as I know are treated as equal citizens. If there is a modern-time based story that depicts women as inferior that is wrong but at the same time these stories, as bad as they may be, are fiction. Fiction isn't real but I assure you half marathons are real. Al Pacino was portrayed as a murderous drug dealer in Scarface but despite that depiction no one thinks he is actually one.
Most importantly, even though I think they are often not protesting the right thing, those fairytale stories that portray women negatively or those old stories that portray African Americans negatively
do get protests,
do get boycotts by groups of people,
do get books written about their influence on young women. When men are the ones marginalized we don't get those same things and definitely don't get those same things on the same level.
That went kind of long. FWIW I haven't been to a professional sports game in a while. Women have a lot of situations where they are treated unfairly as do homosexuals, minorities, and just about everything else. None of those things are right but all of them get a lot more attention than when men are treated unfairly.
All of this is merely my opinion. I have no problem agreeing to disagree.
