Christ, I know. It reminds me of during the Olympics when the appearances of the athletes were discussed far more often than their athletic prowess.

I think this happens for two main reasons (that I can think of now, anyway): first, men are just used to thinking that they can comment on women regardless of whether or not said woman could kick their ass. We're judged by if we're attractive or fuckable, not by what we say or do. Second, the infantalizing language (cat fights instead of real fights, "girl" athlete instead of athlete, etc.) helps them keep their feeling of superiority-- she's not a threat to them, she's just in a GIRL fight. She's not going to try to change their status quo, she's just a GIRL. It's sick, sad, and wrong.

I watched that fight with two of my friends and none of us made such comments.

That said, we all agreed that Carano is freakin' hot and we'd love it if she beat us up too!

There ware also a few comments when they showed scenes of her not making weight in a previous fight. It was something about how lucky her trainers were to be holding the towels covering her naked body.

Would we have said that about men? No. Why? Because the naked male form has no real value.

As for the comments made when you watched it my first thought was they made those comments because you were in the room. You exude a contempt for anything male and even if they didn't know who you are they can tell what you are.

And in the end you left the room which means they got what they wanted.

You know equality means that you might not be privileged all the time. The fact that they did things to alienate you and drive you away means they were treating you EXACTLY like they would treat any man they also didn't like.

I love Gina Carano! Her body is a slab of highly trained athletic muscle! Obviously, that asshole announcer needed to feel superior and when the women werent reinforcing their bullshit ideas of a 'catfight' they felt threatened and cowardly had to drop in some sort of sexism to maintain their insulated denial.

I sometimes think that the only true way of getting these men's respect in sports would be for both men and women to compete together.

Afterall, if men see that women have to have a separate competition (ie. PGA and LPGA NBA and WNBA), most men will automatically assume that the men's competition is of a higher standard.

But if you put both men and women in the same competition, then when you see women whopping ass, then the men will have no excuses and can't say that the women were weaker. Afterall, men's sports are always about good sportsmanship (hence the handshaking seen at the end of games and the attitude of "the better man won, you beat me fair and square") and they will have to admit that they lost fair and square.

I guess the ring doesn't matter what set of genitalia you have...the winner will always be the better fighter with the passion to win, man or woman.

I find it so fascinating when a woman wants to make her way into the male dominating arena. I truly believe that men take it as a joke when they hear about a woman wanting to do a man sport. It feels to me as a shield of denial for men because its almost as if their of afraid that a woman can actually beat them at something! There are circumstances if you really think about it though, yes a woman can be tougher or better than a man but then theres the part about it being ok for a man to hit a woman. Does it make a difference whether it is a sport or not that a man has the right to hit a woman ??

But what about Tom Brady, Oscar De La Hoya or any other attractive male athlete? Don't they become an object in the eyes of their admirers of the opposite sex?