• @ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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    429 months ago

    I absolutely agree with the thesis that both men and women hunted, but I think the claims of women’s superior endurance are not represented in reality. The fastest marathon time for men is 2 hours 1 minute and for women it is 2 hours 14 minutes. These were in 2023 and 2019 respectively, so it’s not like it was years ago with drastically different treatment of the sexes. Both runners were Kenyans too, so that limits non-sex based biological differences.

    I don’t buy that it is socialization. For one thing, the difference disappears in sports like shooting and horseback riding where physicality is not the determining factor. On top of that, when children compete at sports there are negligible performance differences until after puberty. The article mentions the record a woman holds for swimming across the English Channel. I think that women’s higher body fat provides buoyancy that massively reduces the energy required to stay afloat for a prolonged time. We don’t see the same supposed superiority in other endurance events.

    This link touches on many of the same topics as the main article and adds some more info.

    https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240731-the-sports-where-women-outperform-men

    • @Anticorp@lemmy.world
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      119 months ago

      An under-15 boy’s soccer team destroyed the US World Women’s Soccer Team. That’s just a random group of boys who aren’t anywhere near their peak, vs literally the best female soccer players in the country. The physical strength, speed, and endurance differences between biological males and females is undeniable. Anyone who says differently is being intellectually and probably emotionally dishonest with themselves. Also, this purported evidence that women were the hunters is a very small sample size out of all of our anthropological evidence. Sure, some women hunted, and some women fought. Some cultures probably demanded that more than others. That doesn’t mean that thousands of years worth of history and assumptions are wrong.

      • @jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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        39 months ago

        Of course, this match against the academy team was very informal and should not be a major cause for alarm. The U.S. surely wasn’t going all out, with the main goal being to get some minutes on the pitch, build chemistry when it comes to moving the ball around, improve defensive shape and get ready for Russia.

        Your anecdotal evidence is countered in the very article you posted

        • @Anticorp@lemmy.world
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          -19 months ago

          Consider virtually every other sporting example in the history of sports that require speed, strength, and endurance for more examples.

      • Yeather
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        -29 months ago

        Men and women have about the same peaks but the floor is much higher for men.

    • @UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
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      99 months ago

      Speed of marathon doesn’t necessarily serve as a benchmark for endurance, does it? Endurance is a metric of how tired you get over time, no? A cheetah can run 1km waaaay faster than a human. Doesn’t mean that it has better endurance than humans.

      • @Anticorp@lemmy.world
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        149 months ago

        A marathon is a test of endurance. The faster you can complete it, the more endurance you have. Without endurance your body slows to a crawl over the vast distances covered during a marathon. A cheetah sprinting has nothing to do with endurance. They’re terrible endurance runners. Nobody’s saying sprinting speed is a test of endurance, but marathon speed absolutely is.

        • @dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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          39 months ago

          You’re adding parameters to say that women don’t have as much endurance as men. Have a race in which everyone has to run the same speed and see how long they can do it. That is true endurance. You can’t add parameters and say it’s a true test of a single one.

          • @Anticorp@lemmy.world
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            -19 months ago

            Idk what to tell you. You’re arguing that a marathon isn’t a test of endurance, and the speed at which someone can complete it isn’t an indication of their overall strength and endurance. Okay then. You win. Have a nice day.

      • bjorney
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        59 months ago

        What (widely popular) race could possibly be a better metric of endurance than the marathon?

    • @dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world
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      59 months ago

      The fastest marathon time for men is 2 hours 1 minute and for women it is 2 hours 14 minutes.

      “Fastest” does not mean the best endurance. You would be looking at the “longest”.

      • @ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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        19 months ago

        There have been several people, men and women who run a marathon every day for months or even years on end. In that sense there is no upper limit, but those people almost certainly all have a genetic mutation which most people don’t that prevents lactic acid buildup.

        • fafferlicious
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          79 months ago

          Stride length would like a word.

          Strength, speed, and endurance are related. You’re right. But it’s not as clear as faster time == better endurance.

          • @ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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            19 months ago

            Longer stride length also equals a heavier body weight to move. I’m sure there’s some sort of graph where the vertex represents the most efficient combination of those factors.

    • @scarabic@lemmy.world
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      19 months ago

      Let’s run a marathon where everyone is underfed and has foot injuries as well as painful dental problems. I guarantee you more women will finish the race ;D

      • @ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world
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        19 months ago

        Most marathon runners have a lower body fat than is considered medically healthy and their toe nails pop off during the race, so we are already 2/3 of the way there.