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Running Up the Empire State Building: Gender differences in sportsBY: Guest | Category: Women | Post Date: 2010-02-05
1,576 steps connect the 86 flights of stairs in the Empire State Building. Paul Crake has made it up those stairs in just nine minutes and thirty-three seconds. Crake is the record holder for the annual -Run up the Empire State Building.- The women's record holder, Suzy Walsham, won the 2007 race in thirteen minutes and twelve seconds. This pattern of men setting better records than women isn't limited to the Empire State Building run. The records for the Boston marathon are 2:07:14 for men and 2:20:43 for women. Even in sports leagues, the women's leagues often have less challenging goals and guidelines than in the men's leagues. The question that arises from this observation, then, is whether there in an inherent difference in the physical capability of men and women, or if this is a learned trait. It pretty much comes back to -nature vs. nurture- (does she act that way because of her genes or because of how she was raised?). There are plenty of people on each side of this argument. Those on the nature side look to the evidence of sporting events, aptitude tests, and overall accomplishments of each of the sexes. This evidence, they say, points to men as having greater inherent strength. Those on the nurture side tend to blame cultural and psychological factors for women's continual falling short of reaching the physical accomplishments that men have. They say that the society's belief that women are weaker has actually pervaded the women's consciousness and made them doubt their own ability. It is also argued that the social ramifications of a woman being stronger than a man may affect a woman's unconscious desire to excel; instead of trying to do her best, she tries to do as good as a woman can do. This issue hasn't been ignored by our culture. The 1997 movie -G.I. Jane- [SPOILER ALERT] explores the career of Lieutenant Jordan O'Niel. O'Niel was given the opportunity to be a test case for women's possibility of taking part in the elite Navy SEALS commando force. In the course of the film, O'Niel finds herself pitied, encouraged, targeted, befriended, and attacked as she fights for her own opportunity at training and enhancing her career, while simultaneously (yet unintentionally) proving that women can do just as much as men can when it comes to one of the most rigorous physical training programs in existence. One of the conflicts that O'Niel is faced with is the expectation that her success or failure defines the possibility of all women. Instead of being seen as one person trying to complete a task, she has a movement placed on her shoulders. No matter what the actual cause of the gender differences in our culture is, the issue itself has affected and will continue to affect how we perceive one another. Overall, this may not be a bad thing. If we are aware of the possibility of different ability levels, we may allow ourselves to open up to the opposite as well: that there is a woman who ran up the Empire State Building in just over thirteen minutes. That in itself is an accomplishment that innumerable men can't say that they have achieved. Article Source: http://www.writearticles.org About Author / Additional Info: Additional Articles: * Writing and Writer's Block: Useful Tips To Prevent It * New Year Beliefs and Myths, New Year Resolutions * Trust is a Key Factor to Have a Successful Relationship * Your Steady and quite mind can conquer the world * Foods That Are Healthy For You Does this article violate or infringe on your copyright ? It is a violation of our terms for authors to submit content which they did not write and claim it as their own. If this article infringes on your copyrights, then use our Contact us form with the detailed proof of infringement along with the offending article's title, URL and writer name. If you do not hear back from us then contact us again in another 10 days. Thank you. Comments on this article: (0 comments so far) * Additional comments are now closed for this article *
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