The Dumbest Idea of 2012 / "Zombie Feminism"

[roo_ster]

http://isteve.blogspot.com/2012/01/dumbest-idea-of-2012.html

For a host of reasons, you haven't heard much about boxing in recent Olympics. It's a fading sport. But at least it has tradition.

But adding women's boxing to the Olympics at this point in the history of boxing is a little like adding Women's Plunge for Distance to the 2012 Games.
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Putting women's boxing in the Olympics in 2012 is just Zombie Feminism, following out the logic of gender equality to a reductio ad absurdum.

Author then quotes an article he wrote a while back about the Clint Eastwood boxing euthanasia movie:

In reality, women's boxing is a pseudo-feminist trashsport that briefly flourished in the 1990s when impresario Don King noticed that Mike Tyson fans got some kind of weird kick out of preliminary catfights between battling babes.

I plead guilty. 

A buddy would pay the pay-per-view, we would chip in, and we would watch Tyson maul some mook.  Got broing, though, after he won so quick so many times.  His handlers knew there had to be some other attraction, so the had some women's fights.  A couple of them even had some boxing skills, so it was like watching one of the men's flyweight fights where there is a lot of action, but no power for a knockout.

I cut my own foray into kickboxing short after I realized I did not have enough any talent for it, guys in my weight class could throw TBI-level blows, and a speech impediment would not increase my employment prospects.

[HankB]

For a host of reasons, you haven't heard much about boxing in recent Olympics. It's a fading sport. But at least it has tradition.

Much of boxing is no longer a sport, since you usually have "decisions" by a panel of judges . . . and at the end of each match, both boxers are usually still on their feet.

(As far as I'm concerned, if winners are selected by a panel of judges, it's not actually a sport.)

[RevDisk]

Gloves unfortunately probably do more damage than not. Prior to gloves, you didn't want to punch someone in the head too hard, as you'd likely break your hand. Heavier gloves used these days allow you to do so with little chance of breaking your hand. Over time, this causes dementia pugilistica.

Ironically, MMA, which is more "violent", is less likely to be as unhealthy as boxing. Fewer blows to the head than boxing over the length of a career, but it is still obviously a concern.

[Lee]

Jello wrestling is much better.

[roo_ster]

Jello wrestling is much better.

If the play-by-play announcer has an upper-class brit accent, it actually is educational.

[seeker_two]

(As far as I'm concerned, if winners are selected by a panel of judges, it's not actually a sport.)

True.....boxing has become the new figure skating....but with more clothing....