Ive been curious for so long.

What you should get from crossfit is how inclusive it is to women. Never before have I witnessed such a fitness mentality (Crossfit isn’t really a program as much as it is a state of mind) that included women to do what the men do. Women doing full scaled burbees, squats, and muscle-ups are as inclusive as I have ever seen. Women who Crossfit are not given outs, they are not excused from the overall goal; “forging elite fitness.”

Maturity rates and hormones have guided the growth of the two sexes in all animals, and for good reason. Diverse sex based features have enabled us to survive, but can arguably be the foundation of society. Without fragility, beauty, or lust do you really think we would have the arts and societies we have today? Crossfit is honest with humanity in its celebration of the beauty of the human body.

http://www.crossfit.com/mt-archive2/Gillian_Kallista_StagHS.html

I have to agree with you, women are the target of a lot of sexual advances, but to oust Crossfit as a champion in the matter is unwarranted and ignorant.

That said I have a few comments. One this is gym culture. Coach is a coach and uses cues that people identify with. If you don’t like the cues it is a larger problem than just coach. the cues work because it is ingrained in society. The best coaches find the most effective cues and use them. I guess this commentary could assure you that ‘pussy’ is a pervasive in our society. I would say coaches use of the word is not helping anything but he is not an activist, his focus is human performance.

Second men typically are stronger for a variety of reasons. I am not the most knowledgeable person to back this up but it has to do with hormonal levels, neurological development and ability to actually display their theoretical maximum effort. The getting beat buy a girl is a cue and an awesome display of what is possible. It is a testament to the training of these women that they can have a disadvantage and still beat men that may have the advantages not afforded women.

This brings up a question that I always have for feminists. Why is the fact that men and women are different such a problem for you? Different can survive with out a value assessment. I love and honor women, mostly because they are different than me. They have capacity that far exceed my own and I am amazed and awed by this.

In regard to the ‘boobs’ comment. Yes this humans are obsessed with looks, especially the men. The fact that men like a specific hip to waist ratio is rooted in their DNA. It is a visual marker that a woman is fit for child bearing. Large breasts indicate sufficient fat reserves to carry a child to term and then nurse the child. In the past men that desired mating with women that did not display these traits got phased out of the breeding stock as they did not pass genes along.

I guess that I see your points but obviously feel much less strongly than you about them. I am not sure that you are attacking the right foes though. I really do support you though and wish you the best.

Jesse

I think Crossfit as a training regime is amazing — I think the sexism the permeates some of it flows from the general right wing puerile underpinning of some of the politics of the people. Good science (i.e., Crossfit’s approach to fitness) doesn’t necessarily equal good politics. It is annoying. And it undermines the community workout aspects of the whole thing.

OTOH, there is also celebration of women and their abilities and a rejection that women are supposed to “tone” their muscles, etc. But that still takes place in an overall framework that’s messed up, as you identify above.

Anyway, thanks for the post.