Overheard at Meadhouse.
ADDED: The questions above were prompted by the statement: "Women need to invent their own sports."
My first thought was hopscotch and my second was jump rope. But was either of these sports/"sports" invented by women? No.
Wikipedia traces hopscotch back to India in the Iron Age. It's on the list of games prohibited by Buddha (which includes "ball games," to the possible delight of anti-sports people). And: "In 1828, Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language also referred to the game as 'Scotch-hopper' ... 'a play in which boys hop over scotches and lines in the ground.'" Boys.
About jump rope, Wikipedia says: "Explorers reported seeing aborigines jumping with vines in the 16th century. European boys" — boys! — "started skipping in the early 17th century. The activity was considered indecent for girls" — indecent for girls! — "due to concerns of them showing their ankles. Girls began skipping in the 18th century...."
Posts
41 comments:
I can't tell you much about jump rope or hopscotch. But I can tell you that I invented JumpScotch. It involves a single malt and a trampoline.
The far more important question: Were the inventors BIPOC?
BOYS!
Ohio today has a hopscotch board much different from the NJ hopscotch board when I was a kid.
My girlhood memory of jump rope is we needed three to play. One girl on each end of the rope, one to jump (at least). And all of us were sing-songing. Jump rope was a social sport more akin to dance. It wasn't one person, like a boxer, training. Hopscotch, as well. One girl never played alone. More girls, more spaces taken with rocks, more challenge.
At some point, I'm guessing, a social element entered the game and it became a girl sport.
We all used to be hunters or gatherers. Males would get the food, build shelters, keep the wolves away, keep hostile tribes away, and get animal skins. Females would bear and raise children, cook, weave and sew clothing, and gather fruits, nuts, and berries.
Sports--at their root--simulate and train for hunting and combat. This is very obvious with "sporting goods" stores that sell hunting and fishing equipment, but plenty obvious with boxing and combat/team sports too. Female sports: Maybe quilting? Maybe weaving? Women are superb with fabrics. But, female activities are routinely executed as social cooperatives, not competitions.
"A knock-down, drag-out, bloody-nosed quilting bee."
Fight 500,000,000 years of evolutions if you like, but set your expectations accordingly.
I believe women's gymnastics are far more popular (to watch) than men's. Figure skating, too, probably. Field hockey is mostly female. Softball (at least on the collegiate level).
I was thinking more along the lines synchronized swimming, balance beam gymnastics, goat roping and barrel racing, sports in which women seem to have a monopoly (at least until Lea Thompson hears about them.)
I don’t know if it was invented by women but six on six basketball, a game that emphasizes passing and teamwork more than running and jumping, was once a very popular sport for women and girls. It was especially popular in several midwestern and south western states, particularly Iowa and Oklahoma, and among Catholic high schools in NJ. It was forced out of existence by an interpretation of Title IX that required women and girl’steams to play the men’s five on five game.
Not so much the bare ankles but probably the bouncing boobies...
Serious Question..
If (just IF) Trump had.. SOMEHOW, SOMEWAY; won the electoral college in 2020..
WHAT would the democrats done?
Interestingly, we DON'T have to guess.. We can QUOTE democrats
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/hillary-clinton-says-biden-should-not-concede-2020-election-under-n1238156
2020:Hillary Clinton says Biden should not concede the election 'under any circumstances'
The former Democratic presidential nominee predicted Republicans could try to “mess up absentee balloting” for a narrow advantage in the Electoral College.
... you know, it's a battle and fear is really powerful.”
Is there a person out there?
That believes the democrats would have peacefully submitted to the will of the voters?
Anyone? Any One, at all? Speak Up please!
Bonus Round: If, somehow, Trump gets 270+ votes in the electoral college in 2024.. What THEN?
Well, what about Foursquare, huh?
Due to concerns of them showing their Ankles We've come a long way, baby! Well, except for the Taliban.
"NASCAR: Everything else is just a game"
Guys invented it and one would think women could compete since the car does most of the work.
The few who have tried have not been all that successful. It turns out that there is a lot of physical stress on the driver as well.
And I've never seen a woman over the wall in a pit crew. Those guys are all varsity athletes who didn't quite make the cut for NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL etc.
OTOH, John Force's daughters do fairly well in NHRA drag racing. But I think both they and the car would be too scared of Force not to.
John Henry
Occasionally I will pull up a Double-Dutch competition on YouTube. It is "just" jump rope. But when I finally come out 30-60 minutes later, I am impressed as Hell at both boys and girls of all ages.
John Henry
In days of yore, and still in some societies and subcultures today, the male/female dichotomy was magnified by elaborate practices surrounding the hiding from males of the female body. I can see how such practices could foster quite a bit of erotic energy.
Compare birth rates among the cloaked and hooded Islamic and Orthodox Jewish communities to those among groups which have tried to demystify sexual difference. When it comes to eros, knowledge isn't always power.
I think of that addled satyr Hugh Hefner, having Viagraed himself into deafness, coercing the poor saps in his coterie into command performances. The thrill was long gone, but it was all that he could think of to do for fun. That, and choosing his wife's nail polish.
I recently read an article about a group of women who’ve started an over 40 double Dutch club. They get quite a workout!
Although not invented by a female, Calvinball was won decisively by the babysitter Rosalyn.
https://calvinandhobbes.fandom.com/wiki/Rosalyn?file=9-13.gif
I bet women invented "telephone." I don't know what they called it since this would have been thousands of years before the invention of the telephone, but it was scored and losers were ostracized from the tribe and died alone in the forest.
Enigma mansplains...
In my day, (pull up a rocking chair), Jump rope was something girls did. If you were a boy and jumped rope with the girls you were considered an oddball.
REAL boys playing BB, football, basketball or whatever. The only real popular co-ed "Sports" were four-square. But even there, the boys always dominated. Co-ed Tennis was popular when kids got older 13 and up.
Girls - until the 19th century, didn't have time for " sports or games". They were helping their mothers cook, clean, and taking care of the younger kids. A man may work from sun...etc.
My elementary school playground was covered with hopscotch.
Yes, I played.
I still live near the old elementary school, and sadly it appears the hopscotch is fading from the playground.
@jaydub: "I was thinking more along the lines synchronized swimming, balance beam gymnastics, goat roping and barrel racing, sports in which women seem to have a monopoly (at least until Lea Thompson hears about them.)"
But you see, those are displays and dances! They are often judged by social peers, rather than contests requiring physical defeat (e.g., a knock down, knock out, or wrestling pin) or first-is-best (e.g., 100M dash, ski race). Female-heavy physical displays such as ice skating, gymnastics, and ballet have a lot in common with non-sports beauty pageants, acting, and pop singing. That's just how humans are as a species. Worldwide. Across known history.
Jump rope probably got started when some woman was standing clueless next to a rope and some guy decided she needed help.
It's just what men do. It would have been hard to come up with a sport when you weren't even allowed to show your ankles, but what is the excuse today. With the inventions of strong but lightweight materials, from Dacron to carbon fiber, a lot of extreme sports didn't get their start until after the women's lib movement of the sixties. Plenty of time to come up with something fun.
Add jacks and I did all three. Had two older sisters.
Jump Rope?
Shirley Muldowney was the fastest woman in the world for a LONG time. First one to run TOP FUEL dragsters. Bad to the Bone, she won many NHRA Nationals throughout her career. Inducted 2005, Automotive Hall of Fame.
https://www.automotivehalloffame.org/honoree/shirley-muldowney/
My favorite gripe is that everything (in my profession: dairy farming) is created by a man.
By a man/for a man. Height, weight- length… amount of time…
Very tiring. My husband was trying to open something and commented how someone older/re: weaker couldn’t have done it. Invented by a man, must be.
And then it dawned on him lol.
Sometimes I do know that of which I speak!
It’s very quaint to argue that “women need to invent their own sports.” We presently have “trans” athletes who insist on competing in women’s sports and a Supreme Court Justice who insists that she can’t define the term “woman.”
I don't even know what Foursquare is, and Hopscotch was and is a mystery.
The Buddha sounds like a drag, and I'm not even much into sport. I escaped pariah-hood only because I liked and was good at scratch football (tackle, until we got to college and gained weight).
"My first thought was hopscotch and my second was jump rope. But was either of these sports/"sports" invented by women? No."
Genitals are destiny.
My daughter once described the Style section of the New York Times as the women's sports section.
Four square dates to at least the 1950s. A game called four square is mentioned in newspapers at least as far back as the 1950s, but the rules are not explained.[1][2] A 1953 teacher's manual describes four square with the same rules used today.
Actually each of our elementray schools had variations. And you were supposed to agree you were playing with "Hickory Ridge" or "Double tree" rules. variantions were usually based on who started and how many "outs" were allowed before you had to rotate.
"Who invented hopscotch? Who invented jump rope?"
Professor Taub: "Did she really want him? What had he done to deserve this bounty? Does God exist? Who invented liquid soap and why?"
“Sports--at their root--simulate and train for hunting and combat. This is very obvious with "sporting goods" stores that sell hunting and fishing equipment, but plenty obvious with boxing and combat/team sports too. Female sports: Maybe quilting? Maybe weaving? Women are superb with fabrics. But, female activities are routinely executed as social cooperatives, not competitions.”
I don’t know about you, but I’d pay to see a quilt-off or weave-off between Rich and Lefty Mark!
Who knew Buddha was such a spoilsport? I somehow got conned into thinking he was the "anything goes" prophet. Ah well.
Jesus Loves Football. Or so I hear.
Temujin--I play a version of Jumpscotch with no actual jumping. The spillage in your game must be heartbreaking.
What sport did women invent? Why, the Game of Love, of course. Ask Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders. And the gals have been winning at it since time immemorial.
MARCUSB THEOLDMAN
Men invent stuff that works to release enjoyable dopamine for them and for other men who join in the invented activity. Some women enjoy these things too, but most don't. This is true for male invented sports but also includes things like carpentry, aeronautics, mathematics, surgery, computer programming or anything else that men still dominate. Forcing or encouraging women to engage in these things will only make many women miserable. Yes, women should invent their own activities and technologies instead of diminishing men's creations.
jaydub: I was thinking more along the lines synchronized swimming, balance beam gymnastics, goat roping and barrel racing, sports in which women seem to have a monopoly (at least until Lea Thompson hears about them.)
Lia Thomas, please. Lea Thompson is someone different, and (as far as I know) she doesn't deserve to be dragged into this.
OK. Rhythmic gymnastics. Who other than women would've invented that? Seriously. If there is a male equivalent, let me know. but so far as I know the people dancing about with balls or ribbons or what have you seem all to be female.
OTOH, I'm not sure the "sport" still exists. Synchronized swimming, bless its heart, still does, possibly because it has some male buy-in.
LakeLevel, as regards aeronautics and mathematics, I didn't need any "forcing." I had half a dozen model aircraft designs (most paper, one R/C) on my college applications, and our Math Team in NY did something that I think is still legendary there. But I agree that you can't generalize from me to half the population.
Post a Comment