[quote]FightingScott wrote:
buckeye girl wrote:
FightingScott wrote:
(1) What’s on the bar. I’m tired of seeing women get applauded for deadlifting 135. They’re human beings. A lot of times it seems like all this “girl power” bullshit goes too far and you end up seeing young women get a lot of praise for not really doing anything but show up. And that ends up being degrading.
Who are these people that are applauding women who aren’t moving a significant amount of weight?
It can’t be the general public because they’re too busy telling us that heavy weights will make us manly and that our callused hands are disgusting. And, it certainly isn’t the powerlifting community that I’m a part of. I mean, I’ve never heard any sort of girl power reference. When I PR, I hear “Good job. You sucked less than usual”.
To applaud mediocrity is absurd, but I do think that (aspiring) female strength athletes should be encouraged. Do you know how hard it is to call up a coach and tell him you want to compete in whatever strength sport?
Or maybe how scary walking into a gym, where some of the strongest men in the country train, for the first time?
I fell in love with lifting when I was in middle school, when my gym class got a little tour and explanation of the weight room. It took me about 6 years to get the courage to actually step foot in a gym and start lifting.
I wish there was someone there encouraging me when I was younger. Someone telling me that it was not only ok, but awesome that I was interested in lifting. But, I don’t know, maybe I was just too much of a wuss and cared too much about what others would think…
Oh, and considering that she’s BENCHED 140 at 80-some pounds, I highly doubt shes only squatting the bar. Dumbass.
I think I’ve been misunderstood.
I see mediocrity being applauded everywhere. Maybe it’s just not happening in powerlifting. But go to any High School Track Meet where the fat girls AND the fat guys are competing, and I think you’ll understand what I’m getting at.
Maybe this kind of crap doesn’t exist in powerlifting. I don’t know. But applauding mediocrity is pretty prevalent anywhere you look in America where kids under the age of 18 are involved.
Weak girls who go through the motions of making a 10 foot effort in the shot put are applauded because dumbasses underestimate what levels of physical strength they’re capable of. Fat, weak guys get patted on the back for being big and strong just because they take up a lot of space and signed up for the football team.
The “girl power bullshit” I was referring to is the exceedingly low expectations I see for girls in athletics around the country. Again, I’m getting the feeling it probably doesn’t exist in powerlifitng. But women’s lacrosse comes to mind. Sorry, but that sport seems like a joke to me - you can’t steal the ball from anyone?
It just seems to me like there are a lot of over-supportive coaches and soccer mom types out there who are way too quick to yell “Yay! Good for you!” when female athletes do anything at all because the ones doing the cheering have such low expectations of what women are capable of. And that sucks.
You’ll really understand what I’m getting at if you ever watch one of the MTV Made Episodes where it’s pretty obvious that the kid in the show has failed miserably.
I had no idea who this girl was. What I meant to say in my post was:
IF she’s moving serious weight and pushing herself, that’s cool. An 80lb girl (EDIT: An 80lb Person of any age) Squatting 180lbs is cool in the same way that a 242 Greg Panora Squatting 1050 is cool.
IF she’s just squatting the bar, that’s a joke. Just because she’s a child and a girl doesn’t mean that showing up to Squat a bar is an accomplishment. Expect more from her!
BUT I DIDN’T KNOW WHICH WAS THE CASE
I thought that was pretty clear. Is the picture a picture of someone working hard or someone going through the motions? Judging by the pic alone, I can’t tell.
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Here is the deal. If people do the best they can - that should be applauded to some degree, even if their results are mediocre compared to the population…of course it better well be the best they can.
Yet, in life, sometimes your best just isn’t good enough; and there will be people better than you at whatever it may be. In those cases you should give way, learn your place, and applaud those better than you for developing their abilities to their fullest.
And the people that are champions in their game ought not look down on those who are not(because one little car accident can make them into a slobbering little vegetable); the champions are to lead the rest of us and inspire us - not make us feel like worthless trash (although a certain percentage of us are - but only because they lacked the character to develop whatever talent, or genetic potential they had).
