Guys Vs. Girls 2

Gym class at school ranks way down there on my list of non-academic classes at school.

It's not that I don't like exercising. Trust me, I would have quit karate long ago were that true. And, although I'm not crazy about sports, I do enjoy playing them enough for that not to be a factor in my disliking of P.E. My school just seems to find ways to make gym class incredibly dumb, such as "capture the flag", which sounds fun until you realize that our version has 50 kids on a soccer field for a playing zone. Very, very stupid. Things like that are profusely infused into our P.E., and serve to make said class quite unpopular.

Thus, a fun, interesting gym class is a rare gem buried in a pile of junk.

So a few weeks of fun gym classes has felt really, really good.

I stink at soccer, but I'm capable of playing defense well enough to make it fun. So soccer is always nice to have. With snow on the ground, though, you can't exactly play outside on the field. So, we use the gymnasium instead (basically, a basketball court with a little extra space). For the last two weeks, we've set it up using lunch tables as goals (as an encouragement to keep the ball low) and would swap out having all the guys out or all the girls. Good stuff, especially when we guys sort it out so we only have six on the court at one time. Very fun, actually; gym floors and low, narrow goals make things interesting. And it's nice to have periods of rest in between intense games (when the girls play).

Anyway, all this to get to the point.

When the guys are out playing soccer, everyone, excepting two or three, get really into it, and at least make some effort to run after the ball and try to score/defend our goal and whatnot. While watching the girls play, however, you find only a handful who run, who try hard to score, who do more than stand around and wait for the ball to come near them for them to try to kick it.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not insinuating in any way, shape, or form that girls can't play sports or are lazy or are inferior to guys. I know plenty of girls that could cream me in any sport. The only thing I'm saying is that most of the girls in the gym class were not trying as hard as the guys were. In fact, half of them were purposely sitting out and talking. Besides three or four that ran around after the ball and actually tried to score or defend their goal, the others would just stand around, occasionally jogging a few feet here or there when the ball came near them, unleash a kick, then stroll along back to where they were standing with their friends and giggle while they continued the conversation they were having with their friends before the ball entered their general proximity. Thus, it was more like watching pinball. The ball gets launched from somewhere, it bounces off a pin, then another pin, then another, and somehow doesn't seem to go very far.

I was sitting there watching this amusing sight, wondering why it was that the girls seemed to not try at soccer. I knew most of them were better than me in sports like basketball or volleyball, so athletic ability wasn't really a factor. It just seemed like they didn't care. They just didn't really care whether they won or lost. We guys were working our heads off, being tied at 0 to 0 for almost the whole game, until the other team finally scored a goal at the end (yeah, we lost, but 1-0 was actually WAY better than I thought we'd do. Their team was stacked with some of the best guys on the soccer team, and I was hastily made captain of a rag-tag bunch who were all of an average skill level. We played hard to make sure they didn't cream us, and I'm proud of it). The girls just didn't care, they almost didn't even consider it a game, just something to do to pass the time, it seemed. And, as I thought about it, why should anyone care? It was just an activity we all had to do, it wasn't like we were playing another school and trying to make our school look good by winning, we were just all out there doing what we were told to do.

The only difference was the guys just had the desire to win, to be the best, while the girls didn't care, as it didn't really matter anyway.

So, upon pondering such a pondering, I pondered a little more, and my pondering led me to think beyond the soccer game taking place before me. (oooo, dramatic sentence, :D)

I think, for the most part, guys are just way more competitive than girls. Again, notice I said for the most part and please note that I know many competitive girls. Guys just always want to be the best, no matter what it is. Thus, guys have a bigger ego, thus they don't submit to leadership as easily as girls do, thus they do their own thing more, etc. (e.g.--Who gets in trouble more at school? Girls or guys? And even though part of that at my school is due to sexism (trust me, lol), I will admit guys break more rules than girls do). Guys don't like feeling inferior, even if they are. That's honestly one of the reasons why I like going to Saturday morning karate classes as opposed to the Monday night ones: there are less people there of a higher rank/higher skill level than me. This hatred of inferiority makes us want to win, makes us not like to have to have someone governing us, makes us not want to have to have someone else's help for something, makes us more independent.

Girls seem to lack this competitiveness, for the most part. True, everyone likes being the best, but we guys just take it to the next level. Girls like having people they can tell their thoughts and feelings to, and thus have closer friendships, because they don't care if they need someone else's help. They don't rebel against the rules as much (but they still do it plenty) because they don't feel inferior, or at least don't care. Basically, they have a smaller ego. Which is a good thing, obviously, although it results in less drive to become the best, and less independence. Thus, less effort in a soccer game whose only reward is the satisfaction of winning.

So then, after expostulating this wondrously basic, and yet somehow not often thought of, thought, I decided that it would make good blog material. And, as I did in my first Guys Vs. Girls post, I am now asking you, the general masses, to further expostulate on said thought. Do you agree with my thought, or am I hopelessly confused/utterly wrong?

Impart some of your collective wisdom unto me.

(And before I get any nasty comments, let me again take the time to re-specify that this post is not in any way, shape, or form, meant to demean females/make guys look good, nor do I assert that this is true for everyone--I already know of some exceptions. This is only meant as a general thought which has seemed to be true)

Alright, after that disclaimer, comment away!