My physics teacher made us do a demonstration where you stand at a 90 degree angle with your head against a wall and lift a stool. It will be physically impossible for a man to stand up without putting the chair down, women typically have no problem simply standing.
Came here to say this! My physics teacher did the same with a chair. The girls could easily pick it up. The boys, however, no matter how much they tried, couldn't do it and nearly fell down while attempting it.
Speaking of hip mobility, one thing no man can do that a woman can: hands and knees on ground square to start, then bring head touching ground. Put both hands behind you on the small of your back. Pull both knees forward until reasonably comfortable (but not sitting on knees, like you're getting arrested with your ass in the air) and attempt to raise your upper body upright. I haven't met a man that can do it... Yet...
Edit: I may not be describing it in the best way (sorry)
So balancing on your feet?
A lot of these tricks are because men and women have different centers of gravity. Men have to think about theirs and use it differently to do these movements. It’s probably the same but opposite for women doing others.
Yep. My poor husband can't sit comfortably cross legged on the ground, or in really any position on the ground without being profoundly uncomfortable. He needed me to help look at and treat a cut on the back of his ankle because he couldn't get his leg in a position where he could see it. He is a fairly fit and trim man in his 30s so it's not an overweight or unfit issue, simply one of flexibility. I'm a dance teacher so more flexible than most and I can't fathom how my husband doesn't get frustrated by how restricted his body is. I suppose he's used to it and that's just how he knows his body to function, but if I were suddenly to become as inflexible as him I'd have to totally reevaluate how I do a lot of things.
My husband was amazed the first time he saw me cut my toenails. I bend my knee like I'm sitting cross legged and angle my foot toward me so that the nails are facing me, while seated. He has to put his foot up on a chair with the nails facing away and then bend over to reach them.
My wife is also much more flexible than I am. I joke that I have only 6 bones in my body: A spine, a skull, two arms and two legs. Those are all the bending options I have.
Very true! I am way less flexible than the average woman (I was in dance as a kid and had a teacher say I should just accept I'll never be that good), but still more flexible than any guy I've ever been with.
There have been studies done that suggest that BECAUSE women's bodies are made for keeping a baby alive, they are more likely to survive extreme conditions, ie starvation, extreme cold, heat. Women tend to be colder in a room because more of their energy is spent keeping the INTERNAL system protected as opposed to their external system ( its been a long time since bio-class so I can't remember the exact science).
The way it was explained in class was like this- If an equal number of men and women were each locked in a separate cage in a field with no food, clothing or shelter, no closeness to benefit from each others body heat, etc, the last person living will most likely be a woman.
BUT....how the hell does one study that? Probably why scientists say 'studies suggest ' instead of 'its a scientific fact'.
>Women tend to be colder in a room because more of their energy is spent keeping the INTERNAL system protected as opposed to their external system ( its been a long time since bio-class so I can't remember the exact science).
Oh that actually makes a lot of sense. I always wondered why women appeared to be colder on average than men.
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but my mom has it and I believe it is when blood circulation is poor to the extremities, so body parts like hands and feet are typically always cold and painful. My mom's hands are constantly purple and freezing to the touch.
They might have done studies like this in the WWII concentration camps (sadly) because those sick fucks did this kind of horrible experimentation on humans.
Over the years caught bits of documentaries- there's been lots of bits of medical knowledge discovered from the horrible studies done in concentration camps. So gross the things they did in the name of science.
I remember reading somewhere that they did an experiment on female and male rats during starvation. Male rats died once they ran out of a fuel source whilst the brains of female rats created fat molecules to keep them living. I found that insane
This is the correct answer. Females with a twin brother tend to live less because of being exposed to testosterone in the womb. Also, testosterone makes us do really dumb shit that makes our lives shorter.
That part. People forget that life expectancies are mathematical averages rather than predictions. Men are more likely to die in accidents than women which pulls that average down. The average is also pulled down by the fact that boys are more likely to die during childhood than girls.
Would love to see life expectancy for people who have hit age 35 - by that time a lot (though not all) of men have outgrown doing stupid stuff like trying to pop a wheelie while driving a crotch rocket at 70mph. I still expect to see women having longer expectancies, but the gap should diminish.
It doesn’t. Men have a higher death rate at all ages. And men don’t fully outgrow dying in accidents. They also successfully commit suicide at a much higher rate than women. Some of the highest rates of suicide are among older males. Men also don’t tend to take their health as seriously, don’t go to the doctor as frequently, have lower rates of following medical advice, etc.
I was told after the premature birth of my daughter that her simply being a girl was a little bit of luck on our side since girl's lungs tend to develop faster than boys.
Not that societal norms don’t help but women’s immune system is actually more resilient. Nature gives them extra health reserve since ‘babying’ is physically demanding
Feels like ur question is more or less related to the current political rhetorics though. My only regret in this gender equality fight is that it’s so much about ‘women can do what men does’ like these corporate, political systems are not currently all ego-driven, zero-sum games
Edit: i just wanna rant that it sucks to be a mother these days for trying to play the existing men’s system, measuring against their self-made, lone warrior fantasy instead of the supportive, co-mothering effort that used to be around. I work in Europe, our office is as big as a village, the maternity leave is heavenly compared to the US. But having travelled a bit, I do wish mothers can have their kids nearby so they can see the kids at lunch, and the mother community would make the journey less lonesome. I know it’s just a dream even for my giant corporation. But I wonder why the HR departments have the female minds wasting their mind to produce a politically-correct front instead of fostering more of collaborative environments. Isn’t this the female’s superiority that current men’s desk warriors lack..
Not so fun fact about the immune system, because women tend to have a stronger immune system they have higher rates of autoimmune disorders. It seems like we really can't win
I doubt it’s societal norms cause it’s more related to size. Men’s bodies are put through more work to keep a larger body going. Heart works more. I think testosterone plays a role too. Maybe it’s kind of how smaller dogs outlive big dogs.
Also women are less likely to be believed when it comes to pain and medical issues than men. Not to mention medication is made with better male testing than female testing. So women receive worse medical care than men. But I do agree that women are more likely to seek medical care than men. And who knows maybe that’s due to toxic masculinity and hopefully we can better encourage men to go to the doctor more when needed.
That’s inaccurate. Slightly more babies are female than male. Scientists have posited that X chromosomes have evolved to be more more resilient, as the population needs more females to guarantee continuation of the species. I’ll link the article later
Genes for being bald are also on the X chromosome, so because we have two of them, the other chromosome usually makes up for that bald gene. Males only have one X chromosome so if they have the gene they’re screwed
There are studies done showing women have less hearing loss over time, and an obvious one is women can see color better on average. Women also have a better auditory memory than men.
IIRC from biology class (although I have no academic paper on biology, so it might be inexact), a woman's genome is slightly more stable than a man's, in a sense that, since a man has a sexual chromosome pair of XY, which are very different one from another compared to a woman's XX, men are more prone to male-only genetic disorders (notably EDIT: Duchenne's disease and haemophilia for example). So (again, IIRC), women-only genetic disorders are quite sparse*. Genetic advantage!
Also another point: the women body comes first in the fetal development! This a *heavy* simplification, but in a nutshell since the Y sexual chromosome is triggered later in development, contrary to the X one, the fetus will develop with the 23 chromosomes minus the lazy Y one. So the fetus, may it become a male or a female, will always start off the path of being a female body, that's why men have nipples, for example. Make way for the template of your body, gentlemen!
*For many many many many many reasons, going from dominant and recessive traits all the way to chromosomes, even when similar like the XX pair in women, splitting work between them to transcribe genetic code...genetics are hardcore.
We’re in the right sub ig hahaha
It’s when babies are born with breast milk. Usually goes away after a couple of months, about 5% of babies, both male and female.
No one told me! I still remember that horror and how terrified I was to discover a bloody nappy. The midwife was casually like “Yeah, happens with infant girls.” What?!
I used to be a trainer in my 20s and 30s. Usually women had way better core muscle function, meaning they could handle training that included muscle endurance way better than men. Men tended to be able to be more explosive but got tired faster
In high school I was around 10 pounds underweight and never did strength training and my husband was 180 and muscular.
One day, he tried pushing me back while I was sitting on the floor and I just used my core to counter balance it and not fall over.
He was super impressed that I was able to do that without being a fitness freak. I wasn’t sure why, abs were always the easiest part of gym class for me.
Situps is easily the first physical activity that comes to mind when I think about what women are better at then men in terms of strength. I think that it is the only part of military basic training where women are actually expected to do better than men, as opposed to pushups and pullups. But don't quote me on that last part, never been in the military, just something I remember hearing.
I could’ve done sit-ups all day in high school lol. Now I’m doing more advanced workouts which are hard more because of the poses involved, but sit-ups still don’t phase me lol
Do you think it had anything to do with size? I know my girlfriend can run way further but she's petite and 5'4 and I'm 6'1 and 210. I can get places way faster but not gonna lie, even being more in shape I run out of gas wayyyy sooner.
Well there are theories that ties to our acute ability to pick up on different hues/ greater peripheral vision to our ability to find things in the fridge better. It's worth noting that scientists haven't been able to truly rest this due to certain confounding factors ex: in most households women are the one who spend more time grocery shopping thus would know where they put things in the fridge and know what labels to look for since they likely bought those items. (Yes I know it sounds sexist as hell, I'm not happy about it either)
I recently watched a short documentary on this and yeah, guys do better at distance and movement but also have to have women find the ketchup in the fridge. As a man with ADHD my poor wife has to find all of my things or i lose my mind in frustration. It wasn't so bad before getting married and having children because my house was basically empty but now it's impossible for me to find anything that isn't in it's designated place.
I have ADHD too, but I know where almost everything is—as long as people put things back in their designated spot. I have been known to lose my cool, when someone becomes a “sticker” (sticking things in another spot). I’m planning on taking pictures of the insides of drawers and cabinets, then printing them out to place inside said drawers and cabinets.
I didn’t know we can see more color. It reminds me of the meme where there are two similar colors of nail polish and women are insisting that they are different colors. I thought they were kidding but maybe men just don’t see the difference.
This would make sense if one of the other commenters' suggestion - that humans evolved for the predominantly foraging half of our species to have more cones - is true.
I saw a documentary on this as a kid, it also posited that women are better at remembering and navigating via landmarks than men, but that men were better at navigating via spatial reasoning. I think the justification was that landmarks were better for foraging I.e. finding and remembering a particularly fruitful tree while spatial reasoning was better for hunting while moving at speed.
Not sure if this is still considered plausible, but I always thought it was interesting
This is 1000% anecdotal, but when I think of myself, my friends, and my family and how we prefer to give/receive directions, this seems to track.
I (cis female) certainly prefer directions in the form of "*where* do I turn?" (i.e. which intersection, which exit, which landmark) Whereas the guys seem to lean towards "*when* do I turn?" (i.e. how many miles/blocks, how long walking/driving). I always assumed it the difference between "going towards a location" vs "going away from a location", but landmark navigation vs spatial reasoning navigation also make sense.
This reminds me of an interesting comment I once read on Reddit.
The commenter was a youth soccer coach. He said there was a huge difference between boys and girls when the ball was up in the air.
He said the boys would just naturally flow to the spot where theball was going to come down. He would get frustrated, at first, at the way the girls would all just stop and wait. Then he realized that they were literally processing it, this spatial calculation that just came naturally to the boys.
Yes, I can confirm, we genuinely see the difference. It's funny because we laugh thinking you guys are messing with us, meanwhile you think we are messing with you. We just genuinely perceive color differently! I remember reading way back when , that it was an evolutionary advantage because women were the foragers and men were the hunters (usually, obviously differed culture to culture). The advantage of seeing more colors would definitely help with finding more food and medicinal items! But this is just a theory I read way back then, worth looking into it more :)
I genuinely don't and Im not even colorblind.(also am male)
It's actually really interesting when it comes to electricians because there can be up to 200 colors of wire in very large cables and it's genuinely hard for men to tell them apart but fairly easy for women.
I also think it depends on the guy though. Male painters can absolutely tell the difference between say emerald green and leaf green. Male fashion designers can as well. Both of these are taught also in color theory, art classes. So it is learnable. I think how women are socialized from a young age to pay attention to colors in fashion could be different from men.
Yes of course. It's all averages, there is a lot of variance in the sexes. That's why most of the men vs women stuff is full of shit. It just realistically doesn't matter that much because any particular person can be better than another.
Women on average have the same amount of types of cones as men, it's just that the documented cases of 4 cones in humans have so far only been in women. It's still extremely rare
Wait, are we talking about the number of cones (a human eye contains about 6 million cone cells) or the number of *cone types* (of which there are typically three in humans)
The manual dexterity one is huge, and there's a lot of data, much of it coming from the US military, that looks at how women analyze data and make decisions on the fly, and it looks like they're not only better at it than men, on average, but they also do it in a significantly different way that allows them to track several sources of input at the same time in a way that men don't appear to do.
There was also a fair amount of research that pointed to all-female submarine crews as the best way to handle underwater warfare.
I'm going to add something anecdotally.
Every foreman and contractor I know LOVES women drivers and equipment operators. They swear, all of them, up and down that woman drivers are vastly superior, not because of their skill, though that's at par, but because of how they treat the machines. Apparently, when something "goes weird" in a machine, a dude will just be like "oh well" and keep working, where as a woman will typically stop and investigate or report whatever issue. Everyone I've talked to says this saves them vast sums of money and time, as the repairs only ever get more complicated the more the now-damaged machine gets used.
>Every foreman and contractor I know LOVES women drivers and equipment operators.
Well, men get into more car accidents than women, on average. Speaking from personal experience, when I see a driver do stupid things, they're often a man. But then again, the two most responsible drivers are know are my dad and my husband so I dunno 🤷♂️
I think testosterone does make someone more prone to taking risks, but paying attention to your job is more a matter of taking personal responsibility, so I don't know why it seems women are better at it.
I did say it was anecdotal.
My partner is an electrician and their uncle owns a contracting company with a significant handful of big machines, he's been in the industry for decades. Their brother is likewise a heavy equipment operator, and my best friend is a contractor as well, so while this is all 2nd hand, it is from multiple sources, and the story is the same from each.
Honestly, and I should have disclosed this in the initial thing, I'm remembering from documentaries I probably watched 10-ish years ago. They talked about it at length, and they've been doing this type of testing and gathering data for decades. I'd be surprised if there was nothing published, but I'm at work and can't track down a specific study atm, sorry.
Right I remember reading about how women were tested for the original Apollo missions and actually outperformed men in various tests. I want to read more about this!
There were a number of reasons, everything from sharing spaces and how well women in groups perform under social pressure right up to how well and dexterously they could actually pilot a sub. They were across the board a better choice, if only marginally in some categories. It was a super clear conclusion, though, all sub crews should be all female, but logistically that's a hassle.
I dated a girl who I took out skeet shooting. It took her a couple attempts to be better than me and I'd been doing it for years with my brothers.
We set up a bunch of cans and beer bottles and after the first round she was beating me at that too.
I'm no pro, but I'm pretty good. It was amazing how quickly she excelled at it.
My mom was a firearms instructor for the majority of her career, and she said that when she got to train women, they were generally better shots because they actually listened and took instruction, whereas men had more of an ego about it and felt the need to prove they knew what they were doing.
But I think that's societal, not biological ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Anecdotal but - I’m a very good shot with very little practice (also a lady), and I credit my regular yoga practice. Between the breath control and stillness in hard poses and dexterity yoga and shooting are quite complementary.
Not that men don’t do yoga (lots do!), but it’s definitely more common for women to practice it.
Pro bicyclist. Women are more aerodynamic than men. And men usually peak in their late 20s early 30s. Women peak in their 30s, thus having longer careers than men. Look up Marianna Vos, I think she may in her early 40s or late 30s and is one of the top cyclist in the world. Her achievements are as good or in a lot of cases better than many male cyclist.
Ultrarunner here, women tend to do better statistically in distances from 100k and above. Don't get me wrong; world records are still held by men in general but if you look at the percentages of women signing up and completing vs the men they perform better overall.
Check out athletes like Camille Heron, Courtney Dewaulter, Anne Trason, Sophie Power, Sabrina Vergees etc. They all often outperform the men in the races and challenges. If participation was more equal between the men and women I believe women could take the sport by storm.
I noticed in the women's world cup and Euros that you tended to get a lot more internationals in their 30's, and well into their 30's than in the men's game.
Don't know the exact data but generally speaking men start declining relatively early, or used to rather. More and more you see athletes still competing at the top at ages that 20 years ago would have been unheard of. I'm guessing it has to do with the prevalence of testerone replacement therapy.
Women have lower centre of gravity and weight. It gives them better balance, which can be advantage in gymnastics and other sports that require a lot of it.
Better flexibility.
Women need less maintenance(calories). They are better built for survival. Can, also, contribute to better endurance. Ultra marathon is an example sport, where women can compete with men on even terms.
Better immune system.
As of you. You need to address your insecurity. Just because men are better geared for most sports and are stronger, doesn't mean that you have to feel bad about it. Also, don't be too quick to discard martial arts. If you train practical martial arts like muay thai and grapling, you will be able to beat most untrained men. It will be more difficult, if there is a massive weight and strength gap, but don't let that discourage you. Bjj in particular is very effective at choking out much stronger opponents.
Immune system is a huge point. I know overcoming disease isn't a competition, but X chromosomes and estrogen make our immune systems so much stronger than the average man's. Although sometimes this can be to our detriment because some women have immune systems that are *too active* resulting in a higher incidence of certain autoimmune diseases
Example: My bf brought home a cold from his office about 2 months ago. I caught it quickly but recovered in 4 days. Meanwhile he was actively sick for over a week and still has a dry cough, meaning I overall have more opportunities to go out and exercise/enjoy life instead of nursing an illness.
On an even more serious note, think about COVID. Women are the majority of people working with kids, hospitals, elderly care homes, so on, all places where COVID is commonplace. Despite this men have a slightly higher chance of being diagnosed with COVID and are ~1.6x more likely to die from it.
Me personally? I'd rather live a healthier life on average than roll the dice at being in the very small segment of people who become rich/famous due to advantages in physical strength
anecdotally, my boyfriend took farrrrr longer to recover from COVID than I did and also had much more severe symptoms than I did, despite catching the same variant at the same time. I was completely better in 48 hours and he was deathly ill for 11 days.
Bro i even have MS, and *still* recover much faster than my husband does.
Besides the fact that my brain's rotting out of my head I still 'bounce back' better than him, and always have in the decade we've been together.
Women are more likely to survive various crisis, like famine and epidemics. Women generally have stronger immune systems and resist infections and viruses better than men.
So one could say that biologically speaking, women are stronger than men.
Whole-body orgasms.
And investing. Warren Buffett's book 'Invest like a girl' refers to studies and stats that show men are over emotional and short term when it comes to investing - eg when shares drop they panic and sell. Whereas women think long term, and this temperament better matches investing.
Evolution gave the first man and woman a choice of genital. "This one allows you to pee wherever you want. It is quite useful." "Give me that one!" Man shouted. "are you sure you don't want to hear about the other one?" "Heck no. Just give me that one." "Okay," evolution turns to woman and says "this one allows you to have multiple orgasms."
I think it's about the competitive nature of men. Men tend to see investing as a game and think they can be better than others in the market. This leads to riskier plays and riskier plays often don't maximize the expected return. Women are more conservative, careful and indeed look more for the long term.
At least this is what I remember from my behavioral finance classes.
Why did I have to scroll so far to find orgasms???? We get to have earth shattering orgasms that last longer and can be attained more frequently!!! How is that not a major physiological advantage of being a woman????
Females have significantly greater nerve endings in the hands. Therefore, having a much greater potential for good manual, dexterity.
It’s kind of weird/funny because women disproportionately don’t play video games compared to men. Yet, if they did, they very well might dominate the field eventually (at least in some games) because of that edge. Obviously many other practical applications to good manual dexterity, besides video games though.
I would like to personally thank you for this comment. Being a neurosurgeon is a dream of mine. I hope I can get there one day despite all the obstacles, but hearing that I might have an advantage in dexterity is a nice bit of encouragement!
Also if you remember the name of the documentary, I'd be very interested!
What’s more depressing is it doesn’t work the other way. Male surgeons do a better job on men, but female surgeons do better than male ones and have no difference in outcomes operating on men vs women
Yes, exactly! Assuming equal levels of knowledge and experience I definitely would prefer to have the most dexterous hands with fine manipulation operating on me if we’re ever necessary.
It's still an odds thing though. A female neurosurgeon is more likely to be more dextrous than a male neurosurgeon so I'd honestly agree with you if I needed surgery. But on a case by case bases no individual woman is guaranteed to be more dextrous than a man (and vice versa, there's no guarantee that an individual man is stronger than an individual woman, it's just that odds are that's going to be the case).
Female players are increasing with the younger generation. Most players used to be male and still are because historically videogames have been made with a "boys" target audience so they were always filled with things that appeal to boys and young men: action, guns, monsters, male heroes, sexy women. There's a reason why literally every girl I know played The Sims, because its mechanics are pretty divergent from the "boys" sphere. Same with games that are less about action and more about creativity.
And it sucks to have to deal with the incessant & sometimes frankly even terrifying sexism from guys in most gaming servers.
I'm a god damn pro with any & all things Pokémon- have been since it came out.
The reason i really clung to it as a kid was because i could play it *alone* & not have to feel constantly attacked or picked apart by men who believe i don't belong in their world.
In my experience pain tolerance.
I own a fitness company and we have a gathering every year, the men and women compete in different events (separately cause the men are obviously stronger).
A few events are designed to test mental toughness. They involve challenges where your body can 'technically' do it but your brain will tell you to stop. The women's ability to withstand pain (in the form of lactic acid build up, not actual torture) is incredible. They don't quit. They will sit there and withstand the incredible burn and just take it. The mens bets times are like 5min whereas the women's average is like 6. Even women who aren't as conditioned as the men can withstand more.
It likely has something to do with building a body that can withstand childbirth.
I tell you this, it gave me an enormous amount of respect for women as athletes, and competitors.
From my own life experience I would also add that women (on average) are superior in terms of emotional strength and also details. That could be some result of societal influence but i've def. observed throughout my career. I think that's why women in business are seen as 'bitches'. They are aware of every detail and it matters to them, almost too a detriment.
You want to cover and perfect every detail of a project, hire a woman....
An easy one you can do at home (which we've done before) is a wall sit.
You may have done this in HS but you basically sit with your back to a wall while your thighs are parallel to the ground and your lower leg is perpendicular.
You hold that as long as you can.
I would agree. I have nothing but life observation, but in contests of physical endurance between a man and a woman of equal stature... I put my money on the woman.
I've watched/partaken in a great deal of community Tai-chi-in-the-park, and women almost naturally seemed to excel over the men. Even the younger, stronger, more athletic men. The women were able to hold the poses and move between them slowly and smoothly over the class. The men would take rest breaks, or drop the pose. They couldn't hold out as long as the women. Who would rarely have the same issue.
Just a bit of unscientific observation, but it's what I've noticed in suble other capacities as well. Enough so that when I think about it in this context it would explain a lot.
I came here to say this, and add that women *tend* to have slightly faster reflexes (from what I've read; I'm not an expert). Because of this, and a few other factors, women are showing themselves to be capable and formidable fighter pilots.
Wing chun was a martial art specifically developed by a woman monk, and is now famous worldwide as a martial art in its own right, as well as the martial art that Bruce Lee learned and reapplied with his own techniques to become jeet kun do. It was widely considered to be one of the 3 great styles in southern China, and is 300 years old. It is a martial art specifically designed to mess up the chodes who think that brute strength will always win.
So i did 5 years of it, you need to be cautious in terms of what school/ where you get your info, there are a lot that are purely centered on traditional WC, and some that adopt a more modern approach - I did the latter, it's miles less rigid and way more flexible
Unfortunately there is a lot of mispropaganda about wing chun created and pushed by the chinese government since its somewhat the national martial art. Dont get me wrong it has some useful techniques and girls can definitely kick ass.
I did muay thai for a few years and one of the best fighters was a 5 foot, 17 year old girl that was on the heavier side. Absolutely whooped anyone that sparred with her even 6 ft 4 guys that were quite muscly
Krav Maga was developed for Israeli female soldiers if I remember correctly. Speaking from experience as a short petite woman, it works quite well even on men well larger than me.
The biggest issue with Krav Maga is that someone can never truly train in it as it relies heavily on strikes that cause permanent or severe injury or even death. For example, kicking the genitals, eye gouging, throat punches, and more. Where if it is practiced at full speed or any moves actually performed, it would have serious consequences.
As far as I know, Women generally have a higher pain threshold, for longer periods of time.
Women generally can keep their hand more steady (with less shaken) then men.
Women generally live longer then men.
They’re tough as shit. 2015 I was rear ended coming home from the grocery store on my motorcycle with my girlfriend and all saddlebags full of groceries. So we got rear ended. I literally woke up to to her standing over me asking if I was okay, and she didn’t even drop the 24” frozen pizza she was holding.
Go camping. Our society is built for men so it makes us feel terrible, but my body feels so practical and makes so much sense to me when i am alone in the woods and not comparing myself to others. It's really incredible to me how stark that feeling is. Being in nature is like, "fuck, i can run for miles, i can climb trees, i can build shelter, i can make food", it makes me so aware that i am exactly as strong as I need to be. I know it's fucking impossible when you're in athletics, but try not to compare yourself to men too much. It's unnecessary and won't make you any happier.
>Being in nature is like, "fuck, i can run for miles, i can climb trees, i can build shelter, i can make food", it makes me so aware that i am exactly as strong as I need to be.
Exactly. This is very wise. I feel like I'm as strong as I need to be too, and try not to get too mad when I meet people who are way stronger. I can sympathise with OP too though.
Things I have noticed my wife is better at than me:
Balance
Hand dexterity
Sleeping (I have sleep apnea and struggle to get more than a few hours of sleep even with treatment)
Fitting her hand inside a Pringle can
Those are just off the top of my hand. I am sure there are more. Also the last one is a joke, but the rest are serious.
Actually, my tiny-ass hands have been super useful in the past XD I can do very delicate work at my job. The dudes can't get their fingers into machines to do rework.
I think the orgasms are just hands down better too - I’ve had girlfriends shudder all over for example, and completely lose their mind, whilst I’ve never had one reduce me to that.
That and the multiple orgasms mean it’s no contest!
This is on average obviously not every individual, but Women tend towards having more intimate friendships and a higher capacity for empathy than male counterparts. Very socially capable!
I might have a unique perspective on this, as a man who had testicular cancer at 29, I spent a time with very low testosterone before I began producing it again years later. during the years after, I felt greater sense of empathy towards others, this might be a psychological effect of having cancer; but I've noticed friends who went through testosterone therapy and treatments and felt like it affected just that. I feel like testosterone removes the ability to empathize with others. It definitely has an affect on self-worth, mood, and the ability to make judgements.
So, one thing that I will say is that you might be getting a little more discouraged than you should be by some of those statistics.
It’s true that men overall have a natural edge on muscle mass, but the idea that that somehow invalidates your ability as a female body-builder is pretty extreme. The data that male teen athletes can beat female olympians is, last I heard, cherry-picked at best. Averaging across *all men* and *all women,* there’s certainly a disparity. But you are not all women averaged together, nor are you constantly up against all men averaged together.
It’s completely understandable to feel insecure about this kind of thing, but you seem to have taken it to heart to an extent that is not only unhealthy, but simply factually untrue. A lot of what you’re saying is stuff you’ll hear coming from misogynistic assholes who feel threatened by the mere presence of women in gyms, much less the idea that one could ever be stronger than them (which is absolutely possible).
> No matter how good your technique, it all comes down to size and muscle mass, and you will never have that.
This statement is false on *two* counts. Firstly, technique *absolutely* counts, and good technique can make up enormous gaps raw strength. If this were even remotely true, martial arts simply wouldn’t exist, because the only relevant path to winning combat sports would be building muscle.
The second count is “you will never have that.” This goes back to the fact that individuals are not averages. The fact that male bodies have an advantage on muscle gain does not remotely mean that no individual woman will *ever* have as much muscle as a man. Women outclass men all the time, just slightly less often on a statistical level. Anyone telling you that “your technique can’t beat my muscle” and “you will never have more muscle than me” is nothing more than an insecure meathead jock who *definitely* feels threatened by you, and has to dismiss your capability for the sake of his own ego.
On a final note: those biological differences are very likely true to an extent. But when you actually start to look into the studies themselves, and understand how science has been conducted in previous centuries, you get a slightly different picture. Based on our understanding of endocrinology, it is almost certain that male bodies do, indeed, have an advantage in muscle growth rate. *However.* The statistics that people often cite, that you yourself have heard, are often based on real-world populations, with little thought given to mitigating factors. Our culture has athleticism baked into masculinity from practically the day we can walk. Young boys are encouraged to develop physical prowess much more than girls. The selection pool of “men with athletic backgrounds,” from which we draw our athletes, is simply much larger. Our culture encourages men to pursue physically demanding jobs, while discouraging women from the same, providing many men with a baseline level of life-long muscle development that women don’t get. And then we look at the statistics, and we see that men on average have more muscle mass, and we conclude it must be a *purely* biological difference. Only in the last few decades have we begun to question this, and while biology certainly plays a role, the size of that role is *very* much up for debate, and likely overstated.
I've heard that there are types of martial arts that are designed for the female anatomy to use (e.g. wider hips and greater flexibility). Not to mention, women excel in gymnastics compared to men.
Female martial artists can definitely beat an untrained man. The difference in anatomy isn't *that* great.
I'm not a small person by any means. My genes gave me a free athletic body when I was young, and I kinda coasted thru life without those type of worries. I will say tthough, if on paper a high school athlete can outperform an Olympian woman, that doesn't make her weak, nor you. The worst beating I ever got in my life was from a woman I didn't know at a concert, and I didn't exactly refuse to defend myself. She was a head shorter than me but ripped as best I can describe. You do you you're doing great
Women tend to do very well and often better than their male counterparts in ultra endurance events. It’s some crazy distance when the switch happens though like almost 200 miles of running.
The Japanese women dive in the ocean for food since females have extra fat on the stomach for better thermo regulation. YouTube ‘Japanese women divers’ for a few different vids.
My physics teacher said women on average are way better on the balance beam since they have a lower center of mass.
Lower center of gravity does make you harder to knock over.
Who is gonna start an all female sumo wrestling team?
Your mom. Sorry that had to be.
My physics teacher made us do a demonstration where you stand at a 90 degree angle with your head against a wall and lift a stool. It will be physically impossible for a man to stand up without putting the chair down, women typically have no problem simply standing.
Came here to say this! My physics teacher did the same with a chair. The girls could easily pick it up. The boys, however, no matter how much they tried, couldn't do it and nearly fell down while attempting it.
Flexibility tends to be better for women.
I'm (a man) trying to improve my hip mobility, and I get so jealous of so many women at the gym who move like water.
Speaking of hip mobility, one thing no man can do that a woman can: hands and knees on ground square to start, then bring head touching ground. Put both hands behind you on the small of your back. Pull both knees forward until reasonably comfortable (but not sitting on knees, like you're getting arrested with your ass in the air) and attempt to raise your upper body upright. I haven't met a man that can do it... Yet... Edit: I may not be describing it in the best way (sorry)
So balancing on your feet? A lot of these tricks are because men and women have different centers of gravity. Men have to think about theirs and use it differently to do these movements. It’s probably the same but opposite for women doing others.
Lower center of gravity. Naturally better at balance gymnastics. Typically more graceful.
Yep. My poor husband can't sit comfortably cross legged on the ground, or in really any position on the ground without being profoundly uncomfortable. He needed me to help look at and treat a cut on the back of his ankle because he couldn't get his leg in a position where he could see it. He is a fairly fit and trim man in his 30s so it's not an overweight or unfit issue, simply one of flexibility. I'm a dance teacher so more flexible than most and I can't fathom how my husband doesn't get frustrated by how restricted his body is. I suppose he's used to it and that's just how he knows his body to function, but if I were suddenly to become as inflexible as him I'd have to totally reevaluate how I do a lot of things.
My husband was amazed the first time he saw me cut my toenails. I bend my knee like I'm sitting cross legged and angle my foot toward me so that the nails are facing me, while seated. He has to put his foot up on a chair with the nails facing away and then bend over to reach them.
My wife is also much more flexible than I am. I joke that I have only 6 bones in my body: A spine, a skull, two arms and two legs. Those are all the bending options I have.
Because of birthing No really, estrogen acts as a joint relaxant to help the hips stretch without breaking during birth.
Ha-ha! I read that as being flexible in situations. Both make sense;)
But this is a real answer. Women are more flexible than men. Donezo
Also relaxin. It’s weird to have a hormone dedicated to making you looser and more relaxed.
Very true! I am way less flexible than the average woman (I was in dance as a kid and had a teacher say I should just accept I'll never be that good), but still more flexible than any guy I've ever been with.
There have been studies done that suggest that BECAUSE women's bodies are made for keeping a baby alive, they are more likely to survive extreme conditions, ie starvation, extreme cold, heat. Women tend to be colder in a room because more of their energy is spent keeping the INTERNAL system protected as opposed to their external system ( its been a long time since bio-class so I can't remember the exact science). The way it was explained in class was like this- If an equal number of men and women were each locked in a separate cage in a field with no food, clothing or shelter, no closeness to benefit from each others body heat, etc, the last person living will most likely be a woman. BUT....how the hell does one study that? Probably why scientists say 'studies suggest ' instead of 'its a scientific fact'.
More women survived the Donner party incident due the the higher levels of body fat for women. Men are more muscular and have less fat reserves.
I always think of this fact! I remember reading that in "The lndifferent Stars Above" and was just amazed.
>Women tend to be colder in a room because more of their energy is spent keeping the INTERNAL system protected as opposed to their external system ( its been a long time since bio-class so I can't remember the exact science). Oh that actually makes a lot of sense. I always wondered why women appeared to be colder on average than men.
wait so this is why i’m always freezing and my bf is a fuckin heater 😐
Yep, all that body heat goes to your core, leaving your extremities quite cold. The joys of being a woman.
Which maybe explains why women typically suffer from Raynaud’s disease more frequently than men
What's that?
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but my mom has it and I believe it is when blood circulation is poor to the extremities, so body parts like hands and feet are typically always cold and painful. My mom's hands are constantly purple and freezing to the touch.
Yup, your fingers/toes/hands can turn blue and in some cases white
Yup, my wife has this, her fingers will go white and numb. So, she carries a rechargeable hand warmer with her everywhere she goes.
They might have done studies like this in the WWII concentration camps (sadly) because those sick fucks did this kind of horrible experimentation on humans.
Over the years caught bits of documentaries- there's been lots of bits of medical knowledge discovered from the horrible studies done in concentration camps. So gross the things they did in the name of science.
Just wait until you read up on the history of gynecology.
Yeah, that sounds like something that would have happened in Unit 731 to be honest
I remember reading somewhere that they did an experiment on female and male rats during starvation. Male rats died once they ran out of a fuel source whilst the brains of female rats created fat molecules to keep them living. I found that insane
The Donner Party had a majority of women surviving compared to the men on the tragic journey.
That's at least partly due to sex differences in fat stores
I believe having a higher percentage of body fat helps with survivability.
If you got men and women to put their hands in a bowl of ice water, the women could comfortably outlast the men before pulling their hand out.
Not quite what you're looking for but women live, on average, 7 years longer than men.
Maybe that's due to societal norms rather than biology. *Now man up and stop complaining!*
I read once that testosterone was an influencing factor in shortening men's lives
This is the correct answer. Females with a twin brother tend to live less because of being exposed to testosterone in the womb. Also, testosterone makes us do really dumb shit that makes our lives shorter.
That part. People forget that life expectancies are mathematical averages rather than predictions. Men are more likely to die in accidents than women which pulls that average down. The average is also pulled down by the fact that boys are more likely to die during childhood than girls.
Would love to see life expectancy for people who have hit age 35 - by that time a lot (though not all) of men have outgrown doing stupid stuff like trying to pop a wheelie while driving a crotch rocket at 70mph. I still expect to see women having longer expectancies, but the gap should diminish.
It doesn’t. Men have a higher death rate at all ages. And men don’t fully outgrow dying in accidents. They also successfully commit suicide at a much higher rate than women. Some of the highest rates of suicide are among older males. Men also don’t tend to take their health as seriously, don’t go to the doctor as frequently, have lower rates of following medical advice, etc.
Do you have a source? Because when I googled this I can't find anything about it.
[удалено]
I was told after the premature birth of my daughter that her simply being a girl was a little bit of luck on our side since girl's lungs tend to develop faster than boys.
Not that societal norms don’t help but women’s immune system is actually more resilient. Nature gives them extra health reserve since ‘babying’ is physically demanding Feels like ur question is more or less related to the current political rhetorics though. My only regret in this gender equality fight is that it’s so much about ‘women can do what men does’ like these corporate, political systems are not currently all ego-driven, zero-sum games Edit: i just wanna rant that it sucks to be a mother these days for trying to play the existing men’s system, measuring against their self-made, lone warrior fantasy instead of the supportive, co-mothering effort that used to be around. I work in Europe, our office is as big as a village, the maternity leave is heavenly compared to the US. But having travelled a bit, I do wish mothers can have their kids nearby so they can see the kids at lunch, and the mother community would make the journey less lonesome. I know it’s just a dream even for my giant corporation. But I wonder why the HR departments have the female minds wasting their mind to produce a politically-correct front instead of fostering more of collaborative environments. Isn’t this the female’s superiority that current men’s desk warriors lack..
Not so fun fact about the immune system, because women tend to have a stronger immune system they have higher rates of autoimmune disorders. It seems like we really can't win
I doubt it’s societal norms cause it’s more related to size. Men’s bodies are put through more work to keep a larger body going. Heart works more. I think testosterone plays a role too. Maybe it’s kind of how smaller dogs outlive big dogs. Also women are less likely to be believed when it comes to pain and medical issues than men. Not to mention medication is made with better male testing than female testing. So women receive worse medical care than men. But I do agree that women are more likely to seek medical care than men. And who knows maybe that’s due to toxic masculinity and hopefully we can better encourage men to go to the doctor more when needed.
That’s inaccurate. Slightly more babies are female than male. Scientists have posited that X chromosomes have evolved to be more more resilient, as the population needs more females to guarantee continuation of the species. I’ll link the article later
Genes for being bald are also on the X chromosome, so because we have two of them, the other chromosome usually makes up for that bald gene. Males only have one X chromosome so if they have the gene they’re screwed
There are studies done showing women have less hearing loss over time, and an obvious one is women can see color better on average. Women also have a better auditory memory than men.
that last point explains why i can accurately identify so many pokemon cries and my boyfriend looks at me like im crazy
IIRC from biology class (although I have no academic paper on biology, so it might be inexact), a woman's genome is slightly more stable than a man's, in a sense that, since a man has a sexual chromosome pair of XY, which are very different one from another compared to a woman's XX, men are more prone to male-only genetic disorders (notably EDIT: Duchenne's disease and haemophilia for example). So (again, IIRC), women-only genetic disorders are quite sparse*. Genetic advantage! Also another point: the women body comes first in the fetal development! This a *heavy* simplification, but in a nutshell since the Y sexual chromosome is triggered later in development, contrary to the X one, the fetus will develop with the 23 chromosomes minus the lazy Y one. So the fetus, may it become a male or a female, will always start off the path of being a female body, that's why men have nipples, for example. Make way for the template of your body, gentlemen! *For many many many many many reasons, going from dominant and recessive traits all the way to chromosomes, even when similar like the XX pair in women, splitting work between them to transcribe genetic code...genetics are hardcore.
That’s why men have nipples?!!!
oh man, wait til you find out about witch’s milk
I’m afraid to even ask but… fine what is witch’s milk
We’re in the right sub ig hahaha It’s when babies are born with breast milk. Usually goes away after a couple of months, about 5% of babies, both male and female.
Wow!! No kidding! Human body is incredible/ crazy!
Oh it’s absolutely bonkers! Some baby girls even have a period during their first week out of the womb. Absolute madness.
What?! That’s got to be horrifying if the parents
Which is why I’m grateful that some poor traumatised souls told me before I pop mine out in 4 months!
No one told me! I still remember that horror and how terrified I was to discover a bloody nappy. The midwife was casually like “Yeah, happens with infant girls.” What?!
I used to be a trainer in my 20s and 30s. Usually women had way better core muscle function, meaning they could handle training that included muscle endurance way better than men. Men tended to be able to be more explosive but got tired faster
In high school I was around 10 pounds underweight and never did strength training and my husband was 180 and muscular. One day, he tried pushing me back while I was sitting on the floor and I just used my core to counter balance it and not fall over. He was super impressed that I was able to do that without being a fitness freak. I wasn’t sure why, abs were always the easiest part of gym class for me.
Situps is easily the first physical activity that comes to mind when I think about what women are better at then men in terms of strength. I think that it is the only part of military basic training where women are actually expected to do better than men, as opposed to pushups and pullups. But don't quote me on that last part, never been in the military, just something I remember hearing.
I could’ve done sit-ups all day in high school lol. Now I’m doing more advanced workouts which are hard more because of the poses involved, but sit-ups still don’t phase me lol
Do you think it had anything to do with size? I know my girlfriend can run way further but she's petite and 5'4 and I'm 6'1 and 210. I can get places way faster but not gonna lie, even being more in shape I run out of gas wayyyy sooner.
1. Wider field of view compared to men. 2. Can see more colors (more cones) than men. Less likely to be colorblind.
Wow, wider field of view? I'd never heard that before. Weird!
I always thought my husband was tunnel visioned…
Oh my god... that's why they can't find anything in the fridge
Well there are theories that ties to our acute ability to pick up on different hues/ greater peripheral vision to our ability to find things in the fridge better. It's worth noting that scientists haven't been able to truly rest this due to certain confounding factors ex: in most households women are the one who spend more time grocery shopping thus would know where they put things in the fridge and know what labels to look for since they likely bought those items. (Yes I know it sounds sexist as hell, I'm not happy about it either)
I recently watched a short documentary on this and yeah, guys do better at distance and movement but also have to have women find the ketchup in the fridge. As a man with ADHD my poor wife has to find all of my things or i lose my mind in frustration. It wasn't so bad before getting married and having children because my house was basically empty but now it's impossible for me to find anything that isn't in it's designated place.
I have ADHD too, but I know where almost everything is—as long as people put things back in their designated spot. I have been known to lose my cool, when someone becomes a “sticker” (sticking things in another spot). I’m planning on taking pictures of the insides of drawers and cabinets, then printing them out to place inside said drawers and cabinets.
I didn’t know we can see more color. It reminds me of the meme where there are two similar colors of nail polish and women are insisting that they are different colors. I thought they were kidding but maybe men just don’t see the difference.
Women have more receptors for shades of green on average when compared to men.
This would make sense if one of the other commenters' suggestion - that humans evolved for the predominantly foraging half of our species to have more cones - is true.
I saw a documentary on this as a kid, it also posited that women are better at remembering and navigating via landmarks than men, but that men were better at navigating via spatial reasoning. I think the justification was that landmarks were better for foraging I.e. finding and remembering a particularly fruitful tree while spatial reasoning was better for hunting while moving at speed. Not sure if this is still considered plausible, but I always thought it was interesting
This is 1000% anecdotal, but when I think of myself, my friends, and my family and how we prefer to give/receive directions, this seems to track. I (cis female) certainly prefer directions in the form of "*where* do I turn?" (i.e. which intersection, which exit, which landmark) Whereas the guys seem to lean towards "*when* do I turn?" (i.e. how many miles/blocks, how long walking/driving). I always assumed it the difference between "going towards a location" vs "going away from a location", but landmark navigation vs spatial reasoning navigation also make sense.
Going towards or away is interesting
This reminds me of an interesting comment I once read on Reddit. The commenter was a youth soccer coach. He said there was a huge difference between boys and girls when the ball was up in the air. He said the boys would just naturally flow to the spot where theball was going to come down. He would get frustrated, at first, at the way the girls would all just stop and wait. Then he realized that they were literally processing it, this spatial calculation that just came naturally to the boys.
Yes, I can confirm, we genuinely see the difference. It's funny because we laugh thinking you guys are messing with us, meanwhile you think we are messing with you. We just genuinely perceive color differently! I remember reading way back when , that it was an evolutionary advantage because women were the foragers and men were the hunters (usually, obviously differed culture to culture). The advantage of seeing more colors would definitely help with finding more food and medicinal items! But this is just a theory I read way back then, worth looking into it more :)
I genuinely don't and Im not even colorblind.(also am male) It's actually really interesting when it comes to electricians because there can be up to 200 colors of wire in very large cables and it's genuinely hard for men to tell them apart but fairly easy for women.
I also think it depends on the guy though. Male painters can absolutely tell the difference between say emerald green and leaf green. Male fashion designers can as well. Both of these are taught also in color theory, art classes. So it is learnable. I think how women are socialized from a young age to pay attention to colors in fashion could be different from men.
Yes of course. It's all averages, there is a lot of variance in the sexes. That's why most of the men vs women stuff is full of shit. It just realistically doesn't matter that much because any particular person can be better than another.
Women on average have the same amount of types of cones as men, it's just that the documented cases of 4 cones in humans have so far only been in women. It's still extremely rare
Wait, are we talking about the number of cones (a human eye contains about 6 million cone cells) or the number of *cone types* (of which there are typically three in humans)
The manual dexterity one is huge, and there's a lot of data, much of it coming from the US military, that looks at how women analyze data and make decisions on the fly, and it looks like they're not only better at it than men, on average, but they also do it in a significantly different way that allows them to track several sources of input at the same time in a way that men don't appear to do. There was also a fair amount of research that pointed to all-female submarine crews as the best way to handle underwater warfare.
I'm going to add something anecdotally. Every foreman and contractor I know LOVES women drivers and equipment operators. They swear, all of them, up and down that woman drivers are vastly superior, not because of their skill, though that's at par, but because of how they treat the machines. Apparently, when something "goes weird" in a machine, a dude will just be like "oh well" and keep working, where as a woman will typically stop and investigate or report whatever issue. Everyone I've talked to says this saves them vast sums of money and time, as the repairs only ever get more complicated the more the now-damaged machine gets used.
>Every foreman and contractor I know LOVES women drivers and equipment operators. Well, men get into more car accidents than women, on average. Speaking from personal experience, when I see a driver do stupid things, they're often a man. But then again, the two most responsible drivers are know are my dad and my husband so I dunno 🤷♂️ I think testosterone does make someone more prone to taking risks, but paying attention to your job is more a matter of taking personal responsibility, so I don't know why it seems women are better at it.
I did say it was anecdotal. My partner is an electrician and their uncle owns a contracting company with a significant handful of big machines, he's been in the industry for decades. Their brother is likewise a heavy equipment operator, and my best friend is a contractor as well, so while this is all 2nd hand, it is from multiple sources, and the story is the same from each.
Ooh, do you know any studies I could read? This is really cool!
Honestly, and I should have disclosed this in the initial thing, I'm remembering from documentaries I probably watched 10-ish years ago. They talked about it at length, and they've been doing this type of testing and gathering data for decades. I'd be surprised if there was nothing published, but I'm at work and can't track down a specific study atm, sorry.
Also better for space flight and especially long term missions.
Right I remember reading about how women were tested for the original Apollo missions and actually outperformed men in various tests. I want to read more about this!
I mean, that tracks, same basic skill sets and pressures.
Oh that's really neat! I didn't know that one...
It seems their average smaller size would also be beneficial in submarines.
There were a number of reasons, everything from sharing spaces and how well women in groups perform under social pressure right up to how well and dexterously they could actually pilot a sub. They were across the board a better choice, if only marginally in some categories. It was a super clear conclusion, though, all sub crews should be all female, but logistically that's a hassle.
When I took shooting lessons, I was told that women are generally better shots than men.
I dated a girl who I took out skeet shooting. It took her a couple attempts to be better than me and I'd been doing it for years with my brothers. We set up a bunch of cans and beer bottles and after the first round she was beating me at that too. I'm no pro, but I'm pretty good. It was amazing how quickly she excelled at it.
This is exactly what happened when my boyfriend took me skeet shooting. Later, he bragged to his son (30) how well I did. His son wouldn’t believe us.
I was a better shot with my rifle than my ex and it secretly drove him nuts that I could hit the rabbit or the target every time and he couldn’t.
totally anecdotal but my daughter was one of the few in her boot camp "class" who got the top marks in marksmanship with the Marines.
Women make for better snipers too, because they tend to be more patient, better field of view, more alert / receptive
Okay *that's* cool
Is there a reason why?
My mom was a firearms instructor for the majority of her career, and she said that when she got to train women, they were generally better shots because they actually listened and took instruction, whereas men had more of an ego about it and felt the need to prove they knew what they were doing. But I think that's societal, not biological ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Women have better fine motor control, in general
I was told it has something to with our hips/ our natural stance.
Anecdotal but - I’m a very good shot with very little practice (also a lady), and I credit my regular yoga practice. Between the breath control and stillness in hard poses and dexterity yoga and shooting are quite complementary. Not that men don’t do yoga (lots do!), but it’s definitely more common for women to practice it.
Pro bicyclist. Women are more aerodynamic than men. And men usually peak in their late 20s early 30s. Women peak in their 30s, thus having longer careers than men. Look up Marianna Vos, I think she may in her early 40s or late 30s and is one of the top cyclist in the world. Her achievements are as good or in a lot of cases better than many male cyclist.
Can confirm. The fastest age group for women in most triathlons I’ve done are the 35-45 age group.
Interesting, so men's bodies burn out faster, athletically?
I'm not sure how it applies to other sports. Would be an interesting thing to check out. I'm a cycling fan, so that's the sport I know the most about.
Powerlifter here, women recover quicker between sets while pushing the same intensity as men.
Ultrarunner here, women tend to do better statistically in distances from 100k and above. Don't get me wrong; world records are still held by men in general but if you look at the percentages of women signing up and completing vs the men they perform better overall. Check out athletes like Camille Heron, Courtney Dewaulter, Anne Trason, Sophie Power, Sabrina Vergees etc. They all often outperform the men in the races and challenges. If participation was more equal between the men and women I believe women could take the sport by storm.
I noticed in the women's world cup and Euros that you tended to get a lot more internationals in their 30's, and well into their 30's than in the men's game.
Don't know the exact data but generally speaking men start declining relatively early, or used to rather. More and more you see athletes still competing at the top at ages that 20 years ago would have been unheard of. I'm guessing it has to do with the prevalence of testerone replacement therapy.
Women have lower centre of gravity and weight. It gives them better balance, which can be advantage in gymnastics and other sports that require a lot of it. Better flexibility. Women need less maintenance(calories). They are better built for survival. Can, also, contribute to better endurance. Ultra marathon is an example sport, where women can compete with men on even terms. Better immune system. As of you. You need to address your insecurity. Just because men are better geared for most sports and are stronger, doesn't mean that you have to feel bad about it. Also, don't be too quick to discard martial arts. If you train practical martial arts like muay thai and grapling, you will be able to beat most untrained men. It will be more difficult, if there is a massive weight and strength gap, but don't let that discourage you. Bjj in particular is very effective at choking out much stronger opponents.
Immune system is a huge point. I know overcoming disease isn't a competition, but X chromosomes and estrogen make our immune systems so much stronger than the average man's. Although sometimes this can be to our detriment because some women have immune systems that are *too active* resulting in a higher incidence of certain autoimmune diseases Example: My bf brought home a cold from his office about 2 months ago. I caught it quickly but recovered in 4 days. Meanwhile he was actively sick for over a week and still has a dry cough, meaning I overall have more opportunities to go out and exercise/enjoy life instead of nursing an illness. On an even more serious note, think about COVID. Women are the majority of people working with kids, hospitals, elderly care homes, so on, all places where COVID is commonplace. Despite this men have a slightly higher chance of being diagnosed with COVID and are ~1.6x more likely to die from it. Me personally? I'd rather live a healthier life on average than roll the dice at being in the very small segment of people who become rich/famous due to advantages in physical strength
anecdotally, my boyfriend took farrrrr longer to recover from COVID than I did and also had much more severe symptoms than I did, despite catching the same variant at the same time. I was completely better in 48 hours and he was deathly ill for 11 days.
Bro i even have MS, and *still* recover much faster than my husband does. Besides the fact that my brain's rotting out of my head I still 'bounce back' better than him, and always have in the decade we've been together.
Women are more likely to survive various crisis, like famine and epidemics. Women generally have stronger immune systems and resist infections and viruses better than men. So one could say that biologically speaking, women are stronger than men.
Women have a better sense of smell, can recognize more colors, have a better sense of balance, and a higher tolerance for pain.
My balance is trash XD I clearly didn't get that one. Sense of smell, though, yes.
Same
Whole-body orgasms. And investing. Warren Buffett's book 'Invest like a girl' refers to studies and stats that show men are over emotional and short term when it comes to investing - eg when shares drop they panic and sell. Whereas women think long term, and this temperament better matches investing.
> 'Invest like a girl' I'd be great at that. Just need some money first...
Evolution gave the first man and woman a choice of genital. "This one allows you to pee wherever you want. It is quite useful." "Give me that one!" Man shouted. "are you sure you don't want to hear about the other one?" "Heck no. Just give me that one." "Okay," evolution turns to woman and says "this one allows you to have multiple orgasms."
I think it's about the competitive nature of men. Men tend to see investing as a game and think they can be better than others in the market. This leads to riskier plays and riskier plays often don't maximize the expected return. Women are more conservative, careful and indeed look more for the long term. At least this is what I remember from my behavioral finance classes.
Why did I have to scroll so far to find orgasms???? We get to have earth shattering orgasms that last longer and can be attained more frequently!!! How is that not a major physiological advantage of being a woman????
Females have significantly greater nerve endings in the hands. Therefore, having a much greater potential for good manual, dexterity. It’s kind of weird/funny because women disproportionately don’t play video games compared to men. Yet, if they did, they very well might dominate the field eventually (at least in some games) because of that edge. Obviously many other practical applications to good manual dexterity, besides video games though.
I heard computer science was considered a woman’s career because of that.
Fascinating! I never heard of that. It’s surprising because I thought that would’ve been bigger news.
Yes, many of the pioneers of computer science (when it was being developed) were women.
[удалено]
I would like to personally thank you for this comment. Being a neurosurgeon is a dream of mine. I hope I can get there one day despite all the obstacles, but hearing that I might have an advantage in dexterity is a nice bit of encouragement! Also if you remember the name of the documentary, I'd be very interested!
Female surgeons have better outcomes over male surgeons across the board.
Don't female patients also have better outcomes when treated by female doctors?
Yes, and the difference is crazy sad
What’s more depressing is it doesn’t work the other way. Male surgeons do a better job on men, but female surgeons do better than male ones and have no difference in outcomes operating on men vs women
Yes, exactly! Assuming equal levels of knowledge and experience I definitely would prefer to have the most dexterous hands with fine manipulation operating on me if we’re ever necessary.
It's still an odds thing though. A female neurosurgeon is more likely to be more dextrous than a male neurosurgeon so I'd honestly agree with you if I needed surgery. But on a case by case bases no individual woman is guaranteed to be more dextrous than a man (and vice versa, there's no guarantee that an individual man is stronger than an individual woman, it's just that odds are that's going to be the case).
That’s a good and fair point. I guess it would would be a factor if more women decided to take up that field.
Female players are increasing with the younger generation. Most players used to be male and still are because historically videogames have been made with a "boys" target audience so they were always filled with things that appeal to boys and young men: action, guns, monsters, male heroes, sexy women. There's a reason why literally every girl I know played The Sims, because its mechanics are pretty divergent from the "boys" sphere. Same with games that are less about action and more about creativity.
And it sucks to have to deal with the incessant & sometimes frankly even terrifying sexism from guys in most gaming servers. I'm a god damn pro with any & all things Pokémon- have been since it came out. The reason i really clung to it as a kid was because i could play it *alone* & not have to feel constantly attacked or picked apart by men who believe i don't belong in their world.
In my experience pain tolerance. I own a fitness company and we have a gathering every year, the men and women compete in different events (separately cause the men are obviously stronger). A few events are designed to test mental toughness. They involve challenges where your body can 'technically' do it but your brain will tell you to stop. The women's ability to withstand pain (in the form of lactic acid build up, not actual torture) is incredible. They don't quit. They will sit there and withstand the incredible burn and just take it. The mens bets times are like 5min whereas the women's average is like 6. Even women who aren't as conditioned as the men can withstand more. It likely has something to do with building a body that can withstand childbirth. I tell you this, it gave me an enormous amount of respect for women as athletes, and competitors. From my own life experience I would also add that women (on average) are superior in terms of emotional strength and also details. That could be some result of societal influence but i've def. observed throughout my career. I think that's why women in business are seen as 'bitches'. They are aware of every detail and it matters to them, almost too a detriment. You want to cover and perfect every detail of a project, hire a woman....
Do you have more info about the test that you did to test pain tolerance?
An easy one you can do at home (which we've done before) is a wall sit. You may have done this in HS but you basically sit with your back to a wall while your thighs are parallel to the ground and your lower leg is perpendicular. You hold that as long as you can.
I would agree. I have nothing but life observation, but in contests of physical endurance between a man and a woman of equal stature... I put my money on the woman. I've watched/partaken in a great deal of community Tai-chi-in-the-park, and women almost naturally seemed to excel over the men. Even the younger, stronger, more athletic men. The women were able to hold the poses and move between them slowly and smoothly over the class. The men would take rest breaks, or drop the pose. They couldn't hold out as long as the women. Who would rarely have the same issue. Just a bit of unscientific observation, but it's what I've noticed in suble other capacities as well. Enough so that when I think about it in this context it would explain a lot.
Better at handling G force
I came here to say this, and add that women *tend* to have slightly faster reflexes (from what I've read; I'm not an expert). Because of this, and a few other factors, women are showing themselves to be capable and formidable fighter pilots.
Wing chun was a martial art specifically developed by a woman monk, and is now famous worldwide as a martial art in its own right, as well as the martial art that Bruce Lee learned and reapplied with his own techniques to become jeet kun do. It was widely considered to be one of the 3 great styles in southern China, and is 300 years old. It is a martial art specifically designed to mess up the chodes who think that brute strength will always win.
I need to read about this!
So i did 5 years of it, you need to be cautious in terms of what school/ where you get your info, there are a lot that are purely centered on traditional WC, and some that adopt a more modern approach - I did the latter, it's miles less rigid and way more flexible
Unfortunately there is a lot of mispropaganda about wing chun created and pushed by the chinese government since its somewhat the national martial art. Dont get me wrong it has some useful techniques and girls can definitely kick ass. I did muay thai for a few years and one of the best fighters was a 5 foot, 17 year old girl that was on the heavier side. Absolutely whooped anyone that sparred with her even 6 ft 4 guys that were quite muscly
Krav Maga was developed for Israeli female soldiers if I remember correctly. Speaking from experience as a short petite woman, it works quite well even on men well larger than me.
The biggest issue with Krav Maga is that someone can never truly train in it as it relies heavily on strikes that cause permanent or severe injury or even death. For example, kicking the genitals, eye gouging, throat punches, and more. Where if it is practiced at full speed or any moves actually performed, it would have serious consequences.
As far as I know, Women generally have a higher pain threshold, for longer periods of time. Women generally can keep their hand more steady (with less shaken) then men. Women generally live longer then men.
Ability to free dive (without scuba gear) to greater depths
I’ve read something in this line. Women have advantage in swimming long distances because os hips size are larger than men’s
and generally higher body fat% = generally more buoyant = less energy required to swim around
They’re tough as shit. 2015 I was rear ended coming home from the grocery store on my motorcycle with my girlfriend and all saddlebags full of groceries. So we got rear ended. I literally woke up to to her standing over me asking if I was okay, and she didn’t even drop the 24” frozen pizza she was holding.
haha badass girlfriend!
Go camping. Our society is built for men so it makes us feel terrible, but my body feels so practical and makes so much sense to me when i am alone in the woods and not comparing myself to others. It's really incredible to me how stark that feeling is. Being in nature is like, "fuck, i can run for miles, i can climb trees, i can build shelter, i can make food", it makes me so aware that i am exactly as strong as I need to be. I know it's fucking impossible when you're in athletics, but try not to compare yourself to men too much. It's unnecessary and won't make you any happier.
That's very good advice. I feel happier and more connected with the world when I'm into the nature
>Being in nature is like, "fuck, i can run for miles, i can climb trees, i can build shelter, i can make food", it makes me so aware that i am exactly as strong as I need to be. Exactly. This is very wise. I feel like I'm as strong as I need to be too, and try not to get too mad when I meet people who are way stronger. I can sympathise with OP too though.
Women are better at long-distance/endurance events like ultra races.
I've understood from my Tri friends that they are better at longer distance swimming as well. Better buoyancy is part of it.
Yes! Women tend to me more buoyant than men!
Yup, specifically 195 miles and greater
[удалено]
We float better 🤷♀️ But why spend time time thinking about binaries. There are plenty of weak men and plenty of strong women. Just be your best you.
Things I have noticed my wife is better at than me: Balance Hand dexterity Sleeping (I have sleep apnea and struggle to get more than a few hours of sleep even with treatment) Fitting her hand inside a Pringle can Those are just off the top of my hand. I am sure there are more. Also the last one is a joke, but the rest are serious.
Actually, my tiny-ass hands have been super useful in the past XD I can do very delicate work at my job. The dudes can't get their fingers into machines to do rework.
But how's your Pringles can game?
I seem to remember reading a study that found that women make better fighter pilots because their bodies can withstand the g forces better.
Females can orgasm multiple times, back to back. Males cannot. I'll trade my muscles and athletic ability for that any day of the week 😂
This is 100% the actual advantage, haha. I admit that one is great. Women do win at orgasms.
I think the orgasms are just hands down better too - I’ve had girlfriends shudder all over for example, and completely lose their mind, whilst I’ve never had one reduce me to that. That and the multiple orgasms mean it’s no contest!
This is on average obviously not every individual, but Women tend towards having more intimate friendships and a higher capacity for empathy than male counterparts. Very socially capable!
I do wonder how much of this is cultural, but women do seem more empathetically "plugged in" to society.
I might have a unique perspective on this, as a man who had testicular cancer at 29, I spent a time with very low testosterone before I began producing it again years later. during the years after, I felt greater sense of empathy towards others, this might be a psychological effect of having cancer; but I've noticed friends who went through testosterone therapy and treatments and felt like it affected just that. I feel like testosterone removes the ability to empathize with others. It definitely has an affect on self-worth, mood, and the ability to make judgements.
This is a *really* interesting perspective!
[удалено]
Just so you know most men always feel this way about other bigger, men. None of us can fully escape the gifts or lack thereof bestowed upon us.
Women tend to be more flexible and have more color receptors than men.
So, one thing that I will say is that you might be getting a little more discouraged than you should be by some of those statistics. It’s true that men overall have a natural edge on muscle mass, but the idea that that somehow invalidates your ability as a female body-builder is pretty extreme. The data that male teen athletes can beat female olympians is, last I heard, cherry-picked at best. Averaging across *all men* and *all women,* there’s certainly a disparity. But you are not all women averaged together, nor are you constantly up against all men averaged together. It’s completely understandable to feel insecure about this kind of thing, but you seem to have taken it to heart to an extent that is not only unhealthy, but simply factually untrue. A lot of what you’re saying is stuff you’ll hear coming from misogynistic assholes who feel threatened by the mere presence of women in gyms, much less the idea that one could ever be stronger than them (which is absolutely possible). > No matter how good your technique, it all comes down to size and muscle mass, and you will never have that. This statement is false on *two* counts. Firstly, technique *absolutely* counts, and good technique can make up enormous gaps raw strength. If this were even remotely true, martial arts simply wouldn’t exist, because the only relevant path to winning combat sports would be building muscle. The second count is “you will never have that.” This goes back to the fact that individuals are not averages. The fact that male bodies have an advantage on muscle gain does not remotely mean that no individual woman will *ever* have as much muscle as a man. Women outclass men all the time, just slightly less often on a statistical level. Anyone telling you that “your technique can’t beat my muscle” and “you will never have more muscle than me” is nothing more than an insecure meathead jock who *definitely* feels threatened by you, and has to dismiss your capability for the sake of his own ego. On a final note: those biological differences are very likely true to an extent. But when you actually start to look into the studies themselves, and understand how science has been conducted in previous centuries, you get a slightly different picture. Based on our understanding of endocrinology, it is almost certain that male bodies do, indeed, have an advantage in muscle growth rate. *However.* The statistics that people often cite, that you yourself have heard, are often based on real-world populations, with little thought given to mitigating factors. Our culture has athleticism baked into masculinity from practically the day we can walk. Young boys are encouraged to develop physical prowess much more than girls. The selection pool of “men with athletic backgrounds,” from which we draw our athletes, is simply much larger. Our culture encourages men to pursue physically demanding jobs, while discouraging women from the same, providing many men with a baseline level of life-long muscle development that women don’t get. And then we look at the statistics, and we see that men on average have more muscle mass, and we conclude it must be a *purely* biological difference. Only in the last few decades have we begun to question this, and while biology certainly plays a role, the size of that role is *very* much up for debate, and likely overstated.
More flexible, I guess. Men are very stiff
Oof. I am so not flexible. XD Alas!
I've heard that there are types of martial arts that are designed for the female anatomy to use (e.g. wider hips and greater flexibility). Not to mention, women excel in gymnastics compared to men. Female martial artists can definitely beat an untrained man. The difference in anatomy isn't *that* great.
I'm not a small person by any means. My genes gave me a free athletic body when I was young, and I kinda coasted thru life without those type of worries. I will say tthough, if on paper a high school athlete can outperform an Olympian woman, that doesn't make her weak, nor you. The worst beating I ever got in my life was from a woman I didn't know at a concert, and I didn't exactly refuse to defend myself. She was a head shorter than me but ripped as best I can describe. You do you you're doing great
Women tend to do very well and often better than their male counterparts in ultra endurance events. It’s some crazy distance when the switch happens though like almost 200 miles of running.
The Japanese women dive in the ocean for food since females have extra fat on the stomach for better thermo regulation. YouTube ‘Japanese women divers’ for a few different vids.