Super interesting WSJ article on why girls high school basketball is dying/losing popularity

I LOLed.

Success in basketball is largely reserved for athletic freaks. If you're not exceptionally tall, you'll never be successful at the higher levels. Why not focus your attention on a more skill based sport like soccer or volleyball where someone with a less freakish height can be successful?

I've blogged about this before, but the popularity of a sport is DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL to the attractiveness of the participants

Women's volleyball = popular

Men's volleyball = not popular

Women's basketball = not popular

Men's basketball = popular

Women's gymnastics = popular

Men's gymnastics = not popular

Women's American football = non-existent

Men's American football = popular

Incidentally, this is one reason it's important for top-level women's sports to only allow XX competitors if they want to remain popular.

Hope the moderators allow this, but you’re right. What are the most popular female athletic activities? Gymnastics, figure skating, cheerleading, dance. People love to watch team USA gymnastics, they can’t get enough. Some of the ladies go on to wealth and fortune, and a few probably have no need for a regular job because they are household names. Male USA gymnasts, on the other hand, probably couldn’t make a fraction of the money, even if they were as good, which they aren’t.

People will pay good money to watch women engage in physical contests that have feminine qualities. Little girls flock to these sports. They avoid sports that trend to the masculine. This is normal behavior, and there’s nothing wrong with it.

Based on the article, I'm not seeing a significant crisis here.

It's still one of the most popular high school sports.

As a woman, I cringe when people seem to think the answer is because it's not "cute". I don't think that's it. But girls feel a lot of societal pressure to conform. it's not about wanting to wear a skirt. That's too simple. But it can be about peer pressure and outward appearances. If they are teased or put down for playing a sport that appears more "masculine" or if there is stigma around it they won't want to play it.

So the answer might not be to put on cute spandex or a skirt. The answer might be to reduce the judgements around playing sports like basketball or softball.

Anyways I never played basketball. Why? I was told that you had to be tall to be good at it and I knew that I wouldn't ever be tall.

Don't be a Negative Nancy. The secret to being tall in basketball is that most of them are doping on HGH when young, enabled by their parents. Makes you grow.

You are sooooo going to be cancelled by a Leftist.

Please share your blog post. I promise I won’t laugh you out of the room. Please.

Girls aren't a monolith and "feminine side" doesn't exist for every girl.

It's fine that many girls like these sports but "need to generally embrace their feminine side" is a bit stupid.

Okay, I was very wrong about the Theory of Lesbianism in basketball. That CNN article interviewing the head of the WBNA player's union quotes her on record about the prevelance of lesbians in the women's basketball and calls soccer players "little white girls".

Exactly!

And who are the popular trending stars on tik tok for teens....?

Cute little white girls.

No wonder the tik tok generation wants to do soccer and volleyball instead of basketball.

Not sure what you mean about judgments. The article states that ladies basketball was extremely popular 20 years ago, and is less so today. Besides, in this day and age, not sure what gender norms are being enforced by anyone these days.

I used to play volleyball at the youth club level before switching to running and soccer later on. Volleyball can attract "mean girls," and if you're not tall, you're not going to make it at the college level unless you're a dreaded libero.

I watch v-ball now and can't stand it. So many other sports require so much more skill, but I probably just got sick of it.

Girls and women are not teased for playing basketball. The answer to every societal issue doesn't have to be related to social conditioning. Believe it or not, people have more than one motivation to do pursue an interest other than it being popular/unpopular.

I think it's just a matter of athletic traits that basketball selects for. For whatever reason, women (on average) just don't seem to have the equivalent athleticism as men to be good at it. If they did, then there wouldn't be such a disparity between the average score of a WBNA and NBA game after they lowered the hoop and ball size. You just don't see as many women dunking and draining 3's. However, when I compare a men's and women's volleyball match, you still see just as many women able to spike the ball as the guy's, they just hit softer and run slower, but they still have all the technical aspects as the men.

Ha! Maybe so. That’s life I guess.

Anyway, I think sports that require height like basketball are just not going to be appealing going forward. There are just a lot more choices now in terms of what people can do with their time, sport and non-sport. E-sports, anyone?

Some say running appeals to only skinny white girls, but I happened to just run past a girls' cross country meet with females with all shapes, heights, and races. Maybe they won't all make state, but they are allowed on the team to participate. Basically every other sport requires you to try out.

I agree to a point. However article states several teams having issues fielding enough players to make a team. Not everyone needs to be super tall to play basketball. For whatever reason girls are less interested in doing it.

I think the thread was deleted.