Is distance running effeminate?

I do not really have a problem with football or football players. I do have a problem with ex-football players and big dopes who derive some feelings of machismo by passively watching athletes play football on TV. It is all of those dork football fans on sports radio et al who make fun of running and cycling (where people are more actively participating) because they think they are actually in some way associated with football. Football players are unbelievable athletes. There just aren't that many of them beyond the population in school.

Puget Sound is all about feminization marijuolist. It's screwed up to see men out proudly walking toy dogs, and women on mountain bikes flying on dangerous trails. Visit Texas. and yes running is effeminate.

marijuologist wrote:

I didn't say that running is necessarily emasculate- I said it is perceptible (to others) at such.

And why should you care what others think of you. If they think that way about runners they are just ignorant to the sport, and don't understand it.

tigerox wrote:

I do not really have a problem with football or football players. I do have a problem with ex-football players and big dopes who derive some feelings of machismo by passively watching athletes play football on TV. It is all of those dork football fans on sports radio et al who make fun of running and cycling (where people are more actively participating) because they think they are actually in some way associated with football. Football players are unbelievable athletes. There just aren't that many of them beyond the population in school.

Not sure where you live, but I know in NYC where I live running has never come up on a radio discussion ever that at least I've heard and the only cycling is the Tour De France for like 5 mins. So I dont know who calls up radio stations and makes fun of running

Is it "effeminate" or perhaps more to the point gender neutral?

Women runners get silly comments about how unfeminine running is, how damaging it is to our reproductive capacity, yada yada. And like men who run high mileage, women who do so also tend to be very lean and don't fit the traditionally "feminine" body type.

Also, hang around for the awards at a lot of races, and you'll see people in their 50s, 60s, even 70s, who look a lot younger than their ages and so are far more likely to appeal to the opposite sex (or what the heck their own, if they're oriented in that direction...) than the former h.s. hotshot who's no longer active and just yells at runners out of his SUV window... or the former homecoming queen who thinks running is "bad for your knees and makes you infertile."

Although not that big a football fan, I don't think football per se is the issue--a lot of runners posting here seem to be quite knowledgeable about and interested in football... and some runners are quite happy to spend the morning on their 20-miler and the afternoon watching the football game. To each her/his own. Just that football is used as an example b/c often football players fit what many regard as a masculine image... or stereotype, really... and football is perceived as more aggressive due to body contact than running. Which isn't to say running isn't aggressive, but the public's image of football and football players is that of aggression/masculinity.

Running tends to be a more nonconformist sport for both men and women, so likely to be seen with more suspicion and misunderstanding. And if you run, you'll get comments that reflect this misunderstanding. But so what? Run anyway, since that's what you love doing. And you'll be attractive to your spouse/lover for a lot longer than those who sit around because God forbid they should do something unmasculine/unfeminine. ;)

could be wrong, but this poster doesnot sound like the real marijuologist...

Some expressions and thoughts just do not seem authentic.

Running has made me grow a mangina. I want world peace.

I agree. I've listened to sports talk a fair amount over the years and I have never heard a single caller mention distance running. Not once. The majority of the population doesn't disrespect distance running...they ignore it.

Metrosexual ??? WTF is Metrosexual

Wiki says-(emphasis mine)

"The typical metrosexual is a young man with money to spend, living in or within easy reach of a metropolis – because that's where all the best shops, clubs, gyms and hairdressers are. He might be officially gay, straight or bisexual, but this is utterly immaterial because he has clearly taken himself as his own love object and pleasure as his sexual preference. Particular professions, such as modeling, waiting tables, media, pop music and, nowadays, sport, seem to attract them but, truth be told, like male vanity products and herpes, they're pretty much everywhere.

"For some time now, old-fashioned (re)productive, repressed, unmoisturized heterosexuality has been given the pink slip by consumer capitalism. The stoic, self-denying, modest straight male didn't shop enough (his role was to earn money for his wife to spend), and so he had to be replaced by a new kind of man, one less certain of his identity and much more interested in his image – that's to say, one who was much more interested in being looked at (because that's the only way you can be certain you actually exist). A man, in other words, who is an advertiser's walking wet dream."

Check yes this belongs on the HS board

... and he could be quite funny and articulate...

mammatus wrote:

Running has made me grow a mangina. I want world peace.