Your examples, Noam, are my wishful thinking; your "hell" is my idea of equality and fairness. Oh, I WISH there were combinated, co-ed sports teams. I wish that half the money spent on sports would go to women's sports. Not primarily for the players, though it's important; primarily for women like me, who are not professional athletes, and could use some healthy models of fitness , well being, team work and beneficial competition, in a world of toxic appearance culture, eating disorders, crash diet and unrealistic body images.

I guess what I don't understand is the examples, in conjunction with saying it's not the actual decision here that pisses you off (and yes, juridification is annoying, but why jump now?). I would understand if Gil Ronen, or someone with similarly misogynic views would be enraged, and in light of people with similar views, I would hope others would rally for equality in sports instead of making this an excuse to debate courtroom dynanics. I'm full of joy and hope that finally I will get to watch TV and root for people who are built like me.

I guess my complaint is less about the judicial interference, and more about the context; I was hoping for a substantial discussion of women in sports and am disappointed that this has become yet another excuse to talk about judicial activism. Really, I can think of worse things advocated by Israeli courts than women sports.

I think that increasing women's involvement in both types of sports is an important goal. Moreover, I see a strong connection between them. I have a feeling that a higher salience of women in competitive sports might locate women's involvement in physical activity in a healthier realm.

Now here's a bit of a personal rant. The female-body-obsessed society has turned the world of female fitness into an industry whose sole goal is the improvement of women's body shape, and to be precise - making it conform to the unrealistic standard of fitness. This is evident in many lines of activity and promoted by the advertisements of different methods. What doesn't help much is that the types of physical activities women in Western society are exposed to as the profitable, visible, salient ones, are ones which promote extreme figures in terms of thinness: artistic gymnastics and ballet. I have no problem with these fabulous activities, both of which of course involve strength, determination and often teamwork. But social perceptions of body image make it easy to look at these sports through a single-dimensional prism, namely, that of thinness and shape.

I think that having something like women's basketball or football more readily available as a model of physical excellence would promote values that would balance the ones involving the fitness industry. The advantages would be the women with normal weight and a less than thin figure can draw inspiration from them which would not be mixed with despair. Unfortunately, not many ideals of this sort are promoted by the media; it'd do us all a lot of good if there were more.

I don't understand the logic, and I doubt if other readers will. Yes, women play basketball in a different league; what that does have to do with the court ruling? The court ruling was about equal boradcasting time, not about making them the same sport.

It's like saying that women wear different clothes, and therefore shouldn't be given equal work opportunities.

Absolutely *loved* the part where you describe womanhood as a disability.

(because the "normal" person, whole and unharmed, is healthy AND male, right?(

I think we're about done here. Thanks and good night.

‏¹ http://www.angelfire.com/pa/bluelifesavers/pee.html

My comment referred to the way he chose to put things, which showed how he defined normalcy and deviance, not to the actual comment about policy.

I'll ignore the last out-of-context remark (and your opinion of what is or isn't ridiculous); whoever the person who made the unfortunate comparison is, he's welcome to come up with an explanation for it by himself (or perhaps the comedians you quote have a point?) :).

Oh, and please don't make any assumptions about which sport I or others consider more exciting or interesting. I have to say that my interest in male basketball dropped considerably when I realized the match was mostly a financial one between countries battling over who has more money to purchase more foreigners for their teams. So yeah, big deal: Maccabi Tel Aviv can afford some more tall Americans. Yee-Hah.