Activist Riley Gaines has announced that “Any woman who doesn’t compete and loses out on prize money, I will happily pay the fee out of my own pocket. In any sport.” Now she’s putting her money where her tweets are. “At the European Pool Championships, female player, Kim O’Brien, forfeited the women’s final where she was set to play male player, Harriet Haynes,” she wrote. “I am happily paying her the prize money she lost out on. Stop playing their game. More of this!!”
Isn’t this the weakest possible example for Gaines’s crusade? I don’t understand why pool or billiards competitions are segregated by gender. It’s not a strength sport, or an endurance sport. I may be missing something, but I can’t imagine why a woman can’t compete on even terms against any man in pool. Gaines seems to be falling into a sexist trap. Woman aren’t unable to compete on an equal basis with men in everything.
Ethics Alarms 
I may be missing something, but I can’t imagine why a woman can’t compete on even terms against any man in pool. Gaines seems to be falling into a sexist trap. Woman aren’t unable to compete on an equal basis with men in everything.
Just as a matter of Bayesian statistics, the most likely correct assumption is that in any competitive endeavor, men are better.
Pool is a far better example than you think:
“In general, men do have an advantage in pool for some of the following reasons, some of which are societal and not intrinsic:
Regardless, there is no intrinsic reason why individual females with the right upbringing, experiences, motivation, and attitude cannot excel at pool. Here are some supporting arguments: [That are blank slate argle bargle]”
Less obvious, but just as important, the pool of male players is much larger than female players. If the selection is meritocratic, then the quality of a subset of all male players will be higher than the corresponding subset of female players.
I saw this article and felt the same way. I don’t play pool. Is there anyone out there who does who can clarify why a man might have an edge over a woman in this game?
Men generally have more strength and faster-twitch muscles that make it easier to execute many shots (especially power shots) with more accuracy, control, and consistency.
But even if there were no good physiological reason to have sex-based categories in pool, the appropriate solution would never be to retain sex-based categories while permitting certain men to compete in the women’s category. Instead, the solution would be to get rid of sex-based categories altogether.
To emphasize the point about strength. The difference might be minimal, but at high levels even the slightest advantage turns the tables in favor of one or the other competitor. While on the surface it feels to me that it should not be a factor in pool, I will defer to the experts (in this case, the people running the competitions who have presumably years of experience).
There’s trouble River City and it starts with P
Here I think it probably depends on the level of play. In your average pool hall — it might well be that no one would ever notice.
But at the highest levels of competition — and European Championships is pretty high — I have to believe that the smallest advantage could be decisive.
If you compared a pitcher selected in the 1st round of the draft versus one in the 10th round — either one would wipe the floor in most settings, but there are small differentials in skills that could mean the difference between a Cy Young candidate and a utility reliever in the bullpen.
If there are demonstrable advantages conferred by male chromosomes and male puberty, at higher levels of competition, I have to believe they would make a difference.
Isn’t this the weakest possible example for Gaines’s crusade? I don’t understand why pool or billiards competitions are segregated by gender. It’s not a strength sport, or an endurance sport. I may be missing something, but I can’t imagine why a woman can’t compete on even terms against any man in pool. Gaines seems to be falling into a sexist trap. Woman aren’t unable to compete on an equal basis with men in everything.
Sex segregation in pool makes no more sense than race segregation in pool.
The only possible advantages for men that I can conceive are that men are generally taller and may have somewhat longer arms, giving them better coverage of the table and an easier reach that makes better angles for some more difficult shots.
I don’t know if those are significant advantages, but…
I thought about that, too, Joel. The only thing that I could counter that with is that some women are tall and have longer arms, as well, which doesn’t really make it a sex-based difference.
Men have better hand-eye coordination on average. This is a huge advantage in sport like pool.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-68069-0
I have two quick thoughts. I’m a poor pool player myself, but a lot of the progress of the game relies on a good break, and to an extent the break is a factor of strength. Hopefully any pool aficionados will correct me if I’m really off base there.
My second thought is that if the game is segregated by sex, then even if it is a weak example, the game should exclude trans participants competing in the category that does not match their actual sex. While safety factors in more contact-heavy sports help make the case against trans athletes participating in the category of the opposite sex, fundamentality the issue confronting reality. Men cannot become women, no matter the surgeries or hormones or sheer desire. Likewise, women cannot become men. I’m sorry for all the difficulties people who identify as trans experience, but their suffering does not change reality, nor does it justify trying to force everyone else to pretend that reality is something other than what it is.
I know, I’m going to be branded a hater and transphobe for my opinion here. I’m sure some will want to bring up all those cases where someone’s biological sex is truly difficult to discern. Those warrant separate consideration, and have no bearing on the vast majority of the cases where someone whose sex is not ambiguous is attempting (futilely) to change to the opposite sex.
Hear! Hear!
Ryan Harkins wrote, “I’m a poor pool player myself, but a lot of the progress of the game relies on a good break, and to an extent the break is a factor of strength.”
In general, I think this is true.
I played a LOT of pool in my early and mid twenties, I was reasonably good at it and had a couple of my own custom Viking cues, one was only used for breaking. I played lots of area leagues, including some couples leagues and smaller regional individual competitions and I don’t remember ever seeing a female that was able to power break roughly equivalent or better than the men. I played a lot a really good female pool players back then and suffered losses to a few, I’m just saying that I’ve never personally witnessed a female accomplish equivalent power breaks when all fifteen balls were racked, especially on a full regulation size table. So if we are going to zero in on just that one aspect of shooting pool then I don’t have a problem with Riley Gaines doing this for the same underlying reason, it’s Riley’s choice how deep in the murky waters she wants to dive.
Personally I wouldn’t choose to do this for female pool players because overall I think females can break good enough overall to compete with any man. I see this one as an excuse for potential or actual loss. Pool is not a sport that’s based on physical strength or stamina so female pool players shouldn’t be snowflakes and step up to the plate and show us what they’ve got, if they ain’t got it, then then need to practice more and get it!
By the way; did you know that there is a significant difference between the anatomy of the lower arm of a female and that of a man? Try this: Both men and women take this test together to see a visual: place both of your arms in front of you pointing straight out forward at the shoulders, point your palms towards the ceiling, then move your little fingers towards each other until they are toughing, notice the difference in the gap between the elbows of men and women. Men’s elbows will have a large gap at the elbows and females will have little to no gap at the elbows. Is this a physical condition that should prevent women and men from competing in pool, personally I don’t think it is.
I agree with your second point. Gaines made a promise to cover losses suffered by women athletes who refuse to competecagaobst biological males. She didn’t clarify if applied to swimming or tennis or soccer. Good on her not equivocating.
The point is a woman pooler (?) refused to compete against a biological male. Physical strength is irrelevant – the female pooler (?) made the decision, was DQ’d and Gaines honored her promise. Feminists should be supporting women athletes against his nonsense but politics makes strange bed fellows . . .
jvb
Ryan Harkins, (almost) no one here is going to brand you as a hater or transphobe or sexist or racist unless you go out of your way to be perceived as.
The ones that will brand you will almost always be trolls.
This is an answerable question. One could examine 1-player per team open-sexed tournaments to see how female participants stack up on average compared to male players in head-to-head completion. Participants would need to be cross referenced against single-sexed tournaments (elite male participants might not compete in a open-sexed tournament to avoid creating an embarrassing blow out, for instance).
As others have said, taller bodies/longer arms, heftier musculature, reaction times, etc, could create a statistically significant difference in competition. Only examining the data could adequate address whether there is a biological advantage.
I can imagine a minute realm of very slight advantages where it could make a difference. However, with the current press from the side in favor of intermingling the sexes calling for ALL sexual segregation to end, Im not sure how much is to be gained with a measured response of “Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no.” It’s a measured, adult, rational response, which may very well work as a compromise between the two positions. But I think first the staunch “NO.” position needs to be communicated and enforced before anyone begins discussing half measures. Once both sides come to the bargaining table in good faith, then negotiation can take place. Otherwise, only one side is compromising, and we’ve got the ratcheting effect again.
It isn’t so much that this case needs a stern no, but the principle as a whole needs a few, in order to help slow the juggernaut to a point where rational minds can prevail.
Male pro golfers are also much better at putting than female pros, and nobody really knows why.
it’s because men are better at puttering around the house – mostly on and effort to avoid sweeping the floors. (Me: snickering)
jvb