Is it sexist not to care about women's sports?

[Phishfan]

  I just don't think that golf is a sport.  It's a game.  It doesn't make golf any easier or less worthy of time or praise.  Or weightlifting, or pole vault, or whatever else.

Phish, if you're trying to tap into some part of my subconscious as to what I'm portraying vs what I believe, perhaps you're right.  ...but sometimes it's easy to just speak in the colloquialisms that are common.  I say things like "Thank God", even though I don't believe in God, for example.  And, subconsciously or not, I definitely, DEFINITELY don't consider NASCAR a sport (or the drivers athletes, for that matter.)

Interestingly you called both golf and NASCAR sports in your thread devoted to the top sports in the US. NASCAR was in response to someone, but golf was in your original thought process, just as driving was in your initial thought process in this thread. No need to go any further on it. I'm not trying to create an argument just so you know. I have just noticed that depending on the particular point you are making you seem to change your stance on what is or isn't a sport.

[Dave Gray]

I don't change my stance.  I just don't want to write a thread called "Which sports and athletic activities and games and races are relevant in the US?"

For things like that, I use the word sports to include pretty much any diversion that they might talk about on Sportscenter, because my audience (you guys) understand the point of the thread easier.  ...darts, bowling, hot dog eating....whatever. 

Speaking of which, I had a hotdog for lunch.  I am quite the athlete.

[Phishfan]

When you are the person who asks about what sports are relevant and then you throw one out there, golf, you are most certainly changing your stance between if golf is or isn't a sport. If I had started that thread and I didn't believe golf was a sport, I never would have included the word golf. Someone else could and that would be fine, but you specifically had golf in mind while discussing what sports are relevant.

You didn't have to have a long drawn out topic title. You simply needed to leave golf out of the discussion if it really isn't a sport to you. I bet you didn't even think about it while writing it. It just came second nature as you were thinking of sport viewership. Now that it is in the forefront of your mind of course golf isn't a sport and I don't expect you to say otherwise. Months down the road when this isn't a topic of discussion though I guarantee you will say something about the sport of golf of NASCAR once again. It is somewhere in your recesses that these are sports, but you have created a personal definition otherwise and it creates contradiction.

[Dave Gray]

I did think about golf in discussion, in terms of not being a sport, but I chose to use it anyway.

I was really trying to ask which kind of competitions are relevant?  I just thought that it would cloud the question, knowing the audience I was speaking to.  I figured that it was understood that, in the context I was asking, that the word "sports" included all of those other things, too: specifically popular ones like Nascar and golf.

You can choose to believe me or not, but I am not trying to be sneaky here.  I don't have any other motive.  You're essentially telling me that because I used the word sport when discussing golf in the past, that I think it's a sport.  But I don't.  You're wrong.  I don't think golf is a sport, even if you're telling me that I do.  I simply used a more convenient word choice.  (I thought, at least.)

[Spider-Dan]

Neither are surfing or golf.  My definition of sport requires active defense.

That's crazy.  Your criteria would disqualify the vast majority of Olympic competition as "sports."

Words are only useful as a method to convey an idea.  When everyone else sees the word "sport," they understand it to mean something close to the dictionary definition.  You have a strange new definition of the word (limited strictly to adversarial sports), but when you use the word "sport" to convey a different idea (adversarial sports only), you're just confusing everyone else.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

That's crazy.  Your criteria would disqualify the vast majority of Olympic competition as "sports."

It would disqualify the vast majority of winter events as only ice hockey would be considered a sport under that def.

But the majority of summer events are sports under that def.

 List of summer 2012 according to http://www.topendsports.com/events/summer/sports/index.htm

    * archery     N
    * badminton Y
    * basketball Y
    * beach volleyball Y
    * boxing Y
    * canoe / kayak N
    * cycling Y
    * diving N
    * equestrian N
    * fencing Y
    * field hockey Y
    * gymnastics N
    * handball Y
    * judo Y
    * modern pentathlon N
    * rowing Y
    * sailing N
    * shooting N
    * soccer / football Y
    * swimming N
    * synchronized swimming N
    * table tennis Y
    * taekwondo Y
    * tennis Y
    * track and field N
    * triathlon (swimming, biking, running) N
    * volleyball Y
    * water polo Y
    * weightlifting N
    * wrestling Y

[Dave Gray]

^ Pretty close.  I think you have rowing as "Yes", where I would say no.  The others I consider games or some other kind of athletic competition.

Spider Dan is right that I'm redefining the word.  I realize.  However, there is debate about what is sport and what is not.  Some consider hunting a sport, which many don't.  Others consider hot dog eating a sport, where others don't.  I just set that line in a different place.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^ oops that was a mistake.  rowing is a no.  cycling both.  In time trials no.  in races where you can cut someone off yes.   

[Dave Gray]

Interesting evaluation of cycling.  I think you're probably right in that it IS a sport, but I'd never really thought of it that way.  I suppose that you are directly defending your position.  ...the same with things like speed skating.  However, I'd say that running sprints or ovals where you're restricted to your one lane doesn't apply.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

^^^Note:  I don't agree with your definition of "sport." 

But if the term is defined as having an active defense I would say in a race where you can legally interfere with another teams forward progress than it meets the definition.  If you can't block than it doesn't. 

[Dave Gray]

Yeah, I know you don't agree with my definition.  But, under that definition, some types of races apply that I hadn't previously considered.

[Spider-Dan]

    * cycling Y
    * rowing Y

Please explain how NASCAR is a "no" but cycling and rowing are a "yes".

[Dave Gray]

I think that NASCAR lacks the athletic skill requirement.  (I suppose that is debatable.)

Cycling and Rowing both have it.

[Phishfan]

I think that NASCAR lacks the athletic skill requirement.  (I suppose that is debatable.)

I'll let you debate the driver's aspect but have you seen the workout regimen of the pit guys?

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Please explain how NASCAR is a "no" but cycling and rowing are a "yes".

As I indicated earlier rowing as a no was a typo.

The difference between cycling and Nascar is one is an athletic endeavor the other is a technology contest.