i think it is becoming scientifically apparent that men tend to be better at some things than women and women tend to be better at some things than men. if women strive to do what men are naturally better at, aren’t they conceding that what men do is MORE IMPORTANT? isn’t this selfdefeating. isn’t the problem that men in patriarchal cultures have over-inflated egos and are really out of touch with reality?
Dal TimgarI’m going to break from the pack here and answer the question seriously. If you ignore structures and functions associated with reproduction, male and female bodies have the same basic plan. So there’s no physical activity men can do that females cannot do to SOME extent. Male hormones increase muscle mass and reduce fat (and cause a few other negligible differences like increasing body hair), but of course all these features are distributed in both sexes in bell curves that overlap. So there is nothing that every male[female] can do that every female[male] cannot.
This makes biological sense. Females of any species have all the physical pieces necessary to live in that organism’s niche. So do males. The differences between sexes consist of three things: 1) differences associated directly with the different reproductive function (i.e. females make eggs, men make sperm, etc.) 2) differences associated with competition for mates (this is the reason that mammalian males often have things like more muscle, antlers, etc.) and 3) differences associated with a “division of labor”, meaning different sexes take on different, complementary behaviors to accomplish a goal that benefits both male and female in some way. The last are very rare and almost always more associated with behavior than actual physical capacities; it’s hard to think of an example outside of social mammals, and even there the examples are usually arguable. In any case, for humans these things seem to have seperated male and female more in terms of degrees of abilities than types of abilities.
One thing men (meaning adults) can do that women (meaning adults) cannot is meiose, but of course that is a reproductive function. Women are done with meiosis by the time reach their mid-teens.
About the marathon swimmers, men usually win in marathons. They have more blood, both in volume and in red blood cells per volume, as well as larger lung capacity even when measured relative to body mass. Women have a higher percentage body fat, though, and that can save a lot of energy in the water - through insulation even more than through buoyancy. Maybe it works out to a net advantage for women in this sport, but maybe not. We need more statistics of actual performances, and not just a theory.
Sorry, I had to add one more thing. Could you people claiming that men have a muscle, tendon, or whatever that women lack please give a reference? Muscles and perhaps tendons develop to different degrees in each sex, but AFAIK both sexes have the full complement of skeletal muscles (and associated tendons, ligaments, etc.). The only muscles found in one sex and not another that I’ve ever heard of are things like vaginal muscles, and those in the uterine wall.
And even the “vaginal” muscles are the same PC muscle group that men have. (Men contract this muscle when they, ahem, squirt out the last few drops of urine.)