What is the point of Women's Only Tri's? (Page 7)

Darnit, Renee! You just made me make the weirdest trying-not-to-laugh noise I've ever made in the middle of my dead silent, but very occupied office. Way to go.

Hey, not for nothin' did I win the smack-talk thread. And this was with low-blood sugar, too; I'm barely lucid.

Thank you.  Trolly McTrollerson needed a good smack-down.

 I think you have four kinds of folks in triathlons

1. Those who want to see IF they can do a tri
2. Those who want to see how fast they can do a tri
3. Those who want to see if they can beat X group in a tri
4. Those who want to win a tri

I also think that men and women are largely attuned to different types of encouragement. For the most part women seek support, and men respond to "ball-busting" for lack of a better term. In other words, I think that a lot of men are going to read the "come on, you can do it" "way to go" "you're looking good" kind of support as pretty irritating after a while. Just like a lot of women are not going to respond well to the "Quit crying you little maggot, strap on a pair and get your ass moving" method of motivation. As with any other vast generalization, there are a certain number of circumstances when the analysis will break down.

So, if you can grab the attention of the first two groups and provide a generous helping of the "atta girl" attitude and a lack of the "drill sergent"  schtick, you have a successful formula for getting lots of people to come to your race.

A race series is a product, just like a car or a disposable razor, some are marketed at different populations than others. The women only races are aimed at getting women into triathlons......and Reeboks and Dannon. I have no problem with them being for women only, frankly I would not like the "supportive and friendly, warm and fuzzy" aspect of them. Even if they allowed men, it would not be my cup of tea.

As for the undercurrent of this thread. There was a rule back in the old usenet days that the first participant in an argument to use the word "nazi" automatically lost. I like that rule.

Hello, Sh**. Meet Mr. Fan.

I don't want to take liberties with reading Karl's (Motivated) mind but I've met the guy and I''m fairly certain that this is the last kind of nonsense he expected to generate from his original post/query. (Sorry, Karl, if I misspoke on your behalf.)

To try to bring this thread back on topic but for a brief moment, given the present day sensitivity to PC-ness, I'm quite glad they have a woman's only tri.  Men and women are different - emotionally, mentally, physicially - I think we should celebrate those differences.

I think that women having their own race is important to them because, as others have said, it's a less threatening macho environment, and women are generally more supportive of other women in such settings than are men of men.

Why are there no male only tris?  Well, I think women benefit more from women only events than men would from men only events.  Clearly, the presence of women doesn't deter men from participating in tris (quite the opposite, frankly).  It's also important for men to have time and relationships with other men.  I think women should be able to have their own clubs and gatherings, and I think men should have their own clubs and gathterings.

I say VIVE LA DIFFERENCE!!!!

Good lawd. Someone's on his high horse today. You praised someone for using the term. I don't care if you were the first one to use it in this thread or not. Did you not catch the part where that guy apologized, saying he hadn't meant to offend anyone?

I was trying to lighten the mood while making the point that we're just saying don't use THAT term! The ones I came up would be annoying, but not so offensive. But if you must resort to calling one's opponents names, you don't have a very sharp intellect.