relative strength of men vs. women

[octahedrite]

Today I read this interesting article about why "men are strong, women are weak" does not universally apply.

Shield Maidens, Bell Curves and Strong Women - R. J. Eliason

When people say things like men are x% stronger than women, many of us have this image of lining all the men and women up side by side. And the men will all lift x% more than the woman next to them. But that’s not how it works.

Comments

[tei]

This was great! I'd watched a lecture recently that mentioned the fact of DNA analysis proving grave good assumptions wrong in the context of Scythian warriors (where, similarly, upon further investigation almost half of the bodies buried with weapons were female), so it's good to know that's the case for plenty of other notably "warlike" societies.

And the thing about constitutional strength, how likely are your soldiers on average to survive the things that actually killed the majority of soldiers, is such a great point that I hadn't seen elsewhere!

Thank you for posting!

[octahedrite]

Glad you found it interesting! I also liked the part about constitutional strength, and it's interesting to learn that Scythian warriors also had a similar gender composition.

[coffeetime]

That was interesting.

I'm still bitter about losing an arm-wrestling match with a man who's about the same size as me and who doesn't work out AT ALL, has health problems, and generally looks like he'd blow away in a strong wind. I did crush him in a push-up contest, but the arm-wrestling thing still nags at me. Could it be because I have really short arms - not just in comparison to men, but in comparison to other women my height?

I've asked men to pull the 60lb trap bar up and out of the stand thingy at the gym, because it's hard for me to move given that I'm 5'4" and it's a super awkward reach. My arms ought to be on the body of someone 5' or shorter.

[octahedrite]

Testosterone is a hell of a drug :/

Glad you enjoyed the article!

[lyorn]

Could it be because I have really short arms

Having short arms means that you already start half way down to the table and have to press *up* instead of sideways. And that's before leverage comes into play. (Been there, done that, lost against a guy who needed my help getting his bicycle out of the cellar...)

[coffeetime]

Haha yeah, I guess that's true. I dream of challenging him to a rematch, but conditions would have to be ideal, i.e. the table not too tall for me (all tables are, especially bar tables).

[weirdquark]

Short arms means you're at an advantage for pull-ups because you have less range of motion to move your weight through, so you win some, you lose some.