Thread

1. etiennebausson · 1790230765 · focus · HN ↗

   I'm a bit curious about the rationale behind splitting the category by gender for rubik's cube. Is there a difference in dexterity to justify it?

   Sound about as useful as splitting rubik's cube champion by weight class.

   Video looks impressive, though the resources poured into that training seems excessive to me. Maybe I'm too poor and don't understand how rich people raise their kids?

   1. MarcScott · 1790231532 · focus · HN ↗

      It's probably more about encouraging participation in the event amongst women. There's probably a hundred male competitive cubers for every female cuber. Having it segregated means that stories like this find their way onto the front page of HN.

      1. figassis · 1790236074 · focus · HN ↗

         I get it, but if women feel discouraged in a sport they're perfectly qualified for and not disadvantaged in the least, creating a category jus tto accomodate anxiety or lack of interest is actually discrimination no?

         Shouldn't the work of incentivising more women be outside of the tournament and not bend the tournament altogether?

         1. wccrawford · 1790243270 · focus · HN ↗

            In an ideal world, yes. But I think we're finding that it's practically impossible to eliminate toxicity completely, and people are irrationally bothered by "the outgroup".

            "I can tolerate anything except the outgroup" talks about how people more fiercely reject a group very similar to their own, yet slightly different, more than they reject groups that are actually very different.

            It leads to stupid gatekeeping like "treat the male chess players better than the female ones" and small nudges will never overcome it.

            If women feel put off by chess unless they have their own tournaments, then they can have their own tournaments. It literally hurts nobody.

            If you want to have a chess game against women, I'm sure you can do so. They aren't stopping you from playing them.

            They're just stopping you from playing in the tournament they created because others were toxic to them in the existing ones.

            1. brigandish · 1790260235 · focus · HN ↗

               What kind of toxicity are females experiencing when entering Rubik’s cube competitions?

               I think it’s more likely that people often don’t like being in a noticeable out group, and that females experience that more negatively than males, so they skip it.

               No need to blame anyone, and it doesn’t deny the attempt to help females participate.

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