It makes me happy to have something good brought to my attention. I guess I'm just worn out on criticism and snark, and I would encourage more positive things like this in Broadsheet!

Of course at those ages the girls can hang and even slaughter boys. Once high school hits, this isn't a debate anymore. As much as you want to spin it, an all star team of American High School Boys would beat a WNBA team. High School Boy's track record holders are extremely comparable to women's olympic medalists. College Women's hoops teams scrimmage against college club men's team and frequently lose. Even women't pool, darts, and bowling pros can't come close to hanging with the guys. It's just how it is. But as many observers of little ones can attest, the strength and athletic differences at those ages aren't pronounced.

I mean it's a good message and all, but it is also a misleading one. You could have a rematch three or so years later, and it wouldn't be the same at all.

What a load of shit.

These are second-graders. It's cute, and all, that they can allegedly beat boys of the same age. However, in the real world, not the feminist fantasy world in which actual fact isn't in existence, any boys team will absolutely kick the crap out of any team of girls of anywhere near the same age.

The world's fastest tennis serve by a woman would not even be in the top 10 among men.

Same thing with times for any track event.

Even better are those insane stories about high school girls playing football with the boys. How inspirational. I just checked the home page of my high school's football team. It's a relatively small school, and the team isn't that big a deal. About half of the kids weigh over 200 lbs. The center weighs 285. Any female playing these guys would end up in the hospital.

And once you're not talking about small children, there is absolutely no way a girls' soccer team will defeat a boys' team. You can like it or not like it, but that, ladies, is reality, unlike this movie.

Men are defective women, to be corrected or destroyed.

As sports is one of those things where you can objectively quantify performance. This type of story makes me increasingly annoyed, because what does it speak to?

Annika Sorenstam couldn't come close to hanging with the men, and that is in Golf. I forget the exact pro, but it was middling at best, who played Serena And Venus (not at the same time) and took it easy on them and beat them. I mean yes, in an individual sport you might have an outlier female who can beat A man, but once high school comes around that is rare. When I was on the Freshman high school soccer team we would scrimmage against the Varisty Girls, and the whole game would be in their end, and they rarely ever won a 50-50 ball or header, and that is a major crux of the game.

MY cousin is two inches taller than me and played competitive hoops all her life up to freshman in college, whereas I would play on club teams and pickup, and I can win pretty easily.

There are too many of these stories to count.

"However, in the real world, not the feminist fantasy world in which actual fact isn't in existence, any boys team will absolutely kick the crap out of any team of girls of anywhere near the same age."

Except in the documentary (that is the non-fiction real world) "any boys team" didn't "absolutely kick the crap out of any team of girls of anywhere near the same age."

Look, as one of you overly defensive male posters pointed out second grade girls can beat second grade boys. It is a well known developmental fact that girls for a time lead boys in physical development.

And, yes, big deal, so what. Except, that it has been made such a big deal to the boys in question. Instead of being honest with them about this, they are expected to perform as well as grown men and are razzed about being "beaten by girls."

I think that is sad and bad and destructive. But, it isn't feminists who are doing the razzing, it is you guys. I don't understand why guys are so into making each other miserable over crap like this.

"I don't understand why guys are so into making each other miserable over crap like this."

I guess it's probably akin to why women slut shame each other, compare body types and have a harder time cooperating over longer periods of time than men without cutting each other down. Why do magazine's aimed at women have sexy women on the cover?

Some of these things have no answer. But this particular example is stupid, because adults KNOW that girls equla and outpace boys' physical development at those ages. So I don't know how the "bigger challenge" is playing boys, the bigger challenge would be playing older girls.

And adults, knowing that boys are particularly sensitive to this topic, maybe should have been a bit more delicate in accepting challenges? I mean both sides of the gender fence have their own sensitivities. On the other hand, there is a lesson in there somewhere, boys should assume that in every instance of athletics they are superior, just in the aggregate, and for the girls not to be intimidated.

My beef is in pretending that women are equals to men in physical contests. This is about boys and girls.

I don't think the point of this story is to prove that men and women can compete in sports, but that boys and girls, of this particular age group can.

It MIGHT also, help change how these kids interact with the opposite sex when it comes to sports. Maybe these boys will grow up and respect female atheletes, even if the girls (due to biology) can't keep up when them when they get older. Maybe these girls will strive to be the best atheletes they possibly can, even if they won't ever run faster, throw faster or hit harder than their adult male counterparts. Maybe, just maybe, if we had more girls and boys of this age competing against each other (since its pretty much an even playing ground) we could finally retire the old canard, he throws/runs/hits/ like a girl. I was the second best pitcher in my neighborhod when I was a kid and the second best runner (the best pitcher/runner was 6 years older than me and a boy.)