Sometimes, you just want to roll your eyes at how silly people can be when they try to be inclusive.
One of Major League Baseball’s (MLB) most well-known video games is called “The Show,” and they’ve released a new edition of the game this year. It’s your standard sports video game: you play as if you’re part of your favorite baseball team, grab a friend to join you, and see who’s the last man standing. Nothing you wouldn’t expect.
But in “The Show 24,” fans of the game will see some characters that haven’t been there before. For the first time in the history of the video game, players can use female characters when they play.
Here’s an ad highlighting the new feature.
The game’s creator, Mollie Braley, was inspired by the stories of Kelsi Whitmore, who plays in the MLB-affiliated Atlantic League, and Toni Stone, who played in the Negro Leagues in the 1950’s. As such, she included this new feature.
“This is a feature that goes beyond simply allowing players to create a woman ballplayer in the game,” Braley continued. “It’s also meant to highlight the strength, tenacity, and resilience that it takes to break into the sport, but not shy away from the struggles that many have faced.”
Sure, three women have played higher-level baseball - in the past 50 years. Does that mean we need to use a video game to promote the idea that women could compete in the MLB?
The reason why women struggle to make it to the highest level is because men and women are biologically different, with men having a huge advantage. Therefore, the men’s game is pound for pound played at a level that the vast majority of women physically can’t keep up with.
There's nothing wrong with accepting that men and women are different and can compete in different professional divisions. But pushing the concept that men and women are the same at physical sports on the professional level is unnecessary at best.
For example, in 2022, Brown University became the first team to let a woman (Olivia Pichardo) onto their roster in Division 1 history. But, she hasn’t done well in either of her two seasons on the team; she’s had one at bat and recorded one out.
Of course, Whitmore and Stone are outliers. But we don’t need to use a video game to push the idea that women deserve to be in the MLB, or that should be allowed there. At the risk of sounding sexist, men should be able to have a space where they can compete against men, and women should have a space to compete against women.
No matter how you frame it, this feature was a huge swing and a miss.
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