Why can't women sumo wrestle?
Well half the peopled polled by the Japanese Sumo Association said they are against women entering the mound.
The 2,000-year-old national sport has always banned women from the ring, though the origins of the ruling remain unclear. It was believed to be based on beliefs in Shinto, Japan's native region, that women are impure.
Impure? Women being allowed on the mound (I just have to keep saying that, I love it, mound snarf snarf) became an issue recently when the first female mayor of Osaka wanted to present the medal to the winner. She was banned from being allowed to do so and a male vice-governer did so instead.
Why? What is the big deal?
via SLAMsports (oh yeah, slammin).
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If the Japanese are too hidebound to move forward, circumvent them. Non-Japanese men, including Hawaiians of polynesian and other pacific island descent, have done very well (including a Hawaiian who became Yokozuna, or Grand Champion, in the 1990s under the name Akebono -- he was Chad Rowan, former power forward for the U. Hawaii basketball team.) There is a thriving amatuer sumo community in the U.S., and if women push their way in outside of Japan, Japan will be forced to compete or accept a decreasing role in their national sport.
Perhaps japanese men feel the spectre of watching obese women bounce around in a ring would harm their sex drive?
OK, so please explain why women geting into a sport that involves compulsive overeating is a *good* thing. I'm not getting it.