"Playing like a girl" (IR)

The idea of "playing like a girl" has been one of the few almost totally ubiquitous insults that has been passed down throughout Americana, and cultures worldwide. The BBC article I read discussed whether this term was offensive or not. Frankly, I'm surprised they had to ask the question. When someone "plays like a girl" or does "x, y or z like a girl" it of course has nothing to do with how feminine the action in question was, it is used to paint something as weak, poor, and just bad overall. This then implies that just because something is associated with women or females at large it is automatically inferior to it's male counterpart, and any man should be ashamed to be part of any such things. This then feeds back into the idea of straw feminism. Men who defend or otherwise affiliate with women are viewed as weak and are looked down on. This is a major problem with the advancement of women's rights. These sentiments are rooted incredibly deep, so much so that even as I am writing this, the idea of a man in a traditionally female position is still off putting, still tugging at some resoundingly sexist part of my basic social schemas. This, of course, does not justify these sentiments. To add a stipulation, and refute a potential counterargument, I do understand that the large majority of men are quite a bit stronger than women in general. The article states this obscure fact by saying that women don't throw things as far as men can. Brilliant. I suppose in some minds this would justify the use of that statement claiming that it is factually accurate. It most certainly does not. The use of this statement in conversation is not fueled by logic or used as some sort of poorly-wrought scientific simile, it is used simply as a cheap insult drawing on old cultural sexism.