"It is a tough, rugged sport, punches are not vitamins, women are not built to take that sort of punishment," he said.

Rape, domestic violence, child birth womens bodies have taken much punishment over the years thankyou!

...

Nobody is built to take that kind of punishment. The error here is not in the statement that women shouldn't be boxing; it is in the implicit assumption that men should be.

Don't women already participate in professional boxing and kickboxing, wearing the same protection (none) as men? Don't they have their own mixed martial arts tournaments, as well as discipline-sanctioned full contact tourneys?

It's not as if they don't have examples out there...

Oh: What I mean by that is that restricting Olympic participation on the basis of safety is ridiculous in light of the other, existing, arenas for boxing.

Not to mention making "common sense" arguments about women's capabilities without any abstract data to back them up. You could substitute "boxing" in the claims made by these people for any activity, and find someone espousing that dumbass opinion.

Right. Because the sports women do compete in have no physical risks whatsoever. It's not like a slight mistake in a gymnastics routine can wrench a person's knee out of place and prevent her from ever walking again--oh, wait. It can.

Possibly this Irish gentleman has not heard of the sport of rugby.
Or perhaps he has never seen women play rugby.
Or perhaps he is being a twit.

We all know stories of doll makers who magically make their pieces become living beings. In the real world, artists do not have that kind of fantastical ability. They do, however, work toward making their characters vibrate with life as much as possible with materials and process available or invented. They are ever on the alert for new technologies which will enable them to take you to new places and meet new people and ideas in their work. In the end, finishing the figure means endowing it with qualities that will engage the viewer and provide him with something to appreciate, think about, or even play with. Any well-done piece provides a surprise and the challenge to be understood, appreciated, or at least experienced by the viewer.

The part of the creative process where the artist interacts with the concept of character is unquestionably the key to creating a successful figure. What you see in the static figure is, for the artist, only a moment in the life and world of her imagined character. Although she only shows you an abstracted moment, in the artist's mind the figure exists as a total personality, with a life history and a unique environment. More artists are choosing to show these elements or parts of them in new, non-traditional forms and modes. This often brings us to a point where no lines of definition are possible. Nor are they necessary. An object does not have to be typed or named for engagement.
Artist Ellen Rixford has taken the traditional clockwork automata ideas and combined modern electronics to create figures that can show several aspects or moods of one persona. When she does that, is the result a doll, a mannequin, or a mechanical device? We don't have to know to be fascinated with the personality aspects it reveals as it moves.
All doll makers immediately recognize the element of doll-ness and, perhaps, an element of their souls in the work of Sha Sha Higby (below). She becomes the doll. Sha Sha literally makes it live.

We all know stories of doll makers who magically make their pieces become living beings. In the real world, artists do not have that kind of fantastical ability. They do, however, work toward making their characters vibrate with life as much as possible with materials and process available or invented. They are ever on the alert for new technologies which will enable them to take you to new places and meet new people and ideas in their work. In the end, finishing the figure means endowing it with qualities that will engage the viewer and provide him with something to appreciate, think about, or even play with. Any well-done piece provides a surprise and the challenge to be understood, appreciated, or at least experienced by the viewer.

The part of the creative process where the artist interacts with the concept of character is unquestionably the key to creating a successful figure. What you see in the static figure is, for the artist, only a moment in the life and world of her imagined character. Although she only shows you an abstracted moment, in the artist's mind the figure exists as a total personality, with a life history and a unique environment. More artists are choosing to show these elements or parts of them in new, non-traditional forms and modes. This often brings us to a point where no lines of definition are possible. Nor are they necessary. An object does not have to be typed or named for engagement.
Artist Ellen Rixford has taken the traditional clockwork automata ideas and combined modern electronics to create figures that can show several aspects or moods of one persona. When she does that, is the result a doll, a mannequin, or a mechanical device? We don't have to know to be fascinated with the personality aspects it reveals as it moves.
All doll makers immediately recognize the element of doll-ness and, perhaps, an element of their souls in the work of Sha Sha Higby (below). She becomes the doll. Sha Sha literally makes it live.