Mailvox: chess and its consequences

Stickwick is having some trouble figuring out how the act of turning a chess set into dolls could possibly ruin chess:

[T]he clue-meter is still reading zero on this one. I don't understand how marrying chess pieces ruins the game of chess any more than I understand how using dolls to mount an assault ruins doll play. How exactly does chess get ruined? There's some abstract concept here that's going over my head. 

There is. The point is not a material one concerning how the game of chess has been forever ruined by a single improper use of the pieces involved.  The point is a metaphorical and illustrative one showing how the little girls' actions tend to demonstrate a total and characteristic lack of interest in, and respect for, a traditional game created by men and predominantly played by men for centuries.  Now, the chess wedding itself would be no problem at all so long as the little girls happen to be content to leave the boys alone with their chess sets in the future... which we have all learned from experience is very unlikely to be the case.

Consider video games.  As nearly as long as I have been involved in some way with the industry, since 1989, there have been complaints that men simply doing what men wish to do are a problem.  For at least some women, men making games for other men to play is a Very Serious Problem.  Oceans of ink have been spilled and numerous organizations have been formed specifically in order to prevent boys from continuing to simply play chess with their chess sets, metaphorically speaking.

What on the one hand is an amusing little anecdote of a little girl turning a chess set into a marriage ceremony has a direct relationship to Congress imposing laws that have resulted in 75 percent of the men's college gymnastics teams to close and reduced the number of men's teams by 17 percent from 1981-2005.

The reason The Sports Guy's mantra, "Women Ruin Everything", rings so true is because it is so easily demonstrated in everything from gymnastics to demographics, from wrestling to war.  We see it in the military standards.  We see it in the NFL's pink shoes.  We see that we are now living in a world where rhythmic gymnastics and synchronized swimming are Olympic sports and wrestling is not.  If it weren't for the unsustainable nature of equalitarianism and the inevitable collapse, another century would likely see the elimination of fencing, track-and-field, and hockey in favor of medals being awarded for flower arrangement, gift-wrapping, and appearing on the most celebrity magazine covers.

The observable fact that Women Ruin Everything is why men of my generation tend to react to female interest in their activities with much the same sort of horror one sees survivors of the Holocaust reserving for former Nazi death camp guards.  We know perfectly well that it isn't going to be long before that first innocent little suggestion for improvement is made....