You know, when I first heard about Danica Patrick, I thought she was going to be an awesome bastion of equality in sports and male-dominated fields such as NASCAR racing and stuff… until this exchange in Newsweek in 2006…
Are you the Gloria Steinem of racing?
The what? I don’t even know who that is. Is that bad?
No, no. She’s a famous feminist.
Then she opened her racing uniform, apparently (see above).
Anyway, congrats to Danica as today she became the first woman to win an Indy race at the Japan 300 at her 50th career start.
“I’ve been asked so many times when and if I can win my first race,” she told the AP. “And, finally, no more of those questions.”
She hasn’t exactly been an activist or anything, but she walks a fine line between being an icon for equality and just being a driver. A sampling of stupid things said about her…
“I think Danica’s pretty aggressive in our cars. I mean, you know especially if you catch her at the right time of the month, she might be trading plenty of paint out there. But I think she’ll hold her own. Who’s she’s going to drive for is hard to say. I don’t think she’s leaving, so we’ll see.”
by Formula One boss, Bernie Ecclestone in 2006:
“women should be all dressed in white like all other domestic appliances.”
he also said in a pre-Danica 2000 interview with Autosports,
for a woman to compete in Formula One, “she would have to be a woman who was blowing away the boys. … What I would really like to see happen is to find the right girl, perhaps a black girl with super looks, preferably Jewish or Muslim, who speaks Spanish.
So, she’s had to react to those douchebags; partially by replying politely to the press, and also by whipping ass on the track… I still have to question whether her posing everywhere half naked really helps dudes take her seriously…
