Girls, girls girls

This may be old news to some and actually it's old news to me as well. Between my back yard beautification project, my social life and work, this is the first chance I've had to update my blog.

The old news is, Danica Patrick won an IndyCar race. She's the first woman in history to do so. I'm not a fan of racing but as a fan of women, I love that she won.

As expected, there have been rumblings around the racing world, one of which came from another racer, Robby Gordon. He said that Danica had an unfair advantage because she only weighs 100 pounds whereas most of the other racers, being men and all, weigh closer to 200 pounds. "The lighter the car, the faster it goes...I won't race against her until the IRL does something to take the advantage away." Gordon said.

I understand that there is overt sexism that is ingrained in people, mistaken for our cultural norm. I hate it, and think it's completely stupid, but I'm aware that it's there. I expected there to be some men grumbling about Danica winning. Her victory is a kick in the tighty whiteys to a sport that has been a hard core boys club for a long time. As people will do when change is coming to their town, they tend to lock the doors. Especially the locals in charge who are used to running the show.

What I find most frustrating about Gordon's complaint is that he wants the rules changed now. It never occurred to him to go on a binge of not eating, or start forcing himself to throw up after every meal, or overdose on laxatives to drop weight. He didn't think to risk his health and do whatever he had to do to stay competitive. The thought never crossed his mind. Instead, he went to work to change the rules.

That frustrated me because women do these types of things to themselves all the time. We are constantly told that if we want something badly enough, we will do whatever it takes. Women starve themselves to be faster athletes, to live up to false beauty standards, to be accepted by someone else in one way or another. Feminists have been fighting for years to have the playing field leveled, yet roadblocks are put up time after time. We are told that we are just bitter and hateful toward men, that we want "special" rights, that we women just aren't as good as men, that we are worth 70% of the salaries men make because, (according to John McCain) women need "more education and training". When we stop taking the world out on ourselves and start working to make it a better place for everyone, that's when we hear the backlash.

So Danica, whether you consider yourself a feminist or not, I don't care. You stand your little, fit frame on the podium and bask in the moment that you kicked the crap out of everyone one else on the course that day.

Ladies, I propose we stop beating up on ourselves and put that energy to good use. Let those boys who want to argue over weight restrictions in IndyCar racing, play golf at the country clubs that don't allow us in and use their bigger salaries to buy stuff they don't need to impress people they don't like anyway. Let them have that crap, let's you and I take over the world.