The Future of Women in Auto Racing

This past weekend, the Indycar Series auto racing league opened its 2011 season with the Honda Grand Prix in St. Petersburg, Florida, and a female racecar driver finished fourth. I'll give you one guess who that driver was....










... That's right. The correct answer to that question is none other than Simona de Silvestro. Now, if you're not an ardent follower of the Indycar Series, you're likely to be asking, "Who?" After all (and this was the basis for the very trick question I just asked), Danica Patrick is likely the only female racecar driver to register in the consciousness of most folks who do not follow the series. However, those of us who do follow the series are likely to know that de Silvestro was the Indycar Series' rookie of the year last year, finishing a very modest 19th in the standings but showing a lot of potential to improve upon that showing in future seasons, including leading four laps in St. Petersburg and garnering Rookie of the Year honors at the Indianapolis 500 with a 14th place finish.

For many folks, both among those who follow Indycar and those who don't, Danica Patrick has been a figure who brings out conflicting feelings. On the one hand, she's the most accomplished female driver in American auto racing, and those accomplishments are cause for celebration for the advancement of women in sports. On the other hand, the degree to which she participates in the very blatant and active sexualization of her public image has caused many of us to wonder if she does more harm than good. While other female racers, from Milka Duno to Sarah Fisher to Lyn St. James to Janet Guthrie, have participated in auto racing in general and Indy racing in particular without such overt active participation in the sexualization of their identities, none have had the success of Patrick, who won in Motegi, Japan, in 2008; finished sixth and fifth, respectively, in the Indycar points standings in 2008 and 2009; and has finished in the top 10 in five out six Indy 500 races, including fourth in 2005 and third in 2009.

Enter Simona de Silvestro. To date, she has not participated in such levels of sexualization of her identity. Meanwhile, she has shown significant enough levels of skill and potential in the racecar that we might reasonably think she has a bright future in the sport. Her finish this past week could be a sign of the progress she is making and the successes that the future may hold for her. It's too early to tell whether de Silvestro will continue to build successes in U.S. auto racing and/or will participate as Patrick has in the sexualization of her image, but if the past year (as well as de Silvestro's auto racing career before joining the Indycar Series) is any indication, we might reasonably believe the answer will be in the affirmative for the first part and in the negative for the second.

In the meantime, this may point to one other question that may be worth consideration. Namely, has Patrick's overtly sexualized image helped set the stage for the likes of de Silvestro (as well as Ana Beatriz and other women to come in the future of the sport) to seek and achieve racing accomplishments without such a sexualized image? In other words, perhaps the overkill of sexualization with Patrick's image has led to enough distaste for that kind of image that de Silvestro, Beatriz, and others will be evaluated much more fully just on their racing performances than on their sexualized identities.

Perhaps not. This latest development in the image of Serena Williams, as well as the continuing sexualization of the likes of Maria Sharapova and other female tennis players, may indicate that the overt sexualization of Anna Kournikova did not remove that aspect from the identification of women in professional tennis. However, at least for now, I believe I have a new rooting interest in auto racing: Simona de Silvestro.

Sports Talk Radio Show

So, I have been really busy lately, which has meant little action on this blog. One of these days, I'm hoping to be able to build a good schedule and fuller momentum with this thing. It'll probably happen once I realize how to make blog entries here that are as thorough as I want them to be, but are shorter both in their length and in the time it takes to write them.

In the meantime, a few weeks ago, my colleague Mike Butterworth (who can also be found blogging at The Agon) and I started a radio show in which we apply critical, cultural, and rhetorical analysis to sports. It's on the air this semester from 2:00-4:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on Wednesdays on WBGU radio. That can be found at 88.1 FM in the Bowling Green, Ohio, area, or you can listen live by going to www.wbgufm.com.