After Atalanta

I saw a few articles this past weekend about female auto racers. Note that I didn't really read them because I am not all that into auto racing. But the headlines were similar in that they noted the increased presence of women at Indy: there were four this year! This was interesting in light of two things: 1. Christine Brennan's column on the women in Indy versus the lack of women in NASCAR. There were no women racing Sunday for NASCAR. Danica Patrick who finished 6th in Indy is racing some second tier NASCAR events. But apparently the lack of women can be attributed to how heavy the cars are! Said Eddie Gossage, president of Texas Motor Speedway: "(NASCAR) may not lend itself toward women, who are, by nature, smaller people," he said. "The cars are bigger, heavier and require more physical demands. The races are longer. There are 38 races to a season, and it gets to be a tremendous physical grind. I'm not slamming women. I'm simply saying there is a big ...

I decided to write you this letter to try to get my feelings out. I just...I just can't do it aloud. I need to work out some of these thoughts I have in writing. I think a big part of the problem is my own mismanagement of expectations. I mean, I know your history, I know your patterns, and yet my hopes seem to rise despite my best intentions to control them. And them--boom-disappointment. And I hope you don't see this letter as me taking it out on you. But...well...I am. I am. 'Cause I am mad, ESPN. And I am sad. And I am disappointed. I mean, I know Women's History Month is over, and that the attention I experienced last month was bound to wane. But I waited and waited this morning. I waited throughout Sports Center. I watched the segment on Tiger and opening day hoopla. I was pleased to see coverage of the Kraft Nabisco Championships and Brittany Lincicome's first major win. But I wanted highlights. Highlights of all the WPS games this weekend. Highlights of my B...

Well, it's probably always been there but now the organization is being called on it . Mauricia Grant, a former inspection official and an African-American woman, filed a multimillion dollar lawsuit against NASCAR citing racial and gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Dave Zirin's column, linked above, is the first I had heard about this case though I don't usually pay much attention to NASCAR. I do pay a lot of attention to cases of discrimination in sports though. Of course NASCAR has launched a campaign against Grant saying that she never reported any of the incidents she cites in the lawsuit (and they include some lovely name-calling and incidents in which men exposed themselves to her; why do men find this an effective form of intimidation?). And this is the problem with dealing with discrimination through the legal system (ok, one of many problems but this is the one I'm focusing in). When the burden for proof is on the oppressed person; someone who is lik...

Usually I am quite on board with editorials and columns that bemoan the sexualization of female athletes. But there's the thing: it's not news anymore; it's not a new argument; sports and gender scholars are doing excellent research on the issue. So if you're going to say something about the sexualization of female athletes you better say something interesting and smart. That is not what Bernie Lincicome did in a column in Rocky Mountain News a few weeks ago. The piece, called " Female sports heroes vanishing ," signs a sad song about how all the good ones like Mia Hamm, Nancy Lopez, Billie Jean King and now Annika Sorenstam and Justine Henin, are leaving and there's no one to take their places. Oh wait there's Danica Patrick and Natalie Gulbis and Maria Sharapova all of whom Lincicome thinks are overrated because their results have not lived up to their looks. Wait, wait, wait--Maria Sharapova? I don't think winning 3 grand slam tournaments const...