What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the name Danica Patrick? Is it what originally caused her to become a prominent woman in the media (Indycar racing, a male-dominated industry) or the bikini photos of her in Sports Illustrated and FHM?
I think of her as a race car driver who has excelled in an industry dominated by men. However, I believe that many people would not know she is a race car driver, unless they watched the sport or ESPN. Furthermore, since she has been a recurrent model for Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition, I wouldn’t be surprised that people create mental images of her in these photos instead of her in an Indycar.
Danica Patrick is perfect to be analyzed through Levy’s The Female Chauvinist Pigs because she embodies many of the characteristics of other women Levy discusses. She fits right into the raunch culture that Levy discusses throughout her book. Raunch culture is the mainstream appearance of women exposing their bodies in order to gain some type of liberation and confidence. However, by posing nude and wearing skimpy clothes, women are objectifying themselves and other women and not receiving the empowerment they hoepd. This is especially interesting in relation to the first wave of feminism, in which women fought hard to gain equality with men. But this increase in the prominence of raunch culture in today’s society seems to be a step back compared to what the first wave feminists were trying to gain. Women are seen as inferior because they feel the need to exploit their body in order to gain similar attention as men. They are giving into what men want to see and allowing them to maintain their superiority by having the ability to control female behavior. Furthermore, “How is resurrecting every stereotype of female sexuality that feminism endeavored to banish good for women?” (pg. 4). I believe this question posed by Levy sums up her thoughts on the topic of raunch culture.
Many of the women Levy interviewed that aimed at arousing men cited various reasons for participating. Some felt that it made them feel empowered, liberated, approved, or gave them a source of income; well many engaged in these acts without receiving monetary compensation. I doubt that Danica posed in multiple bikinis for money. She makes plenty of that by racing and having dozens of sponsors spattered across her body suit and car. Maybe she followed the footsteps of some of the other elite women athletes in their respective sport? (Amanda Beard posed nude for playboy after being in the Olympics.) Or was she simply showing the world how confident she is in her own skin? No matter the reason Danica gives, Levy is not a fan. Levy believes that women who pose nude or in other sexual images are objectifying women by neutralizing the talent and power they possess. They are causing women to be looked as inferior, especially since you don’t see men of similar talents posing nude.
When I typed “Jeff Gordon”, “Rusty Wallace”, or “Dale Earnhardt Jr.” into Google Image, there were no pictures of them in skimpy clothes posing for a magazine. However, the entry “Danica Patrick” showed quite the contrary. Only four of the first twenty-one images, that’s right only FOUR, displayed her in racing gear. The rest of them involved her posing in bikinis in rather sexual positions. Why does Danica feel the need to pose in these types of magazine, when no one else in her industry participates in such behavior? I believe it might be routed in the tomboy image that label many female athletes. Danica began racing go-karts at the age of ten and by the young age of twenty-three (2005) she emerged onto the national scene in the Indycar Series. By 2008 she became the first women to win an Indycar race by taking home the Indy Japan 300. Throughout the next couple of years she set numerous other records for a woman in the racing industry, one that is dominated by men. Based on these childhood experiences and her chosen career path, many people would place Danica into the tomboy category. I believe that even though Danica is a very attractive female athlete, she still felt the tomboy label hindering how males looked at her. Therefore, in order to prove to the world that she is a female and possesses many of the ideal characteristics of a woman, Danica decided to begin her modeling career. However, Danica should never have felt the need to do so. I believe she was pressure from today’s society, one in which many strong and successful female athletes are seen as being unfeminine. By being competitive and aggressive, many people today still believe that women are not being feminine, but rather manly and trying to be just like the boys. Danica, similar to Amanda Beard and other female athletes, who choose to partake in modeling, participated in these opportunities to shed the tomboy labels.
I think it is interesting to discuss why men in the racing industry and others don’t pose nude or in sexual manners. Levy points out that no male Olympian has ever posed nude for a magazine before and that many men cite themselves as uncomfortable if females enjoyed looking at their pictures. Therefore, why is it ok for women to be a sex object for males, but not the other way around? I am completely against women posing nude or in any other way that gives off a sexual vibe, but I believe that the problem has its roots in women supporting other women who participate. Throughout Levy’s book she describes women who are producers or managers on shows such as Girls Gone Wild and The Man Show and women who are apart of crowds chanting “Show us your tits.” I believe it is these women who are providing continual fire to raunch culture. They are supporting actions that objectify women and give into men’s pleasures. I found it especially interesting that the tour manager for Girls Gone Wild, Mia Leist, replied “definitely not” when asked if she would ever be in a Girls Gone Wild video. Doesn’t this seem contradictory to her job and what she is paid to do?
Danica Patrick, according to Levy, was once a successful women in a male-dominated industry, but ever since she gave into what men wanted to see, she became apart of raunch culture. In Levy’s eyes Danica is on the same level as strippers, pornstars, and models in Playboy. You may say the she never posed nude, but by taking off her racing suit and posing in binkis Danica became a sex symbol. Like many other female athletes, she felt “it is not enough to be successful, rich, and accomplished,” as Levy points out (pg. 33). Danica needed the world to see beyond her tomboy image. She was not confident enough to be in a male industry without showing her body off. She was not showing off her true beauty, but rather her “hotness,” how “fuckable and salable” (pg. 31) she is to other men.
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