July 2, 2002
11:55 PM   Subscribe

The brilliant Cecily Kidd put together a few URLs discussing Title IX and the funding disparity between male and female sports. "[M]ale athletes receive $133 million more in athletic scholarships than female athletes." In one of the few sports where men and women compete (against each other) on the same field and with the same (or similar) equipment: motor sports, where men are no more rewarded for being muscular or women penalized for any female physical attributes; women have not only competed, but won against men. Shirley Muldowney has won four Top Fuel championships, Angelle Savoie has won two Pro Stock Bike championships, Jutta Kleinschmidt won the Paris-Dakar rally, Shawna Robinson won the poll with a track record in 1994 Busch race at Atlanta, Sarah Fisher is the most popular driver in IRL and the cute and lovable Danica Patrick recently won at the Toyota Pro/Celebrity race at Long Beach. So why can't these women get a steady sponsorship deal and a regular ride as a driver? Why do they always have to be 'something more'?
posted by tamim (10 comments total)
 
How about the funding goes to school instead of sports? How about kids who can't afford to go to the school because of funding should be given the money via financial aid or whatever instead for a sport? How about sports players pay for the sport they want to play instead of everyone else footing the bill?

Instead of giving female athletes another $133 million or dividing that $133 million among both males and females, give it to students who need it to go to the school.

I'm not saying cut all funding to sports, but schools do pour a lot of money into it. If sports are that popular than why aren't they self-substaining...
posted by geoff. at 12:14 AM on July 3, 2002


My guess is that most of the money generated by college sports, and thus available for scholarships is from American football.

And tamim, I disagree with your assessment of female racing drivers. For a start, the fact that your list is so short is telling, even though you missed the rally driver Michele Mouton. For every one of those women listed, we could have listed hundreds of far more successful men.

If Sarah Fisher is the most popular driver in the IRL, that says much about the quality of the IRL and the savvy of IRL fans. Fisher is unfortunately not good enough for the IRL at this stage of her career. That she is running in the series at all is probably down to her gender.

Danica Patrick has multi-year sponsorship, and will be driving in one of the development series next year, which considering her age and experience is the right place for her. I think Patrick herself acknowleges that, seeing the mistake that Fisher made in trying to make the jump to major league too early.

Why do women find it hard to get sponsorship at the moment? For the same reason men also are having difficulty finding sponsorship. There's not much money out there, and race grids are dropping in virtually every racing series. I can't see any evidence that women are being discriminated against.

If you want a couple of sports where women really can compete on level terms with the men and win, I suggest horse racing and equestrianism.
posted by salmacis at 12:29 AM on July 3, 2002


Televised sports such as car racing are simple entertainments for average TV-and-sandwiches-on-Sunday-afternoon guys, the Joe Sixpacks (or should that be Joes Sixpack?) or Joe Lunchbuckets of the world. That's why the stars generally have to be men who at least seem tough and non-homosexual, men about whom Joe Sixpack can speak admiringly the next day at the machine shop without seeming lame or a little light in the loafers. If women are to play a part in it (other than as cheerleaders), they, too, have to pass the test of whether they can be spoken of admiringly, Joe to Joe to Joe, and generally that means she has to look good in a swimsuit (and has to play in one). Otherwise, they won't bring in the viewers that sponsors want.

If you want real female athletes (not bikini models) starring in sports, you have to find a female viewership worth an advertiser's money, because average men usually won't watch average-looking women in numbers worth sponsoring.
posted by pracowity at 1:17 AM on July 3, 2002


pracowcity: There's a lot more to motorsports than NASCAR. Probably you've put your finger on why there are no women racing in that particular series.
posted by salmacis at 1:58 AM on July 3, 2002


The same guys (but with maybe a little more money) are watching F1.
posted by pracowity at 2:11 AM on July 3, 2002


Maybe in the US. I don't think the majority of F1 viewers in the UK fall into your category.
posted by salmacis at 3:48 AM on July 3, 2002


> I don't think the majority of F1 viewers in the UK fall
> into your category.

Well, I can't exactly pull statistics out of my hat, but on this UK F1 site, the only women visible are the "Glamour Vote" chicks. F1 looks a bit wealthier and snootier, but otherwise it appears to be cars going vroom and guys going woohoo, much like NASCAR but with a different funny accent.
posted by pracowity at 6:13 AM on July 3, 2002


What women exactly were you expecting to see on that site? It's an F1 news site. We already know there are no female drivers or engineers in F1. You were talking about the fans.

I've been to plenty of motorsports events - F1, Grand Prix bikes, Superbikes, BTCC and I would guess that the proportion of women there is greater than the proportion of women at professional football matches.

You said originally:
Televised sports such as car racing are simple entertainments for average TV-and-sandwiches-on-Sunday-afternoon guys, the Joe Sixpacks (or should that be Joes Sixpack?) or Joe Lunchbuckets of the world. That's why the stars generally have to be men who at least seem tough and non-homosexual, men about whom Joe Sixpack can speak admiringly the next day at the machine shop without seeming lame or a little light in the loafers. If women are to play a part in it (other than as cheerleaders), they, too, have to pass the test of whether they can be spoken of admiringly, Joe to Joe to Joe, and generally that means she has to look good in a swimsuit (and has to play in one). Otherwise, they won't bring in the viewers that sponsors want.

Not one word of that corresponds to my experience of motorsport - either attending live or watching on television.
posted by salmacis at 7:53 AM on July 3, 2002


> Not one word of that corresponds to my experience
> of motorsport

Don't like sammies, eh? To each his own. I like a sammy.

> You were talking about the fans.

We were talking about women in racing. They definitely aren't competing in F1, and that's seems to be just fine by the great majority of the fans, because they're men, and most of them don't appear to be interested in watching women toodle around the track. Guys want to watch guys do the daring and they want the girlies to come out when it's time for the alpha males to pop their corks and get everyone wet.
posted by pracowity at 10:14 AM on July 3, 2002


I wouldn't mind seeing women driving in F1. Most F1 drivers are pretty dull people anyway.
Are you just trolling?
posted by davidgentle at 6:19 PM on July 3, 2002


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