http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/lars_anderson/05/14/patrick/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmdaB21E2tY
While doing some brief research on female athlete's I quickly came across an article in Sport's Illustrated called, "Hard Work Patrick Generates High Expectations" written by Lars Anderson, on Indy racecar driver Danica Patrick. She is the 1st woman to ever win in Indy car. There was talk on her moving to Nascar racing, but her main focus was on concentrating on her Indy 500 race. She has received a lot of attention in the media such as "Go Daddy" commercials, Sport's illustrated and various women's health magazine's such as Shape, been featured in a South Park episode, as well as from her racing/unlikely successful career. For example, she dropped out of school and moved to England at 16 to concentrate on racing. If that doesn't sound ballsy, she lost funding from her racing sponsor for being perceived as a wild party girl! She got lucky by "landing a ride with Letterman Racing in 2004" even though she didn't have a consistent winning record.
As I surfed the web, I found YouTube video's of commercials she has been in as well as a video clip of her posing for Sport's Illustrated. They portray her as being very sexy. In the Go Daddy commercial, featured during the 2010 super bowl, the scene is focused around a pool and a massage table with her and another woman. The commercial ends with her saying, "Customer service with a personal touch". In the Sport's Illustrated YouTube video she says, "A guy loves to look at the issue; I'm a girl and I love to look at the issue". In the shoot she is shown having very feminine characteristics such as long brown hair, a tan thin and toned body, skimpy shiny swimsuit, and flawless looking skin/makeup. Google her name and hundreds of other very sex appealing photos will pop up. She appears to be calm and confident. In a South Park episode where they make jokes about her, she responds with, "Anytime somebody takes the time to make fun of you is a compliment".
In a society that puts so much pressure on women’s appearance, it makes sense that in a Shape magazine interview she said, “Racing makes me nervous, but getting into a bathing suit for this cover made me more nervous.” There is no doubt in my mind that her good looks are what has got her media attention. The brutal truth is, is that sex sells, and if she were overweight, ugly, or manly, they wouldn’t feature her in the media and her talents in Nascar racing would go unnoticed.
Veronica G Kin338I section 1 Tu/Th 9:30am
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