Danica Patrick burst on the racing scene nearly 20 years ago, becoming the face of not only GoDaddy, but the ever-evolving world of sports. As a pit row pin-up girl, her good looks and charm opened doors for her, bust most importantly she proved her toughness on the track. Despite not having gigantic success, she earned the respect of her peers for being able to navigate amongst her male contemporaries. It helped her gain a reputation as a trailblazer.
Danica Patrick hosting the ESPY Awards via YouTube
Speaking on the Sky F1 Juniors broadcast, Danica Patrick said that she considers auto racing – and Formula One – in particular “Masculine”, which drew the ire of many who view her as a hero of women’s rights. The backlash may have come quickly and suddenly, but Patrick did her best while making her point.
Now a part of the Sky F1 broadcast team, Patrick offered a rather negative take on the chances of females progressing into Formula 1, suggesting it is “not normal” for the “feminine mind” to be geared towards success on the track. That wasn’t exactly a green flag of encouragement to young women looking to follow in her footsteps.
Asked during the show by a young fan about the chances a girl has to be a star on the Formula One circuit, Danica Patrick responded, “As I’ve always said in my whole career, it takes 100 guys to come through to find a good one, and then it takes 100 girls. That takes a long time to find a good one, right?
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“It’s just, the odds are not in favor of there always being one or being many of them,” she continued. “And at the end of the day, I think that the nature of the sport is masculine. It’s aggressive.”
“You have to, you know, handle the car – not only just the car because that’s a skill, but the mindset that it takes to be really good is something that’s not normal in a feminine mind, a female mind.
“You have to be like, for me, I know if somebody tries to bow up to make it difficult on me, I would go into like an aggressive kill mode, right?”
Thanks for transcribing, I found the videoclip on Twitter:
📸: @SkySportsF1 (via f1mediafan)pic.twitter.com/UeMRPY8exF
— MultiViewer (@f1multiviewer) July 25, 2023
The backlash to Patrick’s comments was swift, and the retired star-turned-analyst was raked over the coals a bit for her comments.
“There’s nothing worse than when a woman gets a platform in a male-dominated space and uses it to showcase herself as the “exception” instead of using it to deconstruct harmful stereotypes,” one Twitter user wrote. “Danica Patrick, your internalized misogyny is showing.”
What’s your take on the backlash towards Danica? Let us know in the comments below and across social media.