The XX Factor: What women really think.

Go, Danica!

I've been to only a handful of car races in my life, all on a two-bit track in Manasses, so I shouldn't have much of a stake in the triumph of Danica Patrick. This weekend, the 26-year-old became the first woman to win an Indy car race, defeating a two-time Indy 500 champion by six seconds. But here is why I find this victory so sweet. For as long as man has known how to inflate rubber, there have been men (and particularly middle-aged men) who brag that they could beat any female college pro in a one-on-one. In his book about sports stunts, Todd Gallagher has a chapter called, "How Big Is the Gap Between Male and Female Athletes." The chapter begins with the anecdote of a 39-year-old overweight alcoholic who came within one basket of beating a professional women's basketball player in a one-on-one. Gallagher's conclusion is that the gap between male and female professional athletes is "much wider than the general public understands," and he has all sorts of graphs and charts to prove that. My husband, who plays on both a soccer and basketball team, keeps this book in our bathroom. You are beginning to see where my resentment comes in. Whether or not Gallagher is right, men are permitted to keep this fantasy alive becaue it's hardly ever tested. In professional sports, in the Olympics, there are few co-ed sports.* Even in non-team sports (gymnastics, weight-lifting) men and women usually compete separately. Car racing is a rare exception, probably because there aren't enough women interested. And Danica took advantage of that. What makes it sweeter is, Danica is no tomboy, playing by the men's rules. Before winning this weekend, she was most famous for posing in various Paris Hilton-like poses in her bikini. So before we lapse into our postfeminist sulk tomorrow night (when Hillary wins Pennsylvania), let us all toast Danica and her fabulous legs.      

*Correction, April 22: The post originally said that there are no co-ed professional or Olympic sports. However, men and women do compete against one another in Olympic equestrian and sailing events.