The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

The Limits of the Eight Belles Metaphor

Obvious though it may be, the metaphor didn't strike me until others pointed it out. The first thought I had when I saw the news was, "How awful." I was a horseback rider as a kid and obsessively read any horse-related tale I could find—from Black Beauty to truly awful YA series like Thoroughbred. Thoroughbred starred a young girl named Ashleigh with dreams of being a jockey and her horse, an underdog filly named Wonder. Ashleigh was the only one to see Wonder's spirit and potential (natch) and the only one with the sensitivity to ride Wonder to victory (natch.) Together, they became a winning machine (natch), competing with and regularly defeating the boys, equine and human alike. A wonderful, schlocky story that gave me a completely distorted view of the horseracing world—and gender relations.

That sort of childhood reading material and the "Girls can do anything!" message that was reinforced by my parents, my teachers, and television (the "girl joins and dominates the boys' sports team" was a standard story line in many a Saturday morning TV show, including Saved by the Bell) shaped my early views on gender. One of the hardest life lessons for me to learn is that females, both in the animal and human worlds, can't do everything males can. Eight Belles' name is now up there with Ruffian, a great female horse who ran herself to death in a race against the boys. There are limits to the usefulness of this new angle to the old politics-as-horse-race metaphor, though. Humans don't have to be put down when their legs break. They can race again.