AP thinks the second best female athlete of 2009 is a horse
By Jess McCabe | 22 December 2009, 21:24
UPDATE: Feministing got the full rankings and found out there are actually two horses in the AP’s top 10 female athletes of 2009. Really!
First off, well done to Serena Williams, named best female athlete of the year by the Associated Press.
Unfortunately, the wire’s choice for the second best female athlete this year… is a horse.
The real head-scratcher, and a possibly offensive result, is that a horse finished second.The filly Zenyatta capped a 14-0 career by becoming the first female horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
That’s terrific, but is it really deserving of second place in a year where there were definitely some strong female, human candidates?
CBC goes on to talk about how another horse has previously entered in at 6th male athlete of the year, so it’s not unprecedented for an animal to be included, but frankly I do think it’s a bit offensive.
They wonder:
The votes are cast by editors at U.S. newspapers that are members of the AP. In a 2010 world, are they even a relevant group, demographically or professionally, to be picking female athlete of the year?I don’t know the answer to that, but the voting in recent years seems to suggest otherwise.
Interestingly CBC also talks about how nationalistic the awards are - apparently the last non-US athlete to win one of these was Ben Johnson in 1987. It’s hard to think that’s an accurate reflection of world athletic prowess.
All this ties into Natalie’s feature for us this week about sexism in sports coverage in this country.
Via women talk sports’ Twitter stream.
Have your say
In order to keep this blog as a feminist and friendly space, comments will be subject to some rules. We do not seek to censor debate: the beauty of the internet is that anyone can set up their own blog or website to express their views.
- This blog is a safe and friendly space for feminists and feminist allies. Debate and critique are welcome where it is constructive and deepens analysis or understanding. Anti-feminist comments will not be approved. We get to decide what's anti-feminist.
- All comments must be approved by one of the bloggers. For this reason, there may be a delay before your comment appears.
- No sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, ablist comments, comments which make personal attacks on any blogger or commenter, or comments that are otherwise deemed offensive by us will be posted.
- Trolls will be banned from commenting. We get to decide who is a troll.
- No anonymous comments - please feel free to use your real name or make one up, though.
- Be nice.
- Latest Posts
- Q&A with Evelin Stermitz, founder of ArtFem.TV
- Seven days to raise £700 - F-Word fundraiser, last leg!
- Good news: government drops plans for rape defendant anonymity
- Jane Austen's Fight Club
- New feature - Rape: treat the cause, not the symptom
- New review: Never Kiss a Man in a Canoe
- New review: Our Tragic Universe
- Michelle Rodriguez on why her characters keep getting killed off
- New feature - Women in punk: the disappearing years
- MAC apologises for theming makeup range around Juárez
- More posts
- Latest Comments
- Alicia on Jane Austen's Fight Club
- Jennifer Drew on Good news: government drops plans for rape defendant anonymity
- Kate on Good news: government drops plans for rape defendant anonymity
- frankie on PCOS
- cim on Good news: government drops plans for rape defendant anonymity
- Jess McCabe on Good news: government drops plans for rape defendant anonymity
- nonny mouse on Good news: government drops plans for rape defendant anonymity
- Chloe on PCOS
- Sunny H on Jane Austen's Fight Club
- Teresa Crew on Feminists: Why you should join Labour to vote Diane
- Reclaiming The F-Word
Founder of The F-Word, Catherine Redfern, has co-authored a new book with Kristin Aune. Find out more at the Reclaiming The F-Word website.
- More feminist bloggers
- There are plenty of fantastic UK feminist bloggers around. For a fantastic introduction to feminist blogging, go to the Carnival of Feminists website, which showcases the finest feminist posts from around the blogsphere, including many from UK blogs.
- How to contribute to The F-Word
- Got something to say? Something to review? News to discuss? Well we want to hear from you! Click here for more info
- Events
- Check out our events listings for info on some of the fantastic feminist events going on up and down the country. Please get in touch to tell us about events we've not listed yet.
- Small Print
- All blog posts are the views of the individual post author, and not those of The F-Word.
Feeds
Jennifer Drew said:
Well, given Associated Press continues to be male-dominated and male-centered I am not in the least surprised. However why a female horse? Surely a male horse would have been more appropriate. After all Associated Press is all about reporting news stories which promote the myth men are the centre of the universe and women exist to serve men's needs etc.
Ah no doubt claims will be made we should not take offence because we are being too sensitive etc. etc. but given women's presence is to say the least minimal unless of course women are represented as men's sexualised commodities or men's sexual appendages - no I do not consider AP to be 'humorous' - just misogynistic.
Women's Media is a excellent website which valliantly attempts to dislodge the male-dominated and male obsession with always reporting on news from the 'male angle.'
Well, given Associated Press continues to be male-dominated and male-centered I am not in the least surprised. However why a female horse? Surely a male horse would have been more appropriate. After all Associated Press is all about reporting news stories which promote the myth men are the centre of the universe and women exist to serve men's needs etc.
Women's Media is an excellent website which valiantly attempts to dislodge male-centered perspectives with regards to the myth 'the world does indeed revolve around males.' No AP you are not being 'humorous' or 'ironic' but you are certainly engaging in misogyny and blatant contempt for women athletes.
http://www.wimmonline.org/
http://www.wimmonline.org
Posted on 22 December 2009 at 11:10 PM
Kez said:
This actually made me laugh a bit, as it's so silly (though it probably wouldn’t have, had I been one of the athletes pipped to second place by the horse).
Incidentally, while googling to find out who else was on the list, I stumbled across this classic headline on a blog: “Angry nag edges horse for AP Female Athlete of the Year honor.” Nice!
Anyway, while I agree that the US does sometimes have a tendency not to recognise the existence of the rest of the world, it’s not true to say the last non-US athlete to win the award was in 1987… that only applies to the men. Golfers Lorena Ochoa (Mexican, won twice) and Annika Sorenstam (Swedish, won 3 times) have both received the women’s award in recent years. Nonetheless though there is overall an overwhelming US dominance, especially on the men’s list, and an apparent inability to look beyond golf and tennis on the women’s list. (Kim Clijsters came 3rd in this year’s poll, I have eventually managed to find out. She's been completely eclipsed in the media coverage by Zenyatta, the horse.)
The awards are voted for by a panel of sports editors… it’s hard not to wonder if the horse’s 18 votes (Serena got 66) were someone’s idea of a joke. While Zenyatta is clearly a wonderful racehorse, it does seem pretty disrespectful to all the human athletes deserving of the honour. Surely racehorses have their own award somewhere?
Posted on 23 December 2009 at 10:02 AM
Jess McCabe said:
Ahhh, thanks for that @Kez. I just relied on what CBC said, it's interesting that they didn't specify...
Posted on December 23, 2009 10:48 AM
polly said:
Male horses everywhere are probably now writing to the Daily Mail complaining it's reverse sexism because they didn't get named 2nd best athlete.
Posted on 23 December 2009 at 1:12 PM
Jodie said:
Haha Polly. Male horses joining forces with anti- misandry.com.
Posted on 23 December 2009 at 6:07 PM
Karen Vaughan said:
Votes for horses by sexist pigs, crazy world we live in. Can I therefore name Tiger Woods as "Ass" of the Century? Nah didn't think so. Not much good news out there, what with sexist apps for phones, xmas-approved sexism and now this display of contempt. Merry 2010 F-Worders, dreaming of the revolution....
Posted on 23 December 2009 at 8:16 PM
Claire said:
Great news: Benson the carp is down as one of the 12 men of the year on the BBC's website. It seems that the other half of the human race are not immune from ridiculous choices of winners by the media. Shame he's dead, compared to the other 11 winners, he would have made a good catch.
Posted on 30 December 2009 at 11:38 AM
Anna said:
I don't really mind this too much - I can see how it would be offensive but there is a fair history of naming animals in sport, and it's undoubted that she is a fantastic horse. Having said that, this could well be the inspiration for some art..
Posted on 31 December 2009 at 8:43 AM
Kez said:
At least Zenyatta is alive... I'd be a bit miffed to be pipped to the man of the year title (if I were in fact a man) by a dead fish.
Posted on 31 December 2009 at 3:21 PM
Meg said:
@ Claire, even funnier when, at least according to the articles I've read, Benson is a "she". ;)
Posted on 31 December 2009 at 5:02 PM