Via Paolo Camera @ Flickr.
Becky loves her horsies, and I do, too. But even though I don’t follow (or particularly like) horse-racing, I know that Rachel Alexandra, a 3-year old filly, will be running in today’s Preakness Stakes. She’s actually favored to win.
Big-time racing has always been the provenance of colts (meaning male horses; only 53 other fillies have ever run in 134 years of the Preakness; four of those have won it), so whenever a filly makes it into the “big leagues,” she always gets an inordinate amount of press, as Eight Belles did leading up to last year’s Kentucky Derby.
If you look at the racing pages or serious coverage of the race, you’ll read a lot about bloodlines and post positions. But if you look at mainstream media coverage (nightly news, USA Today, etc.), you’re going to need an anti-emetic for the headlines:
Rachel Alexandra Adds Girl Power to Preakness
Filly Adds Aura of Mystery and Intrigue to Preakness
She’s a girl, she’s a lady, she’s a mysterious beauty! She’s a sexy, sexy horse!
Other stories I’ve seen and heard touch on the resistance from some owners and trainers to Rachel Alexander’s presence: “I’m not in favor of fillies runnin’ with the boys…” and “As bad as I hate to think, there’s a lot of women out there who are very competitive and think anything a man can do, women can do too!”
Wait, are we still talking about horses?
We’re not, really. Yes, just as there are, generally speaking, biological and morphological differences between female and male humans, there are differences between female and male horses. But not all male horses (even thoroughbreds) are going to be stronger or faster than all female horses. The fact that 90% of the attention being paid to this race has to do with gender–WHICH, AS IT IS A HUMAN CONSTRUCT, HORSES DO NOT POSSESS–is a reminder that regardless of the venue, the Powers that Be see sex and gender as utterly linked, if not identical, and every arena as a place to decide The Battle of the Sexes.
I don’t have a stake (financial or otherwise) in who wins today’s race. Regardless of the outcome, I’ll be keeping an eye to the coverage to note how human (mostly male) obsession with human gender roles continues to frame the discussion about non-human achievement.
Update: Rachel Alexandra took the lead early and won the Preakness Stakes by a length. She is the first filly to win the Preakness in 85 years.
The obsession with gender constructs also applies to male horses, since winning colts are talked about as being all butch and powerful.
What always cracks me up is when winners are geldings, like this year’s Derby champ Mine that Bird, or 2003′s winner, Funny Cide (for the non-horsy types: geldings are castrated male horses). The racing types always make a big deal of the fact that the champion literally has no balls, as though it’s his balls that makes a horse fast and competitive.
(Balls, for the record, don’t make a horse anything other than A. bad-tempered and potentially more dangerous and B. capable of reproduction).
I would think a lack of balls would make a horse faster and lighter…
I don’t follow horse racing so I have to ask – do the male horses get manly man names too? It’s pretty obvious which sex Rachel Alexandra is.
@misscalculate: Balls don’t weigh that much! But geldings are much more pleasant to deal with than stallions b/c with horses–as with all animals, frankly–lower testosterone levels make for an animal that’s less likely to fight with humans or other horses. Only problem is, if they win, you don’t get to charge millions in stud fees!
Racehorse names are usually pretty weird gender-neutral phrases–they’re almost never given human names at all. Rachel Alexandra is definitely an exception.
For example, this year’s Preakness field includes such oddball monikers as: Tone it Down, Pioneer of the Nile, Take the Points, Luv Gov, Mine that Bird, Flying Private, Big Drama, and Friesian Fire.
The NBC ads got my elementary school-age kids all excited, as the NBC ad references gender without any “apparent” context, and thus they thought Rachael Alexendra was the full name of the jockey. They thought it was so cool that there is going to be a female jockey in the race. But sadly, no, and when I explained it out to them that NBC meant the horse their excitement dissipated.
@Katie: That makes me sad; not to mention that there are only a few female jockeys.
@PhDork: As someone who was once married to someone who grew up very close to Saratoga, I actually have a real fondness for horse racing. I noticed the sexist headlines you mentioned above and I honestly didn’t think ANYONE would cover the Preakness from a feminist POV. So, wow, thank you!
*silently cursing self for forgetting to hit OTB this morning*
What an exhilarting race. This was historical as was this past presidential election of 2008.
Funny how I was just pondering if I could be a feminist for the equine species the other day…
The interesting thing of it: at the Olympic level, the equestrian events are the only events (that I can recall – does curling and bobsledding count) that are mixed gender, both in the riders and the horses.
When people become uptight and offended that fillies are running against colts in the big races, I generally roll my eyes. Mares vault themselves over the same 5’5 fence that the geldings do at the Olympics (and the women ride against the men as well), but you never hear complaints or remarks about it.
I hadn’t thought of that, Blind Irish Pirate (love the handle, btw). You’re right, though, equestrian is the only mixed-sex competition…
Because I am a cyncial materialist, I wonder if there’s more of a stink about segregating the Triple Crown races because there’s so much money involved–not only prize money, but stud fees and such for winning stallions. Do fillies ever run in big UK races like the Cheltenham, and is there outcry there? Hmmm.
What I find interesting is that they do make such a big deal out of fillies not taking on colts in US racing, it’s quite common in the UK and Ireland. Fillies do indeed run in big races like Cheltenham with absolutely no outcry, see also female jockeys such as Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh and Hayley Turner who ride in big races in Ireland and the UK with little brouhahaha.
It was a great race though and I say that as someone who usually dislikes US racing in comparison to that in the UK and Ireland.
This morning, ABC’s “Good Morning America” show set all of its coverage about Rachel Alexandra to the tune of “She’s A Lady” by Tom Jones. It was, needless to say, a horrifying way to start my week. When they were talking about the horse last week, they played a song about “anything boys can do, girls can do better”. I found myself wishing it were possible for there to be equine feminists.
Oh, Tiffany, BARF. BARFBARFBARF. And more BARF. That wins, hands down, the Most Egregious Award.
@PhDork: I wonder if they know that the “lady” weighs at least 1,000 lbs? Because that’s SO not sexy!
Get that horse a skim latte!
I am always amazed at what men think about female anything–humans, horses, dogs, etc. It’s just different sex organs, no big deal! And yet, the female sex of any species is always described in infuriatingly condescending terms and misogeny.
On topic, I don’t see the big deal with a filly running with colts. They do it in the wild, and the earth still stands. So fuck off, Ignorant Horse “Experts”.