Femininity and masculinity can coexist in motorsports

Do women have to let go of their feminine side in order to thrive in the world of motorsport?

The common misconception surrounding women in motorsport is that they have to be more like a man in order to do well.

Embracing femininity in motorsports had traditionally been seen as a disadvantage specifically by a certain collection of people who either believe that women do not have a place in motorsports to begin with or they must be more masculine.

Danica Patrick received backlash on social media due to comments she made on a F1 Juniors broadcast at the Hungarian GP.

“And at the end of the day, I think that the nature of the sport is masculine. It’s aggressive.”, Patrick said, “You have to, you know, handle the car – not only just the car because that’s skill, but the mindset that it takes to be really good is something that’s not normal in a feminine mind, a female mind.”

Stereotypically women have been seen as the ‘weaker sex’ and in a male dominated sport such as motorsport the view that women are too weak to take part in racing comes from this stereotypical view.

In recent times, female drivers have strived to break the expectation of having to be more masculine through make-up, either wearing makeup themselves or getting sponsored and having partnerships with brands.

F1 Academy announced on social media that they had entered into a sponsorship deal with Charlotte Tilbury, a high-end cosmetics brand.

The brand has designed one of the cars on the grid that will be driven by French driver Lola Lovinfosse of the Rodin Motorsport team.

The deal sees Charlotte Tilbury become the first female-founded beauty brand to partner with an F1 feeder series.

F1 Academy driver Bianca Bustamante has posted makeup tutorials on her YouTube channel and content creator and presenter Lissie Mackintosh has posted ‘get ready with me…’ videos to TikTok.

This can also be seen wider in sports with brands perfecting sport-specific makeup which had qualities that are needed by athletes such as water resistance.

This has allowed women to wear the makeup without having to worry about their athleticism getting in the way and has allowed a new era of female sports personalities to emerge.

Having pink as your favorite color, preferring dresses or wearing makeup will not make you a better or worse race car driver.

- by Lizzy Oxendale