Twenty five years after the release of Susan Faludi’s book, Backlash: The Undeclared War on American Women, the backlash she spoke about remains, even as women around the world continue to shatter glass ceilings.
Just as in the years following Faludi’s book, when millions of Americans believed that Anita Hill lied or Nicole Brown Simpson got what she deserved, there are still many who believe that Hillary Rodham Clinton is somehow an even bigger liar than the typical politician. All the while, perhaps the most sexist presidential candidate since the days of suffrage sits atop the GOP in 2016.
In the sports world, it can be even tougher for women to get the respect they deserve. With NASCAR in town this week, it’s worth taking a look at the treatment of Danica Patrick by fans and the media.
Patrick is not the first of her kind; Sara Christian, Ethel Flock and Louise Smith all drove in stock car races for a decade immediately following the Second World War. Three decades later, a powerful feminist wave swept along women racers like Janet Guthrie, Lillian Vandiver and Sylvia Thompson.
What makes Patrick different is her fame and the resulting pressure. Despite being the first woman to lead the Indianapolis 500 — finishing third in 2009 — and a top-10 finish in the 2013 Daytona 500, Patrick has been roughly criticized by analysts within the sport and in 2014 was named one of the top five most overrated athletes in the world by CBS New York.
When Patrick made the jump from the IndyCar Series to stock cars in 2012, NASCAR was looking for a savior. “She was welcomed with open arms because she would bring eyeballs to a sport in decline,” says Mary Jo Kane, director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport at the University of Minnesota.
Not everyone was so welcoming, however. Patrick’s failure to quickly reach the top of the sport led to a royal backlash. Richard Petty trashed Patrick, stating in 2014 that she could only win “if everybody else stayed home.” Again this year, Petty lived up to his last name when he confirmed his position during Daytona, saying, “She just settled in where she’s at. She ain’t gotten no better or no worse.”
Attacks like these from Petty and more harsh ones from his son Kyle and others in the media do not surprise Kane, who worries that Patrick’s hyper-sexualized branding will not help female athletes.
“There’s nothing wrong with her marketing herself on her looks,” Kane says. “However, it leads to a double standard where her performance is judged more harshly because so many people perceive that her spot is a function of her looks. This means she is getting far more criticism than other drivers who perform at a similar level.”
Nancy Hogshead-Mankar, civil rights lawyer and three-time Olympic gold medalist in swimming who recently founded Champion Women, a nonprofit committed to using sport to improve the lives of girls and women, says women athletes are judged in this way whether they appear in sexy Super Bowl commercials, like Patrick has, or not.
“Part of the dilemma women face is that they have to be good at two things: actual performance and appearance,” she says.
Expecting Patrick to dominate NASCAR immediately would be ridiculous. Even lower expectations were probably unrealistic, given the cruel math behind NASCAR’s competitive culture.
Experts say hitting a baseball is the hardest task in sports because even the best fail nearly seven out of 10 times, but in terms of failure, being a NASCAR driver is much more difficult. Elite drivers lose nine out of 10 races, and very good drivers fail 99 out of 100 times. Michael Waltrip lost his first 462 Sprint Cup races — more than three and a half times the amount of races Patrick has participated in to this day — before winning Daytona in 2001.
In 2015, only 11 drivers won NASCAR Sprint Cup races. The list of talented, veteran drivers who did not win a single race last year includes Ryan Newman, Jamie McMurray, AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle and Clint Bowyer.
Newman, who almost stole the 2014 Sprint Cup championship, has lost 100 races in a row. McMurray is zero for his last 88. Allmendinger has won just once in 296 career races. Biffle has won 19 Sprint Cup races and is a likely Hall of Famer, but he’s lost his last 105 tries. Bowyer has finished in the Top 10 in 44 percent of his 373 career races, but he’s mired in a 125-race drought.
The backlash from analysts and Internet comment boards would have one believe Patrick is a weak driver who shouldn’t be on the track, but no one says any of her peers should lose their respective rides. In the 2016 Sprint Cup standings, McMurray is 14th, Allmendinger is 17th, Newman is 18th, Danica is 23rd, Biffle is 24th, and Bowyer is 26th.
What Patrick really needs now is a win. Unlike her five peers, Patrick is zero for her career, which is at 130 races and counting. Many insiders and fans think she is destined to be little more than NASCAR’s Anna Kournikova. Despite the use of their appearance to generate sponsor dollars and media interest, they are not comparable.
Criticizing Patrick for not winning is like criticizing Klay Thompson for not being as good a shooter as Steph Curry. Patrick works incredibly hard at her craft and has repeatedly shown her ability to adapt and improve. It’s only a matter of time until she gets her first win.
It’s possible to be outstanding at something without being the best, but that may not be good enough if you’re different from everyone else. As Patrick told Kelley Earnhardt Miller on the Fast Lane Family podcast last year, “In racing, it is super unique still [to be a woman]. I don’t shy away from it because I understand that it’s helped me get to where I am today. But if I don’t have good days on the track, I always notice the media will fade away, and it seems really sad and nobody wants to talk to me.”
If anything goes wrong for the 10 car, Patrick gets crushed. During Friday practice before the Dover race two weekends ago, a gear failed in Patrick’s car, which caused her Nature’s Bakery/Autism Delaware car to catch fire and drop oil all over the track. Nasty crashes for Tony Stewart, Patrick’s team owner and a strong supporter over the years, and McMurray followed after they hit the oil. Patrick immediately raced to check on her fallen colleagues.
Who could blame Patrick for equipment failure? A lot of people, apparently. An inaccurate and malicious Sporting News headline read, “Danica Patrick causes crash at Dover; Tony Stewart involved.”
The Internet trolls were much worse, as they’re wont to be, directly attacking Patrick’s skills within minutes. One troll named Mr. Big Balls — an interesting moniker for a man hiding behind a psuedonym to insult women on the Internet — on the Yahoo comments board epitomized the worst elements. “She should be making sammmiches (sic) and blowing her husband not wrecking cars and jeopardizing Nascar (sic) drivers (sic) health with her so called (sic) skills and #$%$ luck,” he wrote.
Two days later, when Jimmie Johnson’s car failed to change gears on a late restart during the Dover race and triggered a massive pileup, no one blamed Johnson. Of course, Johnson deserved no heat — and neither did Patrick.
If Patrick’s mere presence in the sport brings out the worst elements of a profoundly conservative culture, Patrick’s appeal to girls suggests a brighter future for women in motorsports. That devotion reminds many of the love generated by the UNC women’s soccer dynasty, one of our state’s greatest teams. “Mia Hamm gave us a new notion of what sport means in the South,” says Tom Hanchett, former staff historian of the Levine Museum of the New South.
“I try and use gender for the positive, inspiring little kids,” Patrick told Earnhardt Miller. “Growing up, my dad never really compared me to other girls. He always was pushing for me to just be the best. That’s the perspective I take on everything is how do you become the best at it, and it’s really genderless. Why not be the best?”
Patrick’s brand of feminism is a bit limited, which is understandable, according to veteran observers. “Danica Patrick’s inability to talk about sexism is no different than Michael Jordan’s inability to talk about racism,” says Hogshead-Mankar.
Humpy Wheeler, former President and General Manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway, has said, “The working man of the South is still the core race fan of NASCAR.” To wander out among the thousands of men partying in the Charlotte Motor Speedway infield is to feel that vibe as it relates to Patrick. Nobody thinks much of her racing skill, and they are more than willing to throw shade on her personal life, too.
“Sexism is profoundly embedded in our culture. It’s not unique to Danica, but it’s exacerbated by the role she plays,” asserts Kane.
Research by the Tucker Center shows that 40 percent of all athletes are women, yet only four percent of all athletes are represented in the media. Patrick has done an amazing job of drawing attention to her brand, but has she gained anything in the long run for the sisterhood?
Not necessarily, according to Kane. Five years ago, in an article entitled “Sex Sells Sex, Not Women’s Sports” in The Nation, Kane wrote, “Media images that emphasize femininity/sexuality actually suppress interest in, not to mention respect for, women’s sports.”
As Hemingway once said, “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”
Hemingway’s quote points to the continuing tension about what auto racing is. Is it a sport, something less or something more? Anyone who knows how to drive has probably raced somebody somewhere, which makes it feel relatable and perhaps less heroic. Yet the potential for death cuts the other way, making it seem more fraught with meaning than, say, the major three American sports. The threatening nature of the sport makes Patrick’s gender-busting role potentially even more significant.
The day Patrick finally wins a Sprint Cup race will draw tremendous media attention, and may even lead to a short ratings boost for the sport. But it will not end the backlash against Patrick. That would take a hot streak that only a handful of racers seem capable of. Without a red-hot Patrick, cultural change in NASCAR nation will be gradual, at best.
While this country almost seems set up for the first woman president, the idea of a Wonder Woman on the race track may still be decades away.
Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sport
Mary Jo Kane
Sprint Cup
Richard Petty
This article appears in May 25-31, 2016.
Have you ever actually watched a race, Dean? Those of us who regularly do watch have seen ZERO progress from Danica Patrick, ESPECIALLY compared with her male competition. FACT: Danica has never come close to winning a race and only manages the rare top ten when attrition takes out her competition. FACT: Several of the males who have won the last Rookie of The Year competitions are already out of rides due to sub-standard performance. Danica continues on with similar non-performance. FACT: Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney have accomplished more in far less time than Patrick, even though Danica has had the benefit of driving for one of the powerhouse teams in the sport.
If you have a problem with discrimination against females, you could not possibly have picked a worse exemplar than Ms. Patrick.
Love the references/comparisons to other drivers who either haven’t won or endured long winless streaks, despite the fact that Danica has been in championship caliber equipment for her entire career. Let’s cherry pick another stat, the one that shows that not only has she never won, but is still yet to record a single top 5 in Cup. That alone is damning to her ability behind the wheel, and there’s not enough sugar in the world to coat over that stat.
Long story short, she has absolutely no clue as to how to setup a car or relay needed adjustments to her crew chief, and has shown no desire to learn to do so. As usual, she’ll inevitably blame him for more mediocre results, just as she did for Eury/Gibson/Knost and countless Indycar engineers).
Danica came into NASCAR and was immediately given some of the best equipment around. That, and her pension for selling her body (not in truth), for her sponsors, made her both a target and someone who was expected to perform. If the same equipment was given to half the drivers in NASCAR’s three series … they might have won by now; but if anything, they would probably have a higher finish record.
In her first race at Bristol (Nationwide Series), Morgan Shepard, who runs on borrowed parts a lot of times, slid up into her in a turn. Neither wrecked. Her response on the radio? “Was that legal? Shouldn’t he get a penalty?” That’s not verbatim, just what I remember. It was received as a princess crying because someone touched her. She would not have ever made it in the era when Guthrie raced. She raced with no sponsors, the cars were hard to handle … and didn’t have power steering!!! Imagine such a thing! Grammar corrections are welcome.
So you’re attacking Richard Petty for stating the truth? Richard and Kyle Petty did not trash Danica; they merely stated what is obvious to everyone. You must realize that you’re going to get a lot of negative feedback for this ridiculous piece of “journalism” you’ve presented. Danica is out of her element. I would love to see women on the track kicking the guys’ butts, but Danica is not the person to do it; she simply does not have the talent. Other drivers lost their rides in lower levels while Danica was given a top-notch Cup ride, and she’s basically done NOTHING with it for years. She has received more patience than most male drivers ever would receive, so please come down off of your high horse and at least try to understand racing before you post this garbage!
I really don’t give a fuck what people say about danca maybe she won’t win a race i dont c any of us out there trying to do, what shes doing so shut the fuck up theres also other drivers as or worse than her are not doing any better an I’ll keep saying the pettys need to shut the fuck up move in the retatment home so they will shut up so we going to bash every woman that comes in the NASCAR cirtute or what thank god shes got thick skin an dont listen to all the bs
Hey iron 54 ,you should really take a course on how to spell and form sentences . You write like your little princess drive’s and that’s really CRAPPY !!You are a great representation of the normal Crashica fan ,illiterate and living in Mom’s basement. Richard Petty could go into a (note the spelling) retirement home ,challenge her to a wheelchair race and still beat her even if he only used one arm to propel the chair. Propel means to make the chair move ,just in case you didn’t learn the meaning of simple words.Myself ,I’d love to see more woman in NASCAR. But not one like Miss Whiny.Say Johanna Long who ran in the Busch series in an underfunded car but ran better than your hero.Hell ,Ashley Force could drive a cup car better than Whiny.She drives a ride that goes over 200 mph.Grash would still hit the wall all by herself on the 1/4 mile and blame the crew chief. And I believe that this writer is in reality Bob Pockrass who is Whiny’s biggest cheerleader. Just wrote some bigger words to alter his usual SUCKING UP to Miss Crash.
Darn it, this writing could’ve been a great work if not for some inexcusable presumptuous inclusions!
There are several dimensions to the above statement:
1. Liberal Politics: It is unnecessary and degrading to the audience and the purported cause/subject to presume it’s okay to put, Hillary Clinton—a proven liar—on the same level or even within the same space of consideration in any way to, Danica Patrick—a totally wonderful hard working person that has done nothing to earn the scathing hate you so eloquently point to in your, possibly, ruined work.
• Injecting your political, therefore untrue feminist biases of a weird election and its participants, and crystal ball projections of its outcome makes one wonder whether you’re a little sanctimonious and intellectually dishonest here. Listen, at least this Danica Patrick fan is not angry about women that are liars, being ridiculed to vet them from having power over us/me. I/we are angry about Danica Patrick being ridiculed, as you so eloquently state, unfairly. It’s maddening because she’s an earnest, hardworking individual that is only set upon because she’s female and is good at her craft, and has been successful at getting funding in part for her looks, but mostly for having the guts to use those tools. Simply put, there’s jealousy from some competitors that she has the extra tools for that and a bunch of them can’t beat her in fair competition on the race track either so, their mind numbed followers and parrots blatherskite to no end. Meanwhile some competitors and team owners intentionally wreck her and use her for media hype for themselves and or to draw attention for their teams’ inability to legitimately garner their own attention, respectively (Read, The Petty’s and other commentators on the latter.).
• What happened to presumption of innocence: The inappropriate use of Anita Hill is a clear giveaway to an intellectually dishonest Liberal. Clarence Thomas was in no way ever proven to have done anything inappropriate except to a liberal’s mind. That is, he dared to be black, conservative, and successful; therefore, there is no presumption of innocence for him. On its own, no big deal, however, you had to inject that into Danica’s tough sledding. Danica Patrick is more in Clarence Thomas’s shoes than Anita Hill’s!
• Bad connections: What can be said about the use of Nicole Brown in this? Just that it is, as all the others are, “bad connections”, like only a disingenuous liberal can make them. For crying out loud, a women and her lover were murdered, nothing whatsoever to do with Danica’s daily job realities. The fact is, one screwed up trial does not a good connection make, as they say. Not sure what you’re presuming here: Blacks say she deserved it; black males only; males period. It doesn’t connect, because Danica is catching it unfairly from females too.
2. Feminism vs untrue feminism: You have a big problem presuming Danica as some man hating feminist. She isn’t! She actually loves men and enjoys competing and talking with them. Her thing is more like, she will do what she enjoys, which is racing and sharing, and she won’t stop doing what she enjoys. In other words, Danica is going to be, Danica, whether the untrue feminists like it or any man or woman like it or not – true feminism! As long as Danica is racing and has sponsorship, she has earned it! She, and we fans, deserve fair play and protection from undue hardship from the sabotage of cheating and petty jealousies. Additionally, Danica loves her home making, cooking, and her man, Ricky loving, too.
3. Revelation: In quintessential Danica fan form, I’m jealous of that one myself though I’m old and ugly, but it is our unique Danica fan fantasy entitlement—the little girl wants to be like her, a UFC Champion follows methods proven by her, grown women say I can work-out and look good and eat right, men, sometimes silently, appreciate the sheer grit and determination and aspire to be more determined to get `er done, and yes, some guys even old guys fantasize in a harmless way, I wish I had a women like that. Her worst male and female critics writhe in their own ineptness’ at her every success, which is every minute she stays in print and on TV or doing as she desires, because she, inadvertently, sheds light on their lack of worth, so they lash out for attention, just like the media does, and just like you have done here. Her fans’ dreams as above are her money-maker, and I say she has earned it—she’s just being Danica and doing what she loves! It is not just good-looks and guts, it’s hard work, talent and the determination to keep doing the things that keep her in that place where she can succeed in competition and happiness honestly. The longest line appropriately formed behind her, however, as in high-speed racing’s draft, some try to jump out of her line to get ahead for personal gain using her pull and the naysayers push but mostly suction, but no one goes anywhere. Anytime a Patrick “fan” pulls out of her line for their gain, it reveals the true nature of that entity, which is, they are along for the free ride, and can’t see they hurt all respective causes and they, like the crybaby critics, suck.
Thanks for some real good points about hurdles that sometimes hamper Danica Patrick in her successful journey, but please quit using Danica and her fans for unworthy, unjust, and unconnected causes.
Oh Dave…..You need help…you’re a sick puppy.. get a life. HaHaHaHaHa
You can always tell the journalists who are hanging by a thread. They tend to post stories they know nothing about but know it will get a rise out of knowledgeable people and make them feel like they’re doing great reporting. My recommendation…speak not what you know nothing about.
Dean, You may want to consider writing articles about food/drink, the Charlotte social scene, anything other than NASCAR. Not an accurate article by any means. Perhaps you may want to go the track this weekend and talk to real fans and get their opinion about DP. This appears to be an article that was written to provoke true fans.
Put simply, Danica is a below average stock car driver on her best day, with above average funding. Unfortunately the latter has become more important as the sport has grown, to the point where drivers are chosen solely based on how much $ they can bring to the table. The old saying of Cup having ‘the best 43 drivers (stock car) in the world’ has never been less true than it is today (nevermind the fact that there’s only 40 now).
Regarding her talents behind the wheel, she has an inability to communicate technically what she needs done to the car, leaving her CC to practically throw darts. This was also the case is IndyCar where her Andretti teammates were forced to set up her car for her as she was unable to do it herself. It’s also why she moves onto a new one almost every year, leaving 2 Eurys, Gibson and Knost in her wake of mediocrity.
I remember at Phoenix in the fall of 2014 she was amazed to learn that adding/reducing wedge and ‘turning the jack bolt’ are the same thing. Then at the 2015 D500 she had to be told both in the Shootout and 500 that an Oil Temp of 290 is perfectly fine, and then got mad when her CC wouldn’t take tape off the car (he didn’t need to). Those are just 2 examples of very basic things that drivers learn in the 1st year in a stock car, yet she had gone several years oblivious to them.
Then there’s her perpetual victim mentality coupled with almost always passing the blame onto others. How many other drivers have threatened to kick another in the balls just for racing them hard (as she did to Bowman)? Or wrecked themselves twice because they can’t drive a loose racecar and then go up to the deemed offender (Hamlin) and shake them like a rag doll? How many males would get away with such antics with 0 retribution (either on track or off)?
This ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwyueQkHCts ) video when she missed pit-in, got a speeding penalty and missed her box at Dega is just another example of long dossier of what I’m talking about. Just like she wrecked Menard at Dega this year after she was about to miss her pit entrance and then proceeded to blame it on the team for not ‘giving her priority’ on the radio.
She whines all race long about drivers who she deems to be ‘in her way’ and references ‘damn lappers’ repeatedly, completely forgetting that she’s usually one herself. At Kansas she actually had the gall to say how much the 78 ‘sucks’ and how she ‘hates racing with him’, but the best part is that she said it as he was lapping her and dominating the race.
She claimed that Gibson was holding her back and requested that she get a new crew chief. Meanwhile, Gibson goes over to Kurt (along with her chassis(s) that she struggled in) and promptly wins two races and makes the Chase, while she continued to struggle with his CC and chassis(s). She did the same thing to Knost, and thus far her results are the same with her next soon-to-be-fired CC, finally getting her first top 15 of the year compliments of attrition at Dover. The same was true in Indycar, where she had a new lead engineer or strategist in practically every season she raced (despite having no idea of how to setup the cars herself).
Maybe, just maybe, Danica needs to put take a bigger responsibility behind the wheel, and up her work ethic. There were rumours that her NXS CC Eury JR was fired for questioning it years ago, and nothing has changed since then. I don’t know how much taking photos on the beach or in yoga poses helps you at the track, and the results are indicative of that. Driving a racecar isn’t just a weekend hobby like she’s done her entire life, her competition is always doing something to improve while she’s off having fun.
The common denominator to her struggles in her career isn’t the equipment, the crew chief or her crew, it’s the driver behind the wheel. Sooner or later she’s going to run out of people/things to blame, and the only person left will be in yoga prose with a dumbfounded look on their face.
I remember when lil princess sparkle pony came into the cup series.. at the announcement, when asked about what she planned for the season… she answered we are going to win a race and make the chase. she has not even come close to either of those things. I feel sorry for all the CC’s and crew guys that have to deal with constant whiny and her blame game. she cant and wont take responsibility for anything that happens. if it wasnt for the $$$ behind her, she would be an after thought… trying to make a living in lower level sportscar racing.
Maybe this is meant as a humor column. It certainly bears no resemblance to reality. “What Patrick really needs now is a win.” What I really need now is to win $50 million in the lottery. “The day Patrick finally wins a Sprint Cup race will draw tremendous media attention.” The author apparently believes that Danica is actually capable of winning a race, even though she has not shown the slightest inkling of the ability to do so.
She may not be the worst driver in NASCAR, but most (males) who fail to perform at her level are searching for rides long before matters go as far as they have with Danica. The only reason she is still around is that she has used her self-described feminine attributes to attract sponsors, at the same time more promising drivers of both genders toil at lower levels or leave the sport. That is the true unfairness of the treatment Danica receives. She gets patience in abundance because she brings in money to SHR. Write about that Mr. Chadwin!
Win a race.? Won’t happen. Using her gender to inspire kids? Potty mouth, bikini model. Hardly inspiring.
Anitia hill did lie, i have never heard anyone express the idea that Nicole Simpson got what she deserved. Hillary is a corrupt as a politician can possibly be and likely a criminal. The most sexist politician since sufferage is Bill clinton, who is literally the textbook definition of secual harassment, likely even a rapist. Danica Patrick and I have something in common. Neither of us has ever won a NASCAR race. The difference between us is I have never been in a race. All of the other drivers you mentioned have done something Patrick hasn’t managed. They’ve won races.patrick has a job for one reason only. She is an attractive woman.
But keep in mind that I am a racist and sexist prick when you read my comments. Trump 2016!
Here’s the bottom line about DP, her on track performance doesn’t match the hype and media attention that she receives. It has nothing to do with her sex, it has everything to do with the media continuing to fawn over her despite the lack of her success in Nascar. Never has someone done so little with so much!
Okay…Nascar Fans that are male and females: Let’s be fair in compared Danica to all the other drivers in the Sport. Let’s compare here to Stewart-Hass team mates. In the best of the best equipment she is barely better than Tony is after he’s gotten older been broken up a few times in the last couple of years, etc. So, technically she’s number 4 in the team. The Simple problem is she did not stay in Jr Motorsports long enough to learn anything…nuff said
Why is Patrick getting such flack when nobody cares that Derrike Cope,who hasn’t won a race since the NINETEEN-NINETY (the week my father died,incidentally) Daytona 500 is allowed to take a valuable ride from another prospective driver?(Darrell Wallace,for example.)
Speaking of bigotry,JUST WAIT until an African American NASCAR driver (the second in its nearly 70-year history) comes.I’ll bet,if (s)he wins a race,they’ll have to leave the racetrack under police protection after the necks threaten him or her with lynching,and some of those Bubba drivers will do their utmost to wreck him or her,even costing themselves a victory.
NASCAR fans have changed VERY LITTLE in terms of acceptance of “the other” since its 1949 inception.
Scott,is Derrike Cope an attractive woman?(He’s an ugly old dude.) Still,Patrick,whom I picked to win a race in 2017,will have to improve immeasurably or her ride may disappear by 2018.
Danica,se Wendell Scott (only African American NASCAR driver) next time you complain.He raced when blacks were still being lynched,was threatened with bodily harm by his racist competitors,couldn’t eat at the racetracks,having to go to the black parts of towns in which he raced,was NEVER sponsored by racist companies,not even being given tires,leading to his perpetual underfunding,and when he won the Turkey Day 200 at Jacksonville Dec.1,1963,Buck Baker,the runnerup,was announced the winner so Scott would not kiss the buxom blonde queen;
Scott was declared the winner next day,but was not given the trophy-or at least his family wasn’t awarded the trophy;Scott died in 1990-until 2010FORTY-SEVEN YEARS AFTER THE VICTORY.A bit of perspective for you other posters.