Perpetuating Stereotypes

 I have never been a Jimmie Johnson fan at all, but this week, I had to dig in and stand up for him. Johnson was one of several, mostly female, celebrities that took part in a campaign to encourage people to cease using the term "bossy" when describing female leaders. The goal being to get more young females to engage in leadership roles without having degrading terms thrown at them. Easy enough. You'd think. Nope. Not at all. Several race fans chose to 'fight back" via Twitter at Six Time. I am not going to quote nor name the accounts of the folks that chose to respond to Jimmie's tweet. Suffice it to say it was sad. Sad because NASCAR has done so much to attempt to rid itself of the less desirable aspects of its history. They have spent millions on various projects to fall in line with other professional sports. They have a Green program, a diversity program, and many other projects developed in order to become more mainstream. NASCAR can't control the opinions of its fan base, and Twitter can't, and shouldn't, censor the opinions of its users. But, to see fans upset over what they perceive as the "wussification" of the male athlete is ludicrous. There is a stereotype that already follows NASCAR fans. And to say that these tweets perpetuated those stereotypes would be a major understatement. This isn't my daddy's NASCAR anymore, but clearly, some of his cronies have Twitter accounts.