Woman edges out horse for top female athlete of the year

If you're looking for evidence that women still aren't afforded the respect they deserve, you don't have to look much further than this year's Associated Press list of the top female athletes of the year. Number one is Serena Williams. Number two is a horse. So is number seven.

Horse trainier Bob Baffert says it's deserved. "It's for doing something extraordinary and spectacular and these horses did that and deserve the recognition," Baffert says. "They're about half human, anyway."

All right. The horses had a good year. But the AP couldn't find ten deserving female human athletes? All ten of the top male athletes were humans. (Tiger Woods is the top athlete of the decade; the question of what percentage human and what percentage animal he is has yet to be resolved.)

Feminists, understandably, are offended. Says Marjorie O'Connor, an Olympic torch bearer: "It has absolutely no reference to the women athletes that have done so much to contribute to athleticism and as role models for young girls. It's a slap in the face."

It's time to recognize that female athletes are just as deserving of respect as male athletes. It's hard to believe, as we near the second decade of the 21st century, that we need to be reminded of that.