Cristen and I are preparing a podcast about why so many girls like horses, and in the course of doing some research, I did some reading about Penny Chenery, the woman who managed the famous horse while raising a family. Chenery is portrayed by actress Diane Lane in the current film “Secretariat,” and many reviews of the movie usually make mention of the fact that Chenery’s success with her Triple Crown-winning horse is all the more impressive because horse racing was such a male-dominated field.

That’s why I was interested — and a little saddened, too — too see an Associated Press interview in which both Lane and Chenery go to great lengths to distance themselves from the idea of feminism. Said Chenery: “We are all certainly … fighting to be a person and not a woman… I like being a woman, and I’d rather look pretty than ugly, but that’s not the point. The point is I, as a person, am doing something.” Lane chimed in with, “I don’t think it’s a feminist agenda. I think it’s more of an equality agenda and a personhood that Penny’s speaking of: recognition for your deeds, not for what you look like while you’re doing them.”

What troubles me is that while Lane and Chenery disavow a feminist agenda, their talk of “equality” is exactly what feminism is — a belief in the equality of the sexes. Cristen and I have talked on the podcast about why “feminism” is a loaded word with a bad reputation, but what’s most disturbing is that Lane and Chenery perpetuate a stereotype that feminists are ugly man-haters. Chenery, in the quote above, talked about how she prefers being pretty, and Lane makes the point that she and her counterpart “love guys, and it’s fine to be an underdog in a man’s world because they’re pretty good.”

Feminism isn’t about what you look like, and it’s not about who you find attractive. It’s not about hating men, either; plenty of feminists (me included) adore men. Feminism is about seeking equality, which is what Chenery and Lane claim this movie is about. Though I understand the baggage surrounding the word feminism, I think it’s sad that young girls reading about this film will think that feminism and equality are two separate things.

Of course, my unhappiness with these quotes is the least of the film’s problems. Roger Ebert and Andrew O’Hehir are engaged in a blog war about whether the film is racist, classist and too religious (much has been made of director Randall Wallace’s marketing push to Christian groups). But what I wish we could all agree on is that feminism isn’t a bad thing, and that Penny Chenery’s accomplishments are indeed a feminist triumph.

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