Ultimate Ninja Symbolism

I was watching NBC’s “American Ninja Warrior” the other night as Kacy Catanzaro became the first woman to complete the qualifying course. It was an impressive run for an impressive young woman. She’s a great competitor, and a fine athlete. And, as I believe I commented to my daughter at the time, she has “pluck.” All in all, there’s a lot to admire about the lady. Despite that, I still found myself getting progressively more annoyed with her in the run up to her qualifying run.

Being the first woman to make it through the pre-qualifier, there was a lot of hype centered on her appearance. There were a lot of interviews done prior to the show, with clips played throughout. As I watched, a common theme was apparent: Kacy wants to show women they can do anything. Constant, always, ad nauseum. And while I noticed it more in Kacy’s clips because they were coming one right after another, it’s not as though she is unique in this regard. A lot the contestants seem to want to emphasize that they are there to show, to demonstrate, to represent. And to inspire. We must never forget inspire.

I’m sure that I’m making too much of this. It’s not as though the athletes edit and assemble their own clips for the show (at least, they don’t as far as I know), but that just shifts the question: Why does the network or producer or whoever is in charge feel the need, the compulsion to turn everyone who walks onto the course as a symbol for some sort of cause? Can’t all of the women and girls out there watching see that Kacy is a woman and draw the conclusion that a woman can complete the course? Or a diabetic? An engineer? A father? I understand that it helps build interest in the sport to give some background about the contestants, but do they really have to try to shove us into groups, like grading cattle, in this? Can’t we just look at the field and pick our own favorites?

I think the reason that I really find this annoying is that the American Ninja course is at its heart a test of the individual. There are no groups up there going through the course. It’s one at a time. And as much as I admire young Kacy’s effort, when she says that her getting through the qualifying course proves that women can do it, she’s wrong. She did it. She worked like crazy to do it, as did every other athlete that’s made it through and a good many others that have failed. I’m hoping that in the future, she gets a lot more credit for that success as a person rather than a symbol.