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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask what you think about 'Grid Girls' no longer being used?

530 replies

Sallystyle · 31/01/2018 19:19

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/42890261

I think it is a great thing.

Some people on my FB clearly don't.

OP posts:
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5
HandbagKrabby · 02/02/2018 18:36

The only purpose of the Grid Girl role is to be eye candy (there is no way you can convince anyone it’s to hold the pivotal umbrella and that’s all). The only way to change the perception of the role is therefore to get those employed to do something else in F1. Like drive or engineer or mechanic or commentate or pundit or run the racing companies etc. I fail to see why any of these other roles can’t be sex/gender neutral.

AssassinatedBeauty · 02/02/2018 18:39

@Cadence70 just come out and say what you're imply

kalapattar · 02/02/2018 18:39

When you see the 'alternative' pictures - e.g. a female driver with good looking males adorning her, or a male driver with men adorning them, it just speaks volumes about how ridiculous it is.

The video I linked to about the 'booth babes' at the tech show makes the point clearly. The women are there to attract men to their stand. That's all. Sex sells. But it has an impact.

AssassinatedBeauty · 02/02/2018 18:39

...big

AssassinatedBeauty · 02/02/2018 18:39

Oh ffs, autocorrect is a twat. That was supposed to be the missing "ing" at the end of my actual post.

Thehairthebod · 02/02/2018 18:42

I have noticed that when this is being debated on TV between pit girls and a "feminist" the one doing the objecting always has a figure like a melted welly and a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp

Oh wow, what an original and hilarious comment.

DeleteOrDecay · 02/02/2018 18:54

I have noticed that when this is being debated on TV between pit girls and a "feminist" the one doing the objecting always has a figure like a melted welly and a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp
Funny that

Yep, everyone opposed to 'grid girls' and their ilk is just jealous. Obviously.

Falmer · 02/02/2018 19:24

Yes, obviously. Every woman is just dying to wiggle their boobs and bums, grin like a cheshire cat and hold a brolly. My lifelong ambition, shame I never made it.

PerfectlyDone · 02/02/2018 19:28

Well, I'm a feminist (not a 'feminist') and have a figure like Gina Lollobrigida

TheBrilliantMistake · 02/02/2018 19:38

There is nothing wrong with being a good looking woman, or young, or blessed with an attractive figure (although of course, beauty is subjective, but we are talking about mass appeal here). The issue is that whilst those individual ladies might feel flattered, or have the ability to use those attributes to earn money, we have to look at the millions of viewers being pandered to and the select few choosing to use those girls to pander to those masses.

The ladies themselves are pawns in a culture that keeps on suggesting that the best purpose for young beautiful women is to decorate magazines or tv screens.

I like the visual appeal of a good looking lady as much as the next man, but I'm just as easily attracted to one who (when given the chance) holds my attention because of what she thinks, and says. When I am watching a sport, I am not looking for visual stimulation, I am looking for insight into the sport. There are women in F1, and they offer that insight. and I don't stop and think about their gender, I just want their opinions on the sport - I don't need to be attracted to them.
I do wonder how F1 (and other sports) views it's audience when they (evidently) think 'lets add some eye candy'. Why? are we really that primitive? (maybe we are).

NotACleverName · 02/02/2018 19:40

I have noticed that when this is being debated on TV between pit girls and a "feminist" the one doing the objecting always has a figure like a melted welly and a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp
Funny that...

Totes hilarious, that one. It's funny coz feminists are fat and ugly. Don't you get it guys?? Epitome of comedy right here!

BanyanTree · 02/02/2018 19:42

Loads of young girls are into fashion and beauty and would jump at the idea to be seen as a model. Leave them alone and let them get on with it.

CoffeeOrSleep · 02/02/2018 19:47

How about just opening the roles up to a wider range of people? If someone needs to hold a sign showing the number of the car in that position to the crowd, then why does it have to be a tall, thin pretty woman? Can men, older /shorter woman not do the job if it actually needs doing? Surely lots of jobbing actors and male/character models would like the work as well as these standard model woman.

There's a great opportunity for fans to do this role!

But no, they've clearly realised the only point was for a bit of eye candy and the jobs they gave them to do was purely to give an excuse.

Falmer · 02/02/2018 19:52

I was once used for my big smile. Men were always telling me what a "lovely" smile I had and that it made them think of sexual things! God, I was so honoured. Once went to work in large toy shop over the xmas period, was taken off shelf stacking and put on the main till because I had such a "lovely smile". Note, all the managers were male except one. Now, if they'd had said something like I was on the main till because I had a cheery personality or chatty so I brightened the customers on winter days or was a whizz on the till, I'd have felt ok. So I was pissed off and requested a return to shelf stacking. Swiftly replaced by another pearly white big smiler, who was told the same thing. We then realised they had a mental list, in order of big smilers, attractiveness, etc. Pathetic! To explain further, being on main till meant you were always there even when all the other tills were closed at slack times. "My" till was always open and If I let the smile slip, management used to comment that I looked a bit miserable that day! That was cathartic, typing that, always felt pissed off by it. Now I'm older and have deliberately left a gap in the front teeth, no more comments.Smile

TheBrilliantMistake · 02/02/2018 19:54

I don't see the Grid Girls as fashionable (they often wear national costume of some sort), and I don't see what their beauty has to do with F1.
And yes, lots of young attractive women will jump at the chance because who doesn't like to be considered attractive? We understand their motivation for doing it. What's wrong is a society that has an overwhelming tendency to celebrate only the attractive young women and not women in general.
When I say 'celebrate' it's code for 'oggle'.

There are fashions for all shapes / sizes / ages. Funny how the only fashion they deem the audience to be interested in is for a minority group (the young and beautiful).

See it for what it is. It's as ironic as the 1970's beauty contests that pretended they were interested in a woman's views (so gave her 10 seconds to express herself whilst wearing a swimsuit, and 30 minutes to parade her body).

TheBrilliantMistake · 02/02/2018 19:59

There is no role to widen up.
The role was invented to give those ladies something to do - to justify their presence.

'Someone to hold the umbrella' - really?

BanyanTree · 02/02/2018 20:01

I totally understand why you all want it stopped and TBH I don't really care either way. I just want to ask though, what are your views on women only nights and male strippers? Surely if we want grid girls and others in similar positions banned then we should also be doing the same thing to men that we women objectify?

AssassinatedBeauty · 02/02/2018 20:05

What are women only nights?

Can I just double check that you'd want to get rid of female strippers as well as male strippers?

I'd be quite happy to not have male strippers. Objectifying men doesn't reduce the objectification of women.

Falmer · 02/02/2018 20:07

I'm still waiting to hear what it is they are promoting?

LipstickHandbagCoffee · 02/02/2018 20:07

Great it’s stopped.its base objectification of women,outdated and vile
there to gad about in skimpy clothing for titillation, it was appalling
The women had no technical skills,nothing to add to the process other than looking dolly

BitOfFun · 02/02/2018 20:10

There's been no campaign (that I'm aware of) by feminists to "ban" this stuff: it hasn't been banned, merely discontinued as a commercial decision because- quite rightly- it is seen as behind the times and at odds with current social mores.

Woollypinksocks · 02/02/2018 20:11

Banyantree I haven't seen anyone on this thread say that they want anything banned.

I for one am not in the nature of banning things, I'm glad that the F1 aren't going to be using 'grid girls', for all of the reasons already said.

Personally I wouldn't want anything to do with seeing a male stripper and I can't understand why anyone would.

BanyanTree · 02/02/2018 20:13

Just for the record, I have never been to see a male stripper Blush

TheBrilliantMistake · 02/02/2018 20:16

The strippers thing is more complex, and we could start a new debate with that one, but in general terms, at least the strippers and the audience know what their role is and what they are attending.
There's a whole other debate about the motivations for women to strip (and maybe for some men to strip too), and the imbalance between the sexes that increases the likelihood of a woman to choose that path from lack of viable alternative ways to make money. But that's a huge debate!

In F1, we expect motorsport, not glamour girls. In the past, the two have gone hand in hand, because we used to associate success with wealth and beauty. We are (slowly) trying to breaks the chains of that dangerous myth.

I like sex, I like women, I like a nice figure (which comes in a lot different guises), I just don't need it in the middle of F1, or a boxing match, or used to try and sell me something. I want a woman to like me, not because she's paid to pretend to.

TheBrilliantMistake · 02/02/2018 20:17

Did BanyanTree just imply she'd had male strippers come to her place instead? :-)

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