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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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:
Thread gallery
5
Aeroflotgirl · 31/01/2018 20:26

Yes there should be as much opportunities for women drivers in F1 and Moto GP as men, in any sport really.

chestylarue52 · 31/01/2018 20:26

I don’t care what the grid girls want or about their job opportunities.

If we decide to ban the selling of cigarettes should we take into consideration the jobs of people who work in cigarette factories?

I’m a lifelong f1 fan and I’m pleased they’re going. I want my nieces to grow up knowing that their place in a sport they love is as participant spectator or pundit, not as eye candy or clothes horse!

Aeroflotgirl · 31/01/2018 20:27

How do you know Cherry, I heard an ex grid girl, talk about her 'job', she said it helped her fund herself through uni.

kaz2810 · 31/01/2018 20:28

Cherrycokewinning if they are being paid a salary then it is a job and if they want to do it & enjoy doing it then so be it. I wouldn't but that does not give me a right to dictate or judge them because they do.

chestylarue52 · 31/01/2018 20:29

Are we now saying that if literally anything provides women with employment then as feminists we must support it Hmm

Cherrycokewinning · 31/01/2018 20:30

Because it’s common to be asked to do promotional work at uni (when your young and hot, that’s the criteria) they may do lots of different promotional jobs to fund their way through uni but being a grid girl isn’t doing it

Julie8008 · 31/01/2018 20:30

Yip, women should no longer be allowed to make their own choices. Social media will now decide what jobs are morally acceptable to have.

Lets hope all these girls have a good college education to fall back on or its JSA for them. Oh wait shouldn't we check they have a good college education to fall back on before we sack them? So much for the good life!

Cherrycokewinning · 31/01/2018 20:31

It’s not a salaried job.

HamishBamish · 31/01/2018 20:31

Maybe they don't want to be changing tyres or monitor on board computers. Maybe were happy doing the jobs they had
yeah right. hmm

Yeah right Lizzie. Not everyone woman wants to do the 'important' jobs, or is capable of doing them. Who the hell are you to tell them any different.

Feminism is about having choices, not telling other women what they can and can't do!

Cherrycokewinning · 31/01/2018 20:31

I know Julie. Can you imagine what will happen to the ugly fat girl too? No job at all for them eh?

Aeroflotgirl · 31/01/2018 20:32

Yes Chesty, isen't it about giving women the choice over themselves and their bodies.

WiseDad · 31/01/2018 20:34

I don’t think a male view is needed on this really.

And you win the hypocrite of the year award. Only you are allowed to decide who works in what role and who comments on topics? I think a desire for social control of others wasn't supposed to be so blatant as others realise who appalling your views are. Who put you in charge? Patriarchy is just an excuse for you to complain that people don't do what you decide.

The grid girls can decide not to work if they so choose. You deny them the choice from your presumably comfortable sofa.

kaz2810 · 31/01/2018 20:34

Well said Julie8008 it seems that women's rights only cover jobs that everyone approves of. I thought the whole idea was to support women to make their own choices.

Aeroflotgirl · 31/01/2018 20:35

That is what gives Feminism bad press, feminists dictating what women should and should not do. It should always be about choice! If I want to be a grid girl or Playboy bunny (not with my size 14, 40 year old body mind you), surely it is up to me and nobody else.

chestylarue52 · 31/01/2018 20:36

Not really no.

You could say those women at the all male charity ball chose to do what they did, so that’s fine.

You could get high class escorts in the annual board meeting of all the FTSE 100 companies and as long as they’re willing participants then it’s fine because it’s ‘women exercising autonomy over their bodies’.

You could have naked women advertising Nutella on prime time tv and as long as they want to and are well paid for it then no one can complain.

It’s a business. I pay £50 a month to view it. As a customer I don’t want grid girls and apparently on balance enough people have agreed with me that they’re changing marketing policy. That’s what it’s about.

moreofaslummythanyummy · 31/01/2018 20:36

*I consider myself a feminist, but to me that means being supportive of other women who choose to do work that I might not be entirely comfortable with, and that includes modelling and promotional work. “

These things aren’t true choices. They are activities the patriarchy have deemed women suitable for. You think any woman would truly chose this?*

Patronising much ??? Hmm no wonder so many young girls and women have such a negative view of feminism.

I know a few girls who have done these sorts of jobs to fund travelling and uni , very well paid and easy money. Guess what they even enjoy it tooWink

TheLastMermaid · 31/01/2018 20:37

Just adding my voice to those (TakeThat, gluteus and many more) saying that it's not about whether the 'girls' (and I think they're mostly women actually) feel objectified, empowered or anything else. It's about the unacceptable objectification of women that this contributes towards perpetuating.

user1482573375 · 31/01/2018 20:39

Don't agree with it, never had a problem with it. These women choose to use their attractiveness to make money, that's their choice. No woman or man has the right to say they shouldn't.
It seems to me a lot of women look down on one's who do this sort of work. I don't, to me feminism is about choice, they are using that choice.
It would be nice to see some women racing drivers though.
These women are upset about losing their jobs, but the attitude amongst some of the women on here is, who gives a s**t.
Sorry but I think it's a lot of nonsense.
As long as the girls aren't harassed and given respect, I don't have an issue.
Don't have an issue with darts walk on girls either or page 3.

WiseDad · 31/01/2018 20:39

I have decided the cherrycoke is a parody account. No one can really believe that stuff and be that hypocritical without being supremely thick or supremely deluded.

TheBrilliantMistake · 31/01/2018 20:40

It's difficult for men to know what to think sometimes.
On the one hand, most decent men accept that a woman should always be able to make her own choices, and if that involves showing off her body, that's her business.
On the other hand, we are often told that women are making some choices because of lack of opportunity, or pressure, or exploitation (i.e. having to reveal their bodies, because the bad men of this world have oppressed them into it, one way or another), and men like me wouldn't want to knowingly add to that pressure / exploitation.

Regardless of the choices available to them, or don't have. It's F1. I just can't see what relevance scantily dressed men or women have!

I have no problem looking at a beautiful body, but I don't want it ever to be under any sort of duress, nor in the middle of watching F1

Aeroflotgirl · 31/01/2018 20:40

Yes chesty adult women can do what the hell they like, so can adult men. you have naked men advertising goods, escorts, strippers etc. Some of those on here are very patronising, and do put women off Feminism. It should be about educating girls that they can do any career they want, Pilot, Nurse, Engineer, waitress, the choice is theirs, not exercising control over their choices, that is not what Feminism should be about.

chestylarue52 · 31/01/2018 20:42

I’m not saying there shouldn’t be pit girls ‘cos feminism’.

I’m saying I pay a lot to watch f1, it’s outdated, I don’t want it. Neither do a lot of other people. Times have changed and so has sport, that’s been recognised and the marketing is changing. It’s a money thing.

Unfinishedkitchen · 31/01/2018 20:42

This thread has become so weird. So many people appear to be really upset these girls will miss out on a couple of days work a year. It’s like when people were up in arms about page 3 going. People were screaming about the girls livelihoods like they really gave a damn about that.

As someone said upthread, introduce a grid girl to literally any other event and it would look weird and extremely outdated. What about at the start of Homes Under the Hammer? Or Bake Off? Where are they really needed? And what do they genuinely bring to the table? Where’s the value in them? F1 fans will watch the sport regardless of whether some girls walks past in her drawers at the start or not and that’s what the sports owners have based their decision on. They are business people, if stats or research shows they add zero value or actually devalue the brand in any way this potentially leads to financial loss. The bottom line is that money drove this decision not altruism.

NotACleverName · 31/01/2018 20:42

I don't see it as feminists trying to "exercise control" over other women's choices; all that they're doing in reality is asking those women to examine why they're making those choices. Once again: your [general usage] choices do not exist in a vacuum and it'd be stupid to try and pretend otherwise.

Aeroflotgirl · 31/01/2018 20:43

To say that women are being objectified by the Patriarchal society, men are responsible for women's choices, you are treating women like children who cannot think for themselves. Hello, mabey its their choice to do this!