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

[Sallystyle]

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

I think it is a great thing.

Some people on my FB clearly don't.

I am curious about this being feminists fault

Can anyone who is saying this please link to the feminist that has made this decision

Im assuming you cant but i would be very interested to see who it was and how they got to such a position of power in F1

Why do you need to be young and fit to be a "grid girl"? Is it particularly strenuous?

The grid girls were a 1970s anachronism and I'm glad they've gone. I always imagined Benny Hill creeping up behind them and then being chased around the pits in speeded up action. I have no idea why people keep mentioning burkas, I don't see the connection at all. Women are just like other humans, they should be judged and employed on their skills and qualifications, not on their appearance.

And I also object to the Coca Cola man, it makes women look like a bunch of simpering idiots who only care about someone's appearance. Im offended that advertisers think women are so silly. I'm surprised that men don't feel the same level of offence when they see grid girls.

The objectification of women demeans us all.

NeedsAsock, how on earth did you even get through the interviews, have you no pride in yourself?

What on earth has it got to do with you???!!! It's not something I'd do, but for goodness sake,who are you to tell others what is and isn't acceptable as a woman to do?!
People like you are what gives feminism a bad name and people don't relate to it.

Glad to see this role go!

It's all about what we as a society choose to normalise. If something is normal in a society, then people who want to take it away are seen as repressive.

For instance, In countries where more than 80% of women undergo FGM, it is a misconception that FGM is forced on women and girls by men. It is often a choice made for girls by older women, and by young women for themselves.

It used to be normal, for example, to hit children and to enslave people who have skins with certain pigmentation.

Our society is trying to stop normalising the objectification of women and girls, so we have to wake up to how actually strange and out of step traditions like "Grid Girls" actually are.

It's absolute nonesense that society is in anyway trying to stop the objectification of women and girls. Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/YouTube have ramped it up to a degree unheard of. Women becoming millionaires just through posting pics and vids of themselves squatting in yoga pants.

Men like to look at attractive women. Attractive women on social media know this. Even women with modest followings can make £500-£1000 per picture / video.

Grid Girls are really the tip of the iceberg in todays world.

I have no idea why people keep mentioning burkas, I don't see the connection at all

You really can't see that deciding women aren't allowed to do certain jobs anymore as"it's too demeaning" "they shouldn't be there to decorate" etc - that it does have a disturbing ring of "get them covered up".
You don't get to decide what other women can and can't do.

Forcing them to wear certain items of clothing. Not on.

Forcing them out of jobs as they're looking too pretty/not wearing enough clothing and it's demeaning. Not on.
It's disturbingly similar.

I find your post disturbing dreamy. The idea that people who want women to be treated as equals have anything in common with regimes which have extremely poor women’s rights is offensive.

I look at my little dd and she has the capacity to be anything. If she sees that when women are represented in public, it is more often than not about their attractiveness to men both in looks and actions then she will grow up to think that this is what’s most important and it will effect her choices both internally and externally. It’s all over mn everyday how women are socialised to put men first and I’d quite like it to change.

If other women want to stand around being ‘sexy’ and simpering at blokes for money that’s their choice but I don’t think it should be presented as the norm or contrasted with men simultaneously being active and expert in technology and sport.

I find your post disturbing dreamy. The idea that people who want women to be treated as equals have anything in common with regimes which have extremely poor women’s rights is offensive.

Why? I'd say your previous posts are a lot more disturbing.
Somebody upthread said that they could see no connection when somebody else used the burqa analysis.
I merely pointed out how I can see a connection.
In both instances it's telling women what to do, what they should be thinking, how it's not acceptable for them..... it should be about choice.
As for whoever said "it's for the Greater Good" - WTF? Surely that had to be tongue in cheek as nobody can be that militant and scary - surely just a pisstake of the Harry Potter/Voldemort/Grindelwald oppressive regime.
Freaking scary if they meant it!

No one is telling women what to do.

Women are free to dress how they like. Who is stopping them?

I find your post disturbing dreamy. The idea that people who want women to be treated as equals have anything in common with regimes which have extremely poor women’s rights is offensive.

Maybe you find it disturbing because it's making you look a little bit harder and realise there's a bit of truth in it.

Think it’s really positive

I’ve been around motor sports for years, and on a lot of forums, you’d be surprised to see that a lot of the girls are in uproar about this, and are quite upset about losing jobs that they love to do.

I’ve attached more food for thought

I am glad - it's just another thing that was acceptable in the past but we've (hopefully moved on a bit)

DH and I were talking about it the other evening, he's really in motorbikes, enduro etc and has just starting teaching our eldest DD to ride. His attitude is that he doesn't want to take the girls to the bike shows as there are too few women there and the ones that are there are often working I.e. grid girls - DD was full of questions last time and I think it just brought home to him how inappropriate it is to be objectifying women. He's becoming more of a feminist than me these days - it's great!!

No one is telling women what to do

Well, they kind of are when a loud group decide that it's no longer a job that women can have, as it's not "proper" enough.
Then people like upthread "have you no pride in yourself?" to a woman who did something similar.
How fkn rude, it is telling people that they should be shamed, what they should be doing, not everyone is the same.
We should have choice.

No dreamy there is no truth to it. It’s disturbing that your mind works like that though

What loud group? Can you clarify your posts rather than just building up nonsense?

Here is a public post from a lady who does the job. I think she makes some very valid points:

Ok, I have had enough of people talking for me so here is what I think regarding the banning of grid girls:

The issue at the moment is there are too many people being offended on behalf of people who are not offended at all!

Firstly, I absolutely LOVE my job. Secondly, I CHOOSE to do this job. Nobody forces me or any other grid girl to do it. Some of us do it full time, some like me do it alongside other work. The idea that grid girls are no more than a pretty face infuriates me; I am about to finish my degree and qualify as a Social Worker, there are grid girls that are lawyers, accountants, models, mums, it varies so much!

We work hard to build up a good reputation and a good relationship with our clients. I work in British Superbikes and Road Racing where it feels like we are one big family; why should I be taken away from that because somebody who has never worked a day in my shoes thinks they know what is best for me?

With regards to the outfits being too sexy and us women being objectified; let me clarify something. I NEVER work a job unless I am happy with the outfit. When I do grid work I am always 100% comfortable with what I wear and I do not feel any more objectified wearing what I do on the grid than I do if I put on a nice dress or some smart jeans to go out. What will be next, will swimwear models be banned because what they are wearing in catalogues is too revealing?

As my friend and fellow grid girl Giorgia Davies said; this has all happened because some girls were treated disrespectfully at an event .. so how about instead of banning the girls to eradicate the problem, we educate men and women that it is NOT ok to disrespect other people!!

My final gripe with all of this, is these so called feminists are giving real feminists a bad name! I am a feminist because I want women to be equal, I don’t want there to be discrimination in the work place if women choose to have babies, and I want women to feel empowered. So to have a ‘feminist’ sit on a talk show saying how she thinks grid girls should be banned, thus meaning a loss of job and income for women is completely contradictory.

Sidenote – men work as promotional models too! But with regards to being on the grid, as the sport is predominantly males, they (usually) prefer to have a female holding their umbrella, although I have seen female riders with male grid guys!

A suggestion was made that women should be given jobs in other areas such as commentating or spannering .. for those of you who don’t know, this already happens!

On a positive note I am so glad to see all of us women affected standing together fighting this 💪🏼💕

#saveourgridgirls #womensrights

That woman needs to realise it’s not all about her.

Another one glad to see the back of this weird 'tradition'.

People phoning in on The Wright Stuff are falling over themselves to justify it. A former grid girl said she learnt some mechanics skills from working closely with the teams. What's wrong with going to college and taking a course like everyone else who wants to learn about mechanics?

I can't wait until we get to a point where stuff like this is obselete and even the suggestion of using women in this way is followed up by faces and people asking what the purpose of that would be. One can hope.

Some of the comments on here illustrate the exact issue with grid girls - apparently many of you think that - by being pretty - the only other careers open to them are 'stacking shelves' or 'marrying a rich man' - do you see how warped your views are?

These women don't have a choice - they don't chose what they wear, they don't choose who gets to be handsy with them - they are merely there to be 'tits and ass' - does 'tits and ass' have any place in modern sport? seriously?

Page 3 for the race track - please - stop making our feminists are robing these women of legitimate work

No dreamy there is no truth to it. It’s disturbing that your mind works like that though

Carry on deluding yourself. I'd say it's a lot more disturbing that you profess to speak for all women...
They are activities the patriarchy have deemed women suitable for. You think any woman would truly chose this?
Some women want to and enjoy their job.
Who are you to say they don't?

Not wanting women to be dehumanised and objectified to the point that men see them as nothing more than a set of holes to fuck is NOT the same as wanting to make them where burkas.

What an absolutely fucking ridiculous assertion.

This kind of work is, generally, not an option for men, at least not at this scale. And men generally aren't interested in doing it either. They seem to get by OK financially.