Vuelta Podium Girls Change
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40642140
Good.
Spain's La Vuelta cycle race changes 'sexist' hostess role
The organisers of Spanish cycling race La Vuelta say they will change the role of women on the winners' podium, after calls of sexism.
Good.
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OK that makes sense. Thanks
The numerous interviews with the ladies over the years points to the 5 mins of time infront of the cameras as the best bit of the job
6.00am: wake up but the time depends on the stage and how far we’re staying from the village départ
7.00-7.30am: time to leave the hotel
8.00-8.30am: arrival in the village départ which is always fun and in a good mood. There’s always a crazy atmosphere! I go to the Vittel stand with my colleague to get ready, here drinks, snacks, fruit and gifts are given out.
9.00am: the village opens and the guests and VIPs arrive, we get our photographs taken with them. Me and my colleague for the day will arrange the cars and transport, we have find out where the VIPs have parked their cars.
Midday: just before the race starts we’ll take guests cars and drive using the hors course route, the quickest route from the stage start to the finish. Meanwhil the guest is being driven in a Tour VIP car to see the race. We’ll take the guest’s car as close to the VIP bus at the finish as possible. As it happens it’s a big deal to drive non-accredited vehicles everyday, it helps to know the people in charge of security at the Tour.
3.00pm: arrival at the finish, time to go to the Vittel ravitaillement truck just after the finish line. It’s our office to prepare for the podium ceremony. We’ll print out the photos taken in the morning so that our guests go home with small souvenir.
4.00pm: we’ve got about an hour to eat and then get ready for the podium. We’ll change labels, swapping the sporty Vittel outfits for the podium costumes of Powerbar.
5.15pm: the podium for a few seconds of airtime.
5.20pm: back to the VIP zone to collect our guests and take them to their cars where we parked them… and that’s the job done. Time to head for the hotel.
8.00pm: Arrival in the hotel. But it can be later, much later if there’s a big transfer or a mountain stage.
And which bit of that, precisely, needs ovaries?
aka the poster formerly known as underlayunderlay
Ah, so you think the right to do it for the absolutely minuscule number girls that do actually do it is more important than tackling objectification?
We should be tackling objectification and sexism as quickly and effectively as possible as there's no need for it, it is damaging, and it is wrong ...this small change whilst not being perfect is welcome, well done Vuelta for at least trying to do something.
dunno
But as you're mentioning body parts in relation to a role carried out in cycling, let's question all the WT, PC and Conti mens teams on how females they have working on their teams in any capacity - manager, coach, DS, mechanic, bus driver, swanny.
I'll save you the time: very very few.
And which part of those roles, precisely, need penises?
For the avoidance of doubt, I completely agree. An attitude that says women are essential as eye-candy doesn't help, imho.
aka the poster formerly known as underlayunderlay
yesterday we were told by the advertising standards agency that its sexist to have a little boy in an advert playing football or a little girl dancing.
society will regret all of this censored in 50 years when no one has any personality.
On objectification, my better half has done a significant amount of that with respect to the riders this year. It's not just men who objectify women, women do it to men too.
2011 Specialized Hardrock Sport Disc (son #3s)
2013 Decathlon Triban 3 (red) (mine)
2019 Hoy Bonaly 26" Disc (son #2s)
2018 Voodoo Bizango (mine)
2018 Voodoo Maji (wife's)
They men are not there exclusively for the eye candy however.
It doesn't matter what else they do behind the scenes, the fact is the message is "Women are only good to hand out prizes to the men". It's absolutely the right thing to do and I applaud the move.
Funny you mention the word 'bimbo' - I was disappointed to hear Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio dismiss them as bimbos in the Cycling Podcast piece on podium girls topic, a couple of weeks ago. I tuned out whatever she had to say on the subject immediately. IMO some of the most dismissive comments made about females, are made by other females. Queen Bee syndrome.
Sure, but let me know when they pick someone who isn't smoking hot.
I mean, of course they have more jobs than just the podium bit, but they're not going to hire someone ugly on the basis of their language skills.
So no, I'm not sitting here calling them vacuous bimbos, and no doubt I listened to the same podcast you did, but you're swallowing the PR guff a little too much.
The public only see them as podium girls, and they're only interested for the eye candy. They even have an official vote on the public's favourite, and I doubt many punters are voting for their phenomenal translation skills.
Does anyone really care. Who is it hurting, honestly.
When my daughters ask why all the F1 mechanics are male, and why can't girls do that?
When my daughters ask me - obsessively - whether they're pretty, and not whether they're clever.
When I get hauled into school to discuss my youngest daughter always having bruises from falling out of trees / practising parkour around her bedroom and get told that if she were a boy they wouldn't have worried.
I CARE. IT HURTS ME.
aka the poster formerly known as underlayunderlay
Sorry, please be flippant - it's my default mode. This stuff does matter though.
aka the poster formerly known as underlayunderlay
Well said.
In years to come, things like podium girls will be a thing of the past. The faster we can reach equality, killing off objectification and sexism, the better it will be for girls and women. If these little changes seem trivial but also upset some non-thinking ogling males then who cares, stacks of small changes need to be made to make progress.
Anyone who thinks girls growing up aren't affected by these things either hasn't thought about it properly, lacks any empathy, or is plain old thick.
So that sounds like in reality, they are drivers who serve some drinks, then stand next to the riders on the podium. If they weren't lovely girls, there wouldn't be any photos, would there?
On a serious note though I really don't think it matters who hands out the jerseys and tat at the end of each stage, maybe having one male and 1 female would be better, I draw the line at ugly ones though!
And getting rid of podium girls/grid girls wont overcome the use of good looking people (both male and female) in TV and magazine advertising, acting in films etc. That has a far bigger impact and the world wont change unless you tackle that. Now having podium girls will barely get noticed and have no effect on the overall way of the world. Its just an easy target, not an effective one.
And in answer to carpet man above - lack of femail F1 mechanics and engineers has nothing to do with sexism. F1 teams are one of the greatest meritocracies. It all about perfomance and if you think they would pass over a better engineer to hire a lesser man instead then you are wrong. We have had a couple of female team principals now too.