No More Grid Girls - replaced by Grid Kids

[Squid]

If Liberty Media's target audience is young americans, then that's the sort of thing that's going to go away. I don't agree with it, but it's business. The 50-year-old board members that made this decision didn't make it because they see any "social issue" with grid girls, but their target audience surely does, and that's who they're gonna pander to.

[marmer]

i hope they get replaced by local school children that are performing well at school as a reward would be a great experience for them

Nope, it'll appeal to pedophiles...

Well most other sports have been appealing to pedo's for years then lol

For all this complying about grid girls been an outdated idea. Men that want I candy have much easier ways to get it than a fortnightly glimpse of side boob at best lol

Woman's beach volleyball comes to mind or a quick Google for a bit of blue

[djos]

In the short term, yes. In the long term it means that when your daughter is watching F1 with you, she will be (maybe) inspired to be an engineer, communicator officer, manager, mechanic or driver instead of a playmate in latex.

Welcome to the now.

As the father of a bright 6 year old girl, I'm completely ok with this.

[FrukostScones]

If Liberty Media's target audience is young americans, then that's the sort of thing that's going to go away. I don't agree with it, but it's business. The 50-year-old board members that made this decision didn't make it because they see any "social issue" with grid girls, but their target audience surely does, and that's who they're gonna pander to.

Yeah, and thats enough to warrant the outrage. Because it is pure Hypocrisy. and an insult to F1 in general.

[lpatterson]

The left wing just womt leave a stone unturned!!!.

[djos]

The left wing just womt leave a stone unturned!!!.

Let's not get political, right wing nut jobs are just just as capable of being complete f'wits (usually in a very destructive manner too) as the left wing wing loonies!

[Restomaniac]

In the short term, yes. In the long term it means that when your daughter is watching F1 with you, she will be (maybe) inspired to be an engineer, communicator officer, manager, mechanic or driver instead of a playmate in latex.

Welcome to the now.

As the father of a bright 6 year old girl, I'm completely ok with this.

As the father of a 7 year old girl I think it should be her choice to make. Not somebody else's.

It seems female empowerment now means that women can't do whatever they want but only what the loony left want them to do.

[AJI]

This forum is better than this.
I respectfully ask the mods to consign the topic to the dust bin so we can get back to the technical aspects of F1.

[hurril]

... I just find the whole idea of special girls this way cheap and tacky.

And I find the whole idea of men changing something that has been a part of the spectacle of F1 for decades in the name of fighting for women's equality hilarious.
Personally, I find Bratches and Carey's flamboyant facial hair quite ridiculous, but they don't have to change it for me.

I am not fighting for women's equality and things change all the time. I don't give two shits about women's equality in the usual sense.

[AJI]

...I don't give two shits about women's equality in the usual sense.

Well I do, and as a father of a very pretty 19 year old girl who i have questioned about this very topic, her response was; "you guys are worrying about the wrong things..."

[hurril]

...I don't give two shits about women's equality in the usual sense.

Well I do, and as a father of a very pretty 19 year old girl who i have questioned about this very topic, her response was; "you guys are worrying about the wrong things..."

Great, the perspective of a pretty 19 year old girl. Such insight into life

[Sevach]

If Liberty Media's target audience is young americans, then that's the sort of thing that's going to go away. I don't agree with it, but it's business. The 50-year-old board members that made this decision didn't make it because they see any "social issue" with grid girls, but their target audience surely does, and that's who they're gonna pander to.

Best of luck to Liberty, they'll need it.

This is the crowd that complains on Twitter that women are making less in sports yet can't be arsed to watch women sports.

[Phil]

My biggest issue with this is that Formula 1 is moving further away from what it is (or should be) at its core.

It's motorsport.

What has always attracted me to F1, is the spectacle that evolves around it. Danger. Speed. Testosterone if you like. The grid girls add to some of that motosport-feel, just as cheerleaders do to other sports. Why turn F1 into something very different if it's only running the risk of turning away its core audience? In the end, it's motorsport and I very much doubt you could ever make this form of sport as entertaining to the rest of the world like i.e. Football or Tennis. It just won't work, for the same reason women are just not as much into cars and speed as men are. We are inherently different beings (for the most part) that like different things. So what?

I get the point to some degree that the owners want to expand the viewing audience and appeal to a diverse crowd and therefore want to tick as many boxes as possible. If you do that though, you are also running the risk of alienating those that keep carrying your sport in the first place. As I said in the other topic - the sport as huge problems, especially with broadcast going away from free tv. Now they are also taking steps that moves it farther away from what it is at its core. While the grid girls is not something I really payed much attention too, I think the symbolic meaning behind WHY they are removing them to be the big problem here.

F1 should be loud, fast, dangerous and glamorous/prestige and sexy.

It should foremost appeal to men, because that's what rocks our boat, just like statistically, there are way more men that are into speed and fast cars. Why appear "gender-neutral" if reality just isn't so? Should we now pretend make-up, jewellery and drama soaps are mens cup of tea as well?

[Harvey]

This most definitely a "good thing".

I hope F1 does lose fans from this move. Cos they're not the fans F1 should be pandering to. If they're gonna throw their toys out the pram cos they can't look at women when they should be watching a motor race then f*ck 'em. There's no space in this world for such old fashioned views. Guess what? The world has moved on from the 1970s. Not that the James Hunt/Steve McQueen style of philandering, that people (ie, old men) seem to hold in such high esteem, was acceptable then.

The idea of a grid girl is absolutely out dated. They're the motorsport equivalent of the hostesses from that recent "Director's Club" event in the news recently. The only reason they're hired is to be eye candy for rich old men. But this isn't a modelling event, is it? It's a race. It just plays up to the antiquated ideals of men being butch, knarley gladiators and women being the collective spoils of war.

Privilege is a funny thing: those who have it feel attacked and discriminated when true equality is achieved

[Postmoe]

My kids certainly won't grow up looking at only emulating what they see women doing. Thats just dumb, my girls (5 & 7) already want to be an astronaut and a golfer 2 things you associate with men. And both of them will watch and see a lot of F1 and neither have ever said to me they want to be grid girls.

As for comments of latex playmates, I thought that generally the grid girls are dressed well.

I think you're missing the point. Not only is it about how your daughter's ambitions may be influenced but perpetuating the damaging narrative that woman are objects simply to be looked at, it also creates another generation of men who treat women as objects. I thought you guys watched for the racing, not to jerk off like horny little teenagers. There are plenty of mags and websites you can go to for that sort of thing.

let me ask you this - when you see a classic Greek nude woman statue in a museum somewhere, do you instantly feel the need to touch yourself? and if the answer is yes, do you think of yourself as true representative of the whole men gender? I don't know who came up with the sexual angle to this, it must be one troubled mind...

this whole nonissue is just another agenda from people who should not be in a position to be able to influence public opinion, they should be carrying bricks somewhere, or shoveling dirt, that would be infinitely more useful to society in general that this BS

Let me ask you this - do you have the slightest notion about social science (say sociology) to be elegible for any knowledgeable opinion in this debate?

There is plenty of literature about gender roles, works based on statistical tools, decades of research. It is an issue, no matter where your opinion goes, both at an ethical and at a pure analytical level.

I've been involved in (small) research before being what some would call a feminist, and no matter the ideology, there is an objectivable set of phenomena that we should care to understand, all of us.