Podium Girls

[700c]

And if your daughter wants to be a model, and maybe one day gets picked to be one of these super-smiley podium girls?

Get a grip.

[Bicycler]

Champagne, national anthems, flowers and mascots have nothing to do with motor or cycle racing either but they are part of the tradition. Whilst I don't want to defend some of the scantily clad podium and grid girls seen at various times in the past (as with everything the 1980s was the nadir of poor taste), for most of sports' history the role has been glamorous rather than smutty. I don't really have a problem with the kind of podium girls seen at most of the races. If the women's sport wishes to reverse the roles then that's fine.

[honesty]

And if your daughter wants to be a model, and maybe one day gets picked to be one of these super-smiley podium girls?

Get a grip.

Get a grip of what? You feel its fine that women have their looks judged and enforced by society? Having podium girls re-enforces negative perceptions of women. Simple.

I would hope that my daughter would be able to make decisions on her own, without having the negative societal pressures forcing her based purely on her looks or sex.

[Vorpal]

in a sport that could do with having a revamp and needs to get more women interested in cycling

So why do you need to get more women interested in cycling? Surely they'll gravitate to wanting to do it without watching cycle sport etc. Or do you want them involved as you find them more appealing company than riding with a bunch of men?

I want more women interested in cycling. I have no objection to spending my time with men; I've been the only woman in many, many groups.

I want more women interested in cycling because I want more *people* riding bikes. There is nothing more to it than that. If women are cycling, families will cycle, and then we have a new generation.

Right now, women in the UK are not much interested in cycling, and not too many 'gravitate' to it on their own. Or watching cycle sport, etc.

IMO, the UK now has a really strong pool of women to draw from for a national team. But if they are not treated with equity, it won't stay that way. And if young women who are potentially the next generation don't see women in cycling treated well, they simply won't do it.

[honesty]

Champagne and national anthems have nothing to do with cycle racing either but they are part of the tradition. Whilst I don't want to defend some of the scantily clad podium and grid girls seen at various times in the past, for most of sports history (as with everything the 1980s was the nadir of poor taste) the role has been glamorous rather than smutty. I don't really have a problem with the kind of podium girls seen at most of the races.

Having slaves and beating your children is traditional. Not good though. Just because something is traditional doesnt mean we should keep it...

[Bicycler]

No, but perhaps we should cut tradition more slack than decisions made today. I contend that the current standard of dress and behaviour on the podium of most major races is an acceptable arrangement.

[roeboy]

Every sport has got to progress with the times otherwise it dies, for cycling to attract more sponsors and get better TV coverage and for cyclists to have greater facilities in our towns and cities we need to attract more than just Mamils to the sport.

I’d like my daughters to win the Tour de France one day and to be presented with flowers by local children who are engaged with the sport not some glamour model who has no interest in cycling it’s not relevant to the event and perpetuates the objectification of women to a wide audience the more people see it the more they accept it, but it’s still very wrong!

[roubaixtuesday]

it's not Political Correctness gone mad. It's called being a decent human being.

Well said honesty

[Bicycler]

Every sport has got to progress with the times otherwise it dies, for cycling to attract more sponsors and get better TV coverage and for cyclists to have greater facilities in our towns and cities we need to attract more than just Mamils to the sport.

If we want cyclists to have better facilities in our towns and cities we need to stop focusing on cycle sport (which just perpetuates this myth that it is for the confident, young, fit and, yes, male).

[old_windbag]

I want more women interested in cycling. I have no objection to spending my time with men; I've been the only woman in many, many groups.

I want more women interested in cycling because I want more *people* riding bikes. There is nothing more to it than that. If women are cycling, families will cycle, and then we have a new generation.

Right now, women in the UK are not much interested in cycling, and not too many 'gravitate' to it on their own. Or watching cycle sport, etc.

IMO, the UK now has a really strong pool of women to draw from for a national team. But if they are not treated with equity, it won't stay that way. And if young women who are potentially the next generation don't see women in cycling treated well, they simply won't do it.

Thats fair enough Vorpal, I personally wish more women cycled as I do like their company. I cycle alone 99.9% of the time, but when I cycled in a group I preferred to have women in it. But having said that, it was because there was often lots of flirtatious banter and laughs, so perhaps a bit of selfish male behaviour on my part, but isn't that what makes it worth getting up in the morning for?

Sometimes it's hard to get a particular sex interested in a particular sport or pastime. Perhaps most women don't find cycling, whether leisure or sport, appeals to them. Just as it may be hard to drum up male interest in flower arranging or netball( I've chosen those as they are accepted female interests ).

On the equity front I never see why prize money should be different other than perhaps by audience numbers. So if the womens event has identical viewing to the mens then prizes should be on parity. So I think this is a contentious issue. But also on a similar equal rights aspect, I do get peeved by the number of "women only" bike rides and events, as well as women only swimming pool times. If I have to be humiliated walking around in my speedos then I'm sure they can put up with the same in their costumes..... or we'll have men only pool days too. Women seem to get treated different to men in these areas.

[tatanab]

These women are adults. Something I find far more spooky is young boys being led out as "mascots" at football matches.

[Vorpal]

Women's cycling is caught in a bit of a sorry loop. They don't get the prizes because they don't get the draw for television (i.e. comercial) time, so they don't get the sponsors. But if they get the the television time and prize money, and so on, I'm sure they'd get the sponsors as well.

If the UCI were to take a stance on this issue, and tell race organisers and sponsors that they have to sponsor prize money and television time for women's cycling, as well as men's, things would certainly change. I expect that if they required them (for example) to put on a women's Tour de France at the same level of the men's race, in order to get approval for the men's race, we'd see a helluva competition on major television.

But sports oversight bodies are for the most part, inherently sexist. They have arisen out of sexist cultures, and are run mainly by men. I'm sure that the individuals involved have good intentions, but it takes strong action, against the the culture of an organisation to do away with inherent issues like that.

[Paulatic]

These women are adults. Something I find far more spooky is young boys being led out as "mascots" at football matches.

Parents with too much money living the dream. Must be a very good earner for clubs.

[roeboy]

None of you supporters have been able to answer the key question though: Why are they there? if they are just there as "eye candy" why do you need it/them there isn't the cycle race as an event, enough in itself why couldn’t we have local children who could give the winners their honours.

My point is it demeans not just the women on the podium but the sport, it trivialize the efforts of the winners and I know some women (not all) find it objectionable so let’s move on, let’s get women onto the podiums as winners in races not as eye candy.

[honesty]

None of you supporters have been able to answer the key question though: Why are they there? if they are just there as "eye candy" why do you need it/them there isn't the cycle race as an event, enough in itself why couldn’t we have local children who could give the winners their honours.

My point is it demeans not just the women on the podium but the sport, it trivialize the efforts of the winners and I know some women (not all) find it objectionable so let’s move on, let’s get women onto the podiums as winners in races not as eye candy.

or even as one of the execs of the races. You watch the management of these races when they go on the podium. Almost universally male. Vorpal made a very good point earlier about their being institutional sexism in cycle sport. It is most obvious on the podium.