Weekly News

Grid Kids

A recent BBC News article talks about how F1 have announced that the 'Grid Girls' will soon be replaced by 'Grid Kids'. Grid girls were fashion models who would parade themselves about in front of the audiences at F1 races.

It's clear that they have absolutely nothing to do with the racing and are simply there to be sexualised and gawked at. Finally this demeaning tradition is being dissolved due to the idea of it being "against modern societal norms"

The general idea here is to bring the sport into a more modern representation of women by getting rid of this unnecessary tradition. In my opinion I think this is a step in the right direction. Recently we've seen lots of positive steps like this such as the removal of nudity from The Suns page 3. Hopefully we can soon see more companies stepping into the 21st century with their representations of women especially in america where women are regularly sexualised to market products such as beer.

Overall the BBC article mostly focused on how this is a good opportunity for young aspiring drivers to get seats at races however I feel not enough is said about how this practice was demeaning to women.