Putting the brakes on giraffe women

[ensho]

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JE21Ak03.html


FETHIYE, Turkey - Formula One fever descended on Istanbul once again this month and the TV and newspapers were full of florid previews of what the viewing public could expect. If the press was anything to go by, what we should expect is lots of legs. The Sunday television magazine programs provided plenty of gratuitous shots of short skirts and female thighs as presenters wielding measuring tapes marvelled over the 110-plus centimeter legs of the "Grid Girls".

These giraffe-like women, ranging in height from 1.75 meters to 1.84 meters (5-foot-7 to six feet) are mainly professional models and are employed to hold up the lap numbers as the cars spin round the course. Like the girls who parade around boxing rings with round numbers, the Grid Girls are beautiful ornaments used to glamorize a dangerous and brutal sport.

As if the pointless Grid Girls were not enough (surely a machine could do the job just as well?) certain columnists were lauding the arrival of the Formula Una "trolley dollies". In Italian, Formula One is Formula Uno, so Formula Una is the feminine version of the same word. It's hardly surprising that a country whose political leader calls his middle-aged women supporters "the menopause section", and who has attacked the majority female Spanish cabinet as being "too pink" (nine women, eight men), has come up with the Una concept.

The Una girls are 10 hand-picked ambassadors for their country - in this case Turkey - during the four-day racing period. They join drivers, teams, VIPs and press in the paddock section and their job is to mingle and talk with guests and participants and answer questions about their home country. Apparent qualifications for the post are "interest and knowledge of Formula One, likableness, chattiness, a smiling countenance and excellent spoken English".

They also must be aged between 18 and 30 and attractive. The Una girls are a project sponsored by the new 90% male Red Bull team who find the lack of women involved in the sport disheartening and are attempting to redress the balance, at least in the paddock area. Perhaps free tickets for some Istanbul ladies to watch the races might have done more to entice women to the sport, but then the teams wouldn't have had the chance to meet those women or to ensure their attractiveness.

-snip-

So who exactly are these paragons of Turkish womanhood, the youngest of which is 20 and the oldest 27?

All of them were either students or had finished university and are working. They are svelte, well groomed and lithe. Among them are ex-model and actress Eylem Senkal and actress Selma Merter. A quick glance at the website www.redbullformulauna.com is instructive in the scrupulous ethics of the committee who chose them, there's not a single plain girl among them. These girls are not good examples of Turkish women, they represent a small minority of Europeanized females and yet they say, "We are here to show how modern Turkish women are and to change opinions."

According to a report compiled by the Turkish Family Planning Institute in 2007 the average Turkish woman is 1.63 meters and weighs 63 kilos. If this average woman had the legs of a Grid Girl she would only have a foot and a half of body left for her torso and head. Average Turks are 48% of medium complexion, 25% of dark complexion and 27% of fair complexion, the Una girls are 40% of medium complexion, 10% of dark complexion and 50% of fair complexion. Fifty-two percent of all Turks have black hair but only 10% of Una girls (that is to say one girl) have black hair, whilst 50% have brown hair and 40% are blond. While 41% of Turks have never bought a book, all the Una girls are enrolled in or have attended university.

They are as representative of Turkish women as a Slush Puppy is of an Arctic iceberg. If Red Bull was interested in presenting a more accurate view of the cornucopia of modern Turkish women at least one of them should have been wearing a headscarf and another an Islamic turban.

-snip-

Why indeed? If we can't have real women to stand in the paddock for us let's at least have the equivalent male bimbos.
-----------------------------------


woman as things

[Dogtown]

1. K&R, ensho

sexism sucks.

[annabanana]

2. (this thread is useless without pictures) I thought

it was going to be about:

[ensho]

3. and what do you think about these women who have their man's

wealth around their stretched necks?

[annabanana]

4. really really creepy. . . n/t

[Ghost in the Machine]

5. That was my first thought, too..

:hi:

[Javaman]

6. GASP!!!

Women being objectified? OMG!!!

Flame if you want but until women realize that they can stand up for themselves and not be treated as sexual objects for employment, nothing will change.

quid pro quo.

men pay them big bucks to be treated as objects, women take the money to be treated as objects.

no one is forcing "beautiful" women to do these jobs.

However, who here is the biggest loser? The guys that pay the money to ogle women they can't touch? OR the women making buckets of money off the stupidity of men who ogle women?

I pick the guys.