Which sports still use ‘walk-on girls’?

Which sports still use 'walk-on girls'? 1

At odds with modern society,” become Formula 1’s reasoning for doing away with grid women for the approaching season. The choice marked the top of the long-time-antique exercise of frequently using scantily-clad women for promotional duties – like retaining umbrellas and driving force call forums earlier than every race. It was observed in the back of the Professional Darts Corporation, which stated ultimate week that stroll-on girls had been to be no more. Grid female Charlotte Gash instructed BBC Radio Five Live she became disenchanted and “as a substitute disgusted” that F1 had “given in to the minority to be politically accurate.” And Charlotte Wood, a stroll-on female at darts fits, said her “rights are being taken away” and that running on such occasions accounted for 60% of her earnings. But for some, the flow is just the tip of the iceberg. The Women’s Sports Trust encourages other sports to comply with the match and forestalls, positioning women “as an embellishment.”

So which other important sports are the highlight?

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Boxing

If you have ever watched an expert boxing match, you’ll likely have seen a lady – usually sporting a revealing outfit – strolling across the ring between rounds.

AAA “ring lady” job allows the group to understand which round is coming up via numbered playing cards. They have been considered a part of the glamour of combat promotion since the 1960s—a ring lady at Liverpool’s Echo ArenaImage copyright Getty IMAGES. Leading promoter Eddie Hearn, whose combatants include WBA heavyweight international champion Anthony Joshua, has no purpose of following the trend of going away with ring-card women from his shows. He instructed GQ mag: “From a boxing point of view, we want to preserve the traditions of the sport, and in my opinion, it has nothing to do with sexism or feminism.” He delivered that during darts, “stroll-on ladies are not doing whatever,” while the boxing ring card ladies “serve a purpose”. But British expert boxer Stacey Copeland says the exercise is “inappropriate” in a carrying arena. She uses kids as mascots at her fights in place of ring girls. The Stockport-born fighter advised BBC Five to stay: “Just as it’s usually been that way in darts, Formula 1, and boxing, it would not necessarily make it right.”

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I have children as mascots instead of ringing card ladies after I container. I want it to seem wild if we ever had ring card ladies at some point! Https://twitter.Com/womensporttrust/reputation/957162340121800704 …

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“I’m no longer a snob; I’m now not prudish; I do not look down on each person that does the one’s roles… However, as a sportswoman seeking to advantage, appreciate, and push matters forward for ladies in the game – (ring women) are an issue.” This is because, Ms. Copeland provides, “their function is handiest to do with how they look – I don’t think that is the maximum superb illustration of women in recreation .” In football, we are very used to seeing baby mascots. I assume it would appear unusual if we were to replace all of these children with ladies just status there in dresses for no obvious motive.”

Cycling

Another recreation that historically uses girls in promotional roles is cycling – wherein they’re known as podium hostesses. The debate over their future surfaced after Slovak bicycle owner Peter Sagan was pictured pinching the lowest podium girl after a race in 2013. The sport became closely criticized years later while bikini-clad girls flanked cyclists at the podium at the Flanders Diamond Tour in Belgium, forcing organizers to apologize.

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End of Twitter, published by @marijnfietst Journalist and former bike owner Marijn de Vries, informed the BBC she would love to peer a quit to podium women in the game. Her choice might be for podium children to play a part in the displays: “How cool is it to give flora to your big hero?” However, she brought up that, in some cases, the ladies on the podium were no longer there to give plant life but had an essential function as event hostesses. She said: “At the end of the day, you need individuals who organize the aspect program, and if they had the flowers on the top of the race, I don’t mind.”

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Some competitions have taken a stand towards it, with the Tour Down Under finding out to scrap using podium girls closing year, using junior cyclists of their area. The Tour de Yorkshire additionally selected an alternative, alternatively celebrating a successful neighborhood businesswoman, at the same time as the Vuelta an Espana has become the first Grand Tour to lose podium ladies, changing them with “elegantly dressed” men and women in 2017. “Hostesses are surplus to necessities at the podium; it’s miles like treating them as mere items,” Spanish bicycle owner Mikel Landa of Team Sky told Spain’s El Correo newspaper. But they continue to be in the game’s blue-ribbon occasion, the Tour de France.

Chris FroomeImage copyright Getty IMAGES Image caption

Britain’s 4-time Tour de France champion Chris Froome receiving podium kisses. Laura Weislo, Cycling News deputy editor, argues that until girls have identical status in the sport, the hostesses must be dropped – or guys have to be used properly. She advised BBC Radio Four: “You want any person to offer the prizes, and it must be expert and look accurate. It has to be pretty for the cameras. However, men can be stunning, too. “The complete podium kissing on the cheek thing, I assume, is only a bit bizarre, and it just brings this detail of sexualization of the ceremony into it that I don’t think is essential.”

UFC

Ring-card ladies, particularly in combat sports, are also characterized heavily in combined martial arts (MMA). Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), the dominant MMA promoter worldwide, returns to London’s O2 Arena in March for the tenth time. It could bring its model of ring women – octagon women. UFC’s internet site has photos of some of the octagon girls from around the world; one description accompanying a photograph reads, “The lengthy black hair, charming smile, and curves of Camila Oliveira are jaw-dropping.”

An octagon girl at UFCImage copyright Getty IMAGES

The Women’s Sports Trust says the hassle of using models in sports is “the message it gives about how ladies are valued in society.” “Sporting visitors are predicted to recognize the hit, talented, robust men, taking element in the competition, with the function of ladies in simple terms primarily based on their bodily appearance.” Its assertion delivered: “Sports mirrors and magnifies society. If we depict women in recreation in a way that reinforces a slender stereotype, we upload to the strain younger women in a particular sense to look and act a positive manner.”

British freelance sportswriter Leigh Copson is a keen UFC follower and year-antique daughter, inspired by the girl fighters rather than the women parading out of doors the ring. He said: “Women had been a great deal more than eye sweet in MMA for some time now – (former blended martial artist) Ronda Rousey’s the purpose my little lady does karate and kickboxing. “Ring-card ladies were a way of life of preventing sports activities for a long time, but I do not suppose they add whatever to the presentation, and I would not omit them inside the slightest if they had been removed.” did now not want to comment on whether or not it’d be reconsidering the usage of octagon ladies.

Cheerleading

Although a long way greater general in the US, cheerleaders appear in UK sports, football, rugby, and cricket. Zoe Rutherford, managing director of The London Cheerleaders, says cheerleading is frequently misunderstood: “It’s a shame that it is linked to the concept of shaking pom-poms and looking pretty. “My dancers are athletes of their own proper – they may be fairly sturdy and bendy and deliver performances of excessive caliber.”

The CrystalsImage copyright Reuters Image caption

The cheerleading troupe, the Crystals, has carried out at Crystal Palace Football Club for over seven years. Crystal Palace Football Club has released an assertion defending its cheerleading squad, the Crystals. A spokeswoman stated that, further to elevating cash for proper causes, the cheerleaders contributed to the “precise surroundings inside the stadium.” She said that the membership had not received a complaint about the Crystals.

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