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Originally Posted by dsg
I'm fairly ambivalent about grid people, but most of the arguments seem to ignore what the girls think. If the women doing it thought it was demeaning, would they do it? I have no idea as I am not a woman.
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it's kind of irrelevant what the girls doing the job think. the core of the discussion isn't about low pay, unfair working practices and that kind of thing. it's an outward-looking issue, not an inward looking one. i mean, the monster girls are absolutely stunning, and look like they have an absolute ball for example. but monster use girls and extreme sport to market their product and build a lifestyle. red bull didn't need to use women to sell products. they used sportspeople and life role models (hey, some people aspire to jump off mountains in squirrel suits).
one of the benefits is probably something the girls themselves wouldn't talk about. it's an ego boost having photos taken and an ego boost getting the attention from the competitors and teams. it's a status boost when people put you up on a pedestal when you're at work, and your social media profile gets a boost as well if you choose to use it that way. but in the same way that basing your self-worth on your social media exchanges is a recipe for insecurity and thirsting for more likes, being on that pedestal can have a negative effect as well. that's been a far greater factor since instagram and tinder became popular, vast swathes of youth culture now revolve around image and self-marketing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dsg
I like the sentiment of having the average Joe or Jane promote sponsor's products but most companies want their products displayed in the most positive way. Unfortunately the way the world is at the moment, sex and beauty sells products. This is slowly changing, maybe not fast enough for some.
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not wanting to state the obvious, but for things to change, changes have to be made
i agree about the sentiment of having normal people promote a brand being tricky. it would need to be part of a wider social media attitude which is possible nowadays. back before social media it wasn't.
the whole discussion seems to be a bit like the consent and sexual assault issues in wider society. some men (and fewer women) argue that it was acceptable "back then" for guys to be handsy, or women to be used in promotion. but then if you speak to women, they had their own network to make sure everyone knew who the handsy executives were. or in the case of jimmy saville, the kids on the ground knew he was a bit weird and to stay away from him. so it WASN'T acceptable, not to the victims/potential victims. they didn't have a voice to express it, and they were brushed off by those in authority. the problem wasn't that things were socially acceptable, but that decision makers weren't of the opinion that it was worth tolerating. they were, of course, all men from a particular culture.
i think you'd find that it's a similar situation with using women to sell motorsport. it's pretty uncool with at least 50% of the population, if not more. but that 50% is only being listened to recently. as far as a lot of men are concerned it's simply another breach of their entitlement to women's bodies.
my sincere apologies for being very wordy in my responses in this thread, but since a lot of posts express a lack of understanding about the female points of view i feel duty bound to try and explain one of them
