Kate Hawkesby: Grid girls, 'feminazis' and women hating on other women

'Grid girls' line up after the qualifying session for the Formula One Grand Prix at the Monaco racetrack in Monaco in 2017. Photo / AP

Comment

I see Formula One has scrapped "grid girls" - along with the axing of podium girls.

Any job with the word "girls" in it should pretty much be on notice that we are living in a new world order.

It's 2018, and gender equality is the new black.

It is the year of the woman, and feminists will tell us how things are going to roll.

Mess with them at your peril.

That seems to be the currency these days.

So lots of hurrahs and cheers from women, feminists, the Women's Sport Trust and other femme fatales applauding this move to scrap a job that makes any woman doing it look like a glossed-up accessory to a man's success.

A boxing promoter described the job as "important" but then unhelpfully added that it needed to be done "in a glamorous way".

Whoa, mate, the 1950's called and they want their attitude back.

But hold the phone, who isn't applauding the scrapping of jobs with the word "girls" in the title?

Well, the grid girls themselves.

Turns out, many of them love their job, and they're not thanking the self appointed sisterhood for making them redundant.

Grid girls have come out in their droves slamming the move, saying the "feminazis" have cost them their jobs.

Some claimed it was not a fight for women's rights, if they were fighting for something these women didn't ask for.

Another one compared a picture of a grid girl in a uniform with a picture of Beyonce dancing with half her butt exposed in a tight leotard, and asked 'who is the feminist in this picture?'

So who's right and who's wrong?

Well you can't argue that if women feel pushed out of a job by other women, then that's not really a supportive sisterhood is it? It's the equivalent of a bossy big sister telling you what's best for you, without actually checking what you'd like.

And while a tight catsuit and hair extensions may not be your cup of Kombucha or feminist ideal, it is still a job many women feel respected in, enjoy, and get immense pleasure out of.

So in one corner, feminists who say women should do what they want, and in the other corner, feminists who say women shouldn't be grid girls.

It'd be nice to think we could reach a stage where women stopped hating on other women whose opinion or values differed to theirs.

Empowering women actually means all women, not just the ones you think fit your personal ideals.

Women seem very quick to speak on behalf of other women, and you see this a lot with Melania Trump.

She's constantly attacked because of who she's married to, and her looks.

That's the least feminist thing of all: to assume a woman is merely an extension of her husband, and in taking her down, feminists only go to show they're more interested in their own personal agenda's than that of ALL women.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a feminist, and while I agree that maybe the money saved by axing the grid girls should be put towards getting more women drivers into sport, that's really only if they want to.