As if on a seek and destroy mission to rid the sporting world of anything remotely offensive or unjust, radical feminists have taken their latest politically correct swing at the ‘sexist tradition’ of Tour de France podium girls.
Over 30,0000 disgruntled women’s rights campaigners have signed a petition to do away with the “sexist tradition” of two glamorously but modestly dressed women handing bouquets and jerseys to the winners of one of sports most iconic races, capped off with a polite peck on the cheek.
Moroccan protest leader Fatima-Ezzahra Benomar ranted this week in a video recorded in front of the office of Tour organizers ASO: “Women are not prizes, rewards or sexual objects. They are athletes and their place is on the podium as sportspeople and not as rewards.”
In cycling, women certainly aren't prizes or rewards. But Benomar’s patronizing tone fails to mention that handsome women can in fact be employed to give those out - and be paid handsomely to do so.
Podium girls are no doubt chosen in part due to their looks, however the criteria to be selected is far more than skin deep and includes endurance – working days begin sometimes around 6am – and linguistic ability.
Once selected, girls can earn up to €2,000 ($2,227) for a fortnight’s work, which includes free food and hotel stay, a pretty good gig if you can get it.
However, Benomar and her PC-mad merry band are aiming to make sure no one can get that gig and instead look to deprive working women of voluntary paid employment.
In other attempts to abolish sexism, the sisters of radical feminism last year vilified glamorous F1 grid girls as playing a counter-productive role in their fight to be free of their patriarchal shackles that inhibit women in the workplace.
Sadly, the saintly sisterhood have no grasp of the irony that they are depriving other women of a job and a voice, the very evil they claim to be working against.
Nevertheless, Formula 1 and the ruling body, the FIA, caved to pressure and outlawed grid girls from every Grand Prix and replacing them with ‘grid kids,’ veiling their virtue signaling as “an attempt to modernize the sport,” done so by taking women out of employment and swapping them for the children of rich motorsport-mad parents.
Also on rt.com 'Not just about looking pretty': Grid girls slam F1 decision to ditch female roles at racesTo its credit, and contrary to earlier reports, Tour de France bosses have not signaled any such intention, with director Christopher Prudhomme commenting last year: “For the men’s races like the Tour de France, we will keep hostesses.”
After all, there hasn’t been one recorded incident of anyone holding a gun to the head of any podium girl, oftentimes fans of cycling, to accept the chance to be part of the sport’s biggest events on merit and earn money for the privilege.
Sure, they have to look good, but at the climax of celebrations for winning one of the most grueling physical tests of endurance on earth, it would be laughable for a tremendous physical specimen, who has devoted hours to whipping their body into shape, to be presented with their reward by someone who couldn’t be bothered to put on a bit of makeup.
The issue of podium girls may seem like a throwaway matter, but it highlights the hypocrisy of radical feminism, a concept that now has become so confused in its quest for complete social justice, it is now seeking to eliminate sexism by eliminating women from sports. How very woke and progressive.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.