The new season of Formula 1 disposes of grid girls; that is a welcome move. Is it time to dispose of ‘booth babes’ from Auto shows as wellIJ
During the very first Indian Grand Prix at the BIC, Greater Noida, I was walking down the pitlane early of the Sunday of the race. I had been granted accreditation as a journalist for my previous organisation and I was carrying my big camera for once. Over a hundred girls walked past and having the grid girls were said to be important towards adding “glamour” to the race. Sure, they made for a few good photographs but frankly, Formula 1 is all about the cars and the race. The drivers are not like James Hunt in the 1970s and even the 1980s. Drivers do not just go about pinching women’s bottoms anymore and while lewis Hamilton continues to fill the gossip pages, he is an exception. Most F1 drivers have very guarded private lives.
The aftermath of the #metoo movement has seen things change dramatically in motorsports as well and Formula 1, under new management this year, withdrew the grid girls. Of course, there have been differing reactions to this decision. Most drivers and teams, however, are ambivalent other than former world champion. In other motorsports codes, notably MotoGP, the pinnacle of motorcycle racing, grid girls on the start-finish straight and on the podium continue.
Of course, one can ask the question whether grid girls, or for that matter any “girls” are needed on the sidelines of a male sport to add “glamour” and while at one time, you could have considered having girls around as a perverse sexual incentive for participation, particularly back three or four decades ago when motorsport was properly dangerous, that was a different time. Not just in motorsport but also with regard to moral and ethical values. Racing cars were something that alpha males did, and while Formula 1 is yet to see its first proper female driver, there have been female test drivers like Susie Wolff, wife of Mercedes-AMG team boss Toto Wolff, I believe that day will come sooner rather than later. And one of the ways that will happen is if more young women watch motorsport, and frankly, Formula 1, now controlled by American firm liberty Media, wanted to show that things have changed. If young women are to watch Formula 1 the sport cannot be seen to promote sexism.
Which brings us to the other issue of sexism in the auto industry, that of “Booth Babes” at automotive shows. I had posted a few pictures of the girls standing alongside the cars at the recently concluded Auto Expo in Greater Noida. Again, to be honest, few of the companies, save a couple actually, had any girls dressed in what one would call “sexy” attire. However, given the massive rush of people and the tendency of Indian men to have their hands go where they should not, I could only feel for them. However, this was the tenth Auto Expo that I was covering and I think things have improved a bit, at least in terms of what the girls are wearing and the fact that hefty bouncers protected most of them. Most of the girls were dressed in standard Western wear, just with company colours and when asked could easily talk about the product that they were standing next to.
Frankly, most small cars and commuter motorcycles and scooters are so similar, the use of these girls is, I would like to believe, a way to attract eyeballs to a decidedly boring product. And while some might argue that the product is not worth it if it can’t attract eyeballs on its own, keep in mind that there are hundreds of products all over the place. But at the same time, I think there needs to be some sort of change to shows, hostesses are a common factor even at major trade shows and not just in India. It is difficult for me to take a stand on this, and with the girls more confident than before, I believe things are better than before where you have heard of aprophycal stories of girls being harassed and worse. Maybe a set of rules and a mechanism for the girls to call out any harassment would be the start of a solution.
But this also reveals just how male-dominated the car purchase decision still is in India. Car companies keep on talking of how they want to attract women buyers, and how cars are being designed “for women” — which I feel is quite sexist because while some women tend to gravitate to certain cars because of their looks and features, cars are a unisex tool to get around. More women should drive and more women should buy cars because they are empowering tools.