https://www.theglobeandmail.com///sport ... sf_globefb
Excerpt
There will be no more "grid girls" before Formula One races and no more "podium girls" celebrating with the drivers after them.
F1 said Wednesday it will end the long-standing practice of using women on the grid and on the podium with the top three drivers. The Formula One season starts on March 25 at the Australian Grand Prix.
"We feel this custom does not resonate with our brand values and clearly is at odds with modern day societal norms," said Sean Bratches, F1's managing director of commercial operations. "We don't believe the practice is appropriate or relevant to Formula One and its fans, old and new, across the world."
At previous F1 races, women dressed in uniform would walk out onto the grid shortly before the start and then stand in front of each driver's car, holding up the driver's number. Women would also stand alongside the winner on the podium after the race.
The changes also apply to other motorsports series – such as F2 – that take place on GP weekends.
Emphasis mine.
Personally I think this is a very good move to deconstruct gender roles: there were "heroes" - men - who drove the powerful cars, and then there were "grid girls", who were totally unrelated with actual racing, it was just only about giving to the male audience half-naked and silent women to the enjoyment of the male gaze, following and reinforcing the patriarchal relic of women as sexual rewards for the male "heroes" (not mentioning all the male audience staring at them).
The same is already happening in UK in darts (somewhat a sport, too): they did end the very similar, and similarly clearly patriarchal, practice of "walk girls".
I hope that it'll be extended even to the so called "podium girls" in motorbikes competition, I think that it's time for society to move forward.
What do you think, NSGs?