Next month sees MotoGP, the F1 of motorcycle racing, head to Spain’s famous Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya race track.
Recently, the Spanish political party Ganemos Jerez unsuccessful attempted to get rid of grid girls at the Spanish track. The initiative sought to end a tradition seen as a stereotype—that is, the use of women as sexual objects—at any races held at the Barcelona race track.
Now a political party from the Catalan region of Spain has also raised the issue and has presented a new proposal to the Montmelo town government.
Unlike the Jerez case, Iniciativa per Catalunya Verds (ICV) is not seeking a full ban on grid girls, but the introduction of certain codes. These include dress codes and call for the normalisation of gender with the addition of grid boys.
This would apply to all events held at the Barcelona track, including future F1 Spanish Grands Prix.
In an interview with Spanish radio station Cadena Ser Catalunya, ICV’s Jordi Manils said:
The role the grid girls play today at the Circuit de Catalunya is not fitting of the 21st century, of a society that aims to be modern and egalitarian.
What it does is objectify and vex women with a role in which they are a simple object and an ornament of the situation.
For this initiative to go ahead, ICV will need the support from at least one councillor from another party from the township. According to motorsport.com, this is “something that does not appear difficult.”
Whether or not the Montmelo government would have the jurisdiction to be able to force MotoGP promoter Dorna into a change of approach, remains to be seen. We’ll keep you posted as we learn more, but let me know your thoughts on this topic in the comments below.
Featured image: Fiat Yamaha’s Wataru Yoshikawa on the grid at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Photo: Fiat Yamaha Team/Flickr
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