Sorry for the late reply to this ask, but I wanted to form a coherent answer that I was unable to do whilst I was squealing at racing. 🙂
I’m positive that many female F1 fans are making their views known in that survey, I know I did. *Angry typing*
However I do feel that MotoGP has the same issues which they don’t look critically enough at. Having one female rider in Moto3 does not get them off the hook. There’s the use of woman as silent decorative items, the ‘grid girl gallery’ which is the most viewed item on MotoGP.com, the lack of female mechanics, engineers, and team bosses. Then there’s the journalist side, the ‘real manly men’ group of journalists. I was looking through my Dad’s issue of the latest MCN Sport the other day. That’s seen as a reputable publication, and yet the way they talked about Bautista’s partner was utterly disgusting.
I guess both sports let their female fans down, and they don’t seem to really care at all about that. It makes you question why we even watch them?
Well, if we didn’t watch them, we’d be fulfilling all the stereotypes and images that are associated with sport – that it’s ~for men~, and I don’t want to be part of a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’m not going to cut off my nose to spite my face by giving up something I like, effectively because someone says I shouldn’t like it because of my chromosome make up. I *do* love motorsport, despite issues like these, and I feel the best place to draw attention to those issues and engage with those actively perpetuating them is from the position of being a dedicated and passionate fan.
I understand that, I just feel as they know we’ll be fans anyway. There isn’t much impetus for them to change.
I’ve not been a motorsport fan for long, but I can see things changing, especially through eg social media interaction. Women are speaking up louder now, less resigned to the things we maybe thought were Just The way Things Are, and there are more younger, more open-minded men in the field who are willing to pay attention and speak up too. The most tangible example of change that I can think of right now is that WEC got rid of grid girls, the drivers supported it, and literally no-one even noticed the lack, so if a series that’s currently riding a wave of great popularity can do it, that’s a sign to everyone else that taking these steps isn’t going to bring about the end of the world as they know it. Maybe I can be accused of being too optimistic, but I genuinely think that change is possible, if we keep shouting loudly enough, at teams, sponsors, broadcasters, journos – even if they grumpily bang on about ~PC gone mad~ or w/e, if they’re hearing it, they know the pressure is there, and they know. deep down, that it makes sense.
suchasinistergame 