HAM in hot water?

[The Black Knight]

While I don't agree with the 'outrage' and believe Hamilton's actions to be completely inoffensive I think you're missing the point. It's not enough to defend an action by saying that other people do it too. That doesn't defend your actions but merely says that you shouldn't be singled out.

Again, I don't agree with the outrage but the question isn't one of whether women should be sprayed with champagne but rather should women be used as nothing more than decorations? Personally I don't have a problem with the concept of grid girls but I'm male and don't mind looking at a pretty face (don't tell my wife, not that her face isn't pretty). To a degree, I can see why people of certain persuasions get upset over this type of thing. Sometimes it's misplaced (as is the case here) other times it's a genuine issue and shouldn't be dismissed as the rant of an out-of-control PC fanatic.

I don't think he's missing the point at all. If people have an issue with something then misplacing and not communicating what their actual problem is isn't the way to go. If they misplace their issues, as they have in this case, then that's their problem. It's up to them to communicate what they really have an issue with correctly.

Personally, if someone had said they have an issue with grid-girls lining the walkway as decoration while the boys saunter up to the podium then I would understand this, not the champagne in the face thing. Everyone on the podium is fair game to be sprayed with champagne as far as I'm concerned. It's a place for celebration.

[Tazio]

Let us take this a step further. The woman that got hosed said:

“I think some foreign media are more sensitive about the topic than local media. I was just told by my employer to stand on the podium, and that’s what I did.”
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/201...ese-grand-prix

Does this make her a freakin' "Ho" as she got paid by her boss to let
The Boss hose her down?

[henners88]

It seems Lewis was just a racing driver doing what they all do when they win but in a week when feminists had decided to make another statement about the use of women in Motorsport. I think before the racing drivers are attacked for what is perceived as common celebratory behaviour, a few other factors need to be considered or individuals questioned. Let's face it being a grid girl or promotions model male or female is not a full time job. It is work they opt to do because they feel it looks good in their modelling portfolio. A friend of mine used to be a small time model and one week she would be modelling suits for Next, the next lingerie for Littlewoods and another she would be wearing a catsuit and handing out flyers next to a drift car at the NEC. it's the nature of the industry so perhaps those with a problem should seek answers from the people that have chosen to do it? The girl in this story didn't have an issue with it, but some of the European media did? Papers like the Sun here in Britain took digs at Lewis and it's only recently they have moved their page 3 girls onto a subscription website rather than the paper itself. Rather rich of them to even comment really.

As has already been said it is a storm in a teacup with an agenda that disappeared as quickly as it made the headlines. Lewis sprayed the head of the Design Department at Mercedes AMG F1 in Bahrain last weekend and nobody has jumped to his defence because he has a masters degree and shouldn't be humiliated by being covered in Rose Water on the worlds stage. Poor guy eh? He doesn't sell papers though because he isn't pretty.

[Triumph]

While I don't agree with the 'outrage' and believe Hamilton's actions to be completely inoffensive I think you're missing the point. It's not enough to defend an action by saying that other people do it too. That doesn't defend your actions but merely says that you shouldn't be singled out.

Again, I don't agree with the outrage but the question isn't one of whether women should be sprayed with champagne but rather should women be used as nothing more than decorations? Personally I don't have a problem with the concept of grid girls but I'm male and don't mind looking at a pretty face (don't tell my wife, not that her face isn't pretty). To a degree, I can see why people of certain persuasions get upset over this type of thing. Sometimes it's misplaced (as is the case here) other times it's a genuine issue and shouldn't be dismissed as the rant of an out-of-control PC fanatic.

Yes, precisely. That's what I'm saying, that Lewis shouldn't have been singled out. That's my point.

I'm not going to enter into the debate as to whether women should be used as decorations as I'll leave that for them to decide for themselves (you know, equality and all that: let them do their own thinking), but as I was saying, to criticize Lewis for this is an absolute load of nonsense. This was motivated by a desire to criticize Lewis, not out of genuine concern for the welfare of women during podium celebrations. If it was out of concern for the treatment of women, we'd have been through many previous instances of podium celebration-related outrage, but of course we haven't.

[TheFamousEccles]

This was the Chinese GP - you don't think the possibility exist that this woman was instructed to say this?

Frankly, in the end you could count on an amputated stump the number of rats arses I could give for "tradition" and the fact that "they've always done this so what's the problem", and my thoughts on the matter have nothing to do with Lulu or any other driver.

Its about respect. Regardless of gender. And if people don't get that then more fool them.

And it seems that this forum is over represented.