A model from Yorkshire has branded the Formula 1 ban on grid girls as “ridiculous” and said working on the grid was the highlight of her career.
Rebecca Cooper, who has been an F1 grid girl on five occasions, said it was a job she loved and was proud to do.
“It is ridiculous that women who say they are ‘fighting for women’s rights’ are saying what others should and shouldn’t do, stopping us from doing a job we love and are proud to do. It is political correctness gone mad.”
Rebecca, who has worked as an extra in the ITV soap Emmerdale, posted photos of herself as a grid girl on social media and said the outfits were not provocative or ‘sexualising’.
She is now wondering where the such ‘bans’ will end.
“No grid girls, no cheerleaders, female singers being told what to wear on stage, no models in magazines? I’ll fight for my right to choose what I wear, where I work and to keep a job I love.”
She added: “It’s mad that so-called feminists can stop other women doing a job they love.”
Her comments follow a decision by Formula 1 to axe its grid girls after decades of employing women to parade in the pit-lane and on the starting grid.
The sport’s owners said the practice no longer represented its “brand values”.
Several former grid girls have gone on to become household names include Huddersfield model Nell McAndrew and model Kelly Brook.
Last week the Professional Darts Corporation said walk-on girls will no longer be used at events.
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