What do girls do best? Wear bikinis of course
Dr Mumbo has long sympathised with Australia’s ball sports and the unfair contention that they objectify or demean women.
So he’s delighted to see that Fox Sport’s Rugby HQ is righting the balance celebrating “the best game day entertainment of all time” on its YouTube channel.
And here at number six is slow-mo footage of cheerleaders stripping down to their bikinis.
As Fox Sports puts it in the accompanying description: “It’s The Girls doing what they do best”.
Because clearly they do that better than Man Things like rocket science or business or brain surgery.
9.15pm update: Credit to Fox Sports, the line has now been deleted.
A rugby show, who would have thought… That’s my third monocle this week, I simply must stop being so horrified…
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NRL has cheerleaders. AFL doesn’t.
AFL has many more female fans compared to NRL.
Coincidence?
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I think snrub has the right idea!
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As a sports fan and lover of the ladies it doesn’t really bother me at all. Hey, sex sells after all. I go to a lot of league games and I think I speak for most fans when I say I’m utterly indifferent to the cheerleaders. They’re young girls who like to dance and get to strut they’re thing in front of 30,000 people that they wouldn’t otherwise. Despite what the detractors say, it’s largely harmless fun (look how bloody well the US do it!!!!). And just to “sexist and backwards” comment – I think sports like NRL, F1, V8 are just far more skewed to a male audience. Your claim that cheerleaders are driving female fans away is unsubstantiated and incorrect.
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AB, what claim are you saying is unsubstantiated and incorrect. No-one said anything about cheerleaders driving female fans away. I’m fairly certain this post is about how Fox Sports describes the cheerleaders, not what the girls are actually doing.
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My mistake! I see you’re referring to Sexist And Backward. Indeed, there is probably just as high a proportion of female NRL supporters as AFL.
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1) I’m pretty sure AFL is more “appealing on the eye” for female fans. 2) AFL arguably do a better job at being more female/family friendly. 3) If cheerleaders were driving fans away from NRL then it’s surprising to see the NRL grand final and state of origin series in the top 10 programs per viewer year in and year out.
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If they got rid of them they would save money, not lose male patrons and make the game more family friendly. The NRL has appalling attendance levels, you’d think they’d try and do something about it.
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There seem to be two groups of Cheerleaders for the Sharks in Durban – The Sharkettes, and The Flash Girls (ie The Girls).
When the photo description states “The Girls doing what they do best at the Shark Tank in Durban” it relates to this specific group of cheerleaders, and more specifically, their signature cheer – The Flash. It does NOT relate to all cheerleaders; certainly not all women.
Classy? Well best put that question to The Girls – it’s their routine.
In future, kindly refrain from taking cheap, histrionic swipes at my beloved Rugby.
Today Mumbo, you are an arse.
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@ Billy C…. I think you’ll actually find the girls do it for free. They’re often just from local dance schools who welcome an audience. Although I’m certain the clubs probably pitch in for the uniforms and stuff. Hell, it’s a bit of fun. Nobody forces them to do it and can be light relief when the game’s dull. And just on the “would save money” – many of them are daubed with sponsor logos so they actually make money. And as for “appalling attendances”, both attendances and club memberships are at record highs in recent years. Some NRL clubs have had ground records this season.
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Well, it may not be exactly what they do best, but the do it a whole lot better than the boys do. Women have so many fine attributes, but their visual splendor is undeniably the most obvious. Female bodies are vastly more attractive than the male, and feminine grace is a phenomenon of universal appeal.
I don’t know who decided that exhibitionism was alien to the female or that it is some how subordinate; probably the same shallow thinker who decided that house work and raising children was menial work.
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They can’t even spell. It’s Shark Tank.
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Well, it may not be exactly what they do best, but they do it a whole lot better than the boys do. Women have so many fine attributes, but their visual splendor is undeniably the most obvious. Female bodies are vastly more attractive than the male, and feminine grace is a phenomenon of universal appeal.
I don’t know who decided that exhibitionism was alien to the female or that it is some how subordinate; probably the same shallow thinker who decided that house work and raising children was menial work.
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Fox Sports was achieving something with proper female commentators, less macho nonsense and a move away from blokes culture…in the last 2 years it appears to have gone back to blokes are best culture on screen and behind the screen. A bit of a parody of itself these days.
Blokes like sex so we show more sexy women. Genius.
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These young women are either (i) genetically very lucky or (ii) have worked damned hard to get their bodies in that shape, and they have every right to earn a living from it if there’s an appreciative audience.
Australia is getting sick and tired of armchair social engineers, and self-styled ideological puritans, most of whom have never looked like that and are camouflaging their bitterness behind an ostentatious display of ‘morality’ or latter-day feminism.
How dare they impose their questionable values upon young working women who simply want to use their talents in a free market that wants them.
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@Sexist and Backward, read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality
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Rugby League – giving strippers something to do during the day since 1998
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Why all the talk of NRL? There is precisely NO connection between NRL and the Fox Sports program RugbyHQ which is entirely a Rugby Union show…
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@ Steve… I actually think that’s offensive. Many of these girls are teenagers and are merely aspiring dancers or do it for some fun and fitness on weekends. If you think any girl who dances is a stripper and a whore then it’s you that appears to have some demented (and backward) views of women.
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Australia’s most famous cheerleader, Jennifer Hawkins, is reported in BRW to make $5.5 million a year! Get out the pom-poms, I say….
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@Liz I think your comment is offensive. There is a big difference between a stripper and a prostitute. Or are you saying all strippers are whores?
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notice use of capitals… it’s The Girls, i.e. the Sharks Cheerleaders, not girls in general.
a storm in a teacup
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@ Terry… You’re arguing semantics. The point being that many of these girls are still in school and to liken them to strippers is wrong and degrading. It’s a bit of fun and light entertainment. If you see it as somehow sleazy and sexualised (ie they’re all strippers) then the problem is with you not the girls or the clubs.
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@ Liz No I believe you are calling strippers (many of whom are girls still in university making some extra money) whores.
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@ Terry… let me retract the word whore so your brain can cope. Let’s just keep it at strippers. Is that better?
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@ Liz Thank you.
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@liz – to be fair… some of the moves these cheerleaders are doing in the video do resemble stripping.
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