I have slightly, but only slightly, mixed feelings over the decision of the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) to bow to demands from broadcasters (Sky) to get rid of “walk on girls”. The purpose of the “walk on girls” is to accompany darts players as they waddle through the audience, struggle up the stairs and then pose provocatively for the thousands of paralytic men in the crowd. No, hang on. Having thought about it, I don’t have mixed feelings at all. Their time is up.
For as long as I can remember, women have been used by various sports to perform a function which is no more than looking attractive. At the darts, the women perform no useful job at all unless enabling a part of the viewership to masturbate whilst looking at them and I would have thought there were countless alternative options to do that.
I had thought that darts would be the very last vestige of this, but I am wrong. F1 (less of a sport than darts IMHO), boxing and, this surprised me, cycling still display scantily clad women for no other purpose than for lecherous Presidents Club type viewers to enjoy.
I know the usual suspects will proclaim that this is “political correctness gone mad” but really it isn’t. All it represents is the shifting sands of time. In other words, as society changes, desperately slowly in many ways, the things we once thought as acceptable, like using women as figures of lust and beauty and nothing more, rightly look a little old fashioned. Yes, we can argue that the likes of the “walk on girls” were not forced into their jobs and were probably rewarded handsomely, we have concluded that women are worth a bit more than that.
It’s not that men should ho longer be allowed to find women attractive, or men if that is their preference (who cares?) because that’s what makes the world go around. I am not going to suddenly look at Suzannah Hoffs, Natlie Imbruglia or Andie McDowell and not think about beautiful they are: it’s just that the reason they are famous is down to their great talent. Their looks are incidental. I have probably been very clumsy with my words here, but I hope you know what I mean.
We will soon get used to the absence of “walk on girls”. In fact, I forgot all about them the second the contestants started throwing their darts. It was a bit of yesterday and yesterday’s gone.
It’s the old adage, move along, nothing to see here. The times they are a-changing.
