"Sexist" E3 Harelbeke poster to be pulled after UCI steps in

I guess those rabble-drones getting all bent out of shape about this poster have never seen the Hot Girls on Bikes blog.

Can we ban all adverts that portray men as stupid and all the adverts that show men as sex objects as well then. Fuck all wrong with the poster and the podium girls are not made to do it. Yet again the PC brigade and precious souls get their way.

Whether it got banned or not, or if it was sexist or not is immaterial as the the poster was printed to get people to know about the race which it has done.

Can you imagine the publicity a picture of a cyclist covered in mud would get ? not very much other than from the usual cycling followers, however this picture / poster has been talked about all over twitter, facebook etc etc and it has reached a multitude of people it would not normally reach.

In my opinion it is a very good piece of advertising.

Dear UCI,

Following your recent intervention with regards to a certain poster advertising a bicycle race.

I wish to lodge a complaint against the whole sport. The sight of 200 men in tight fitting clothing, all in a bum up posture whilst getting all hot and sweaty is wrong. Especially when they are breathing hard and with their tops often fully unzipped. I find it hard to understand why you continue allow reporters to shove a microphone infront of these hot, sweaty, heavy breathing men wearing tight fitting clothing that is sweat soaked.

As for certain genres where the participants are positively encouraged by the crowd to slip and wrestle in mud. There isn't an event were bars, clips, cleats and clamps aren't discussed along with rubber and lengths.

In these days of political corectness and equal opportunity, you still encourage mud wrestling and wet tee-shirt competions between men who are scantily clad or in tight fitting clothing. What's more worrying is that young children are actively encouraged to take part. Thankfully it's seems to be the odd dog that gets involved every now and then.

How dare you, how very dare you?

Removes tongue from cheek, strange how bad men's racing can be made to sound isn't it.

If Marianne Vos pinched a man's backside, the situation would be in no way comparable. Men have not been subject to 2000 plus years of a martiarchy, for starters. When something like what Sagan did happens, it is a woman's prerogative to view it as part of a much larger picture. And as for Sagan trying to belittle Cancellara's achievements, doing it by way of a woman is significant. Men have been using women to belittle other men for thousands of years. And no, I do not hate men, but I do hate those men who tell people to "chill out". In the same way that a white man cannot begin to comprehend the history of a black man (he can understand, but he cannot comprehend), men cannot keep telling women how they should be experiencing their own humiliation - regarding this, or any other incident. Kthanxbai

Martens,

I, and a lot of others in NL, grew up reading Suske and Wiske. Flicking through the TV channels, I'd flick through the dutch Belgian channels as much as the NL dutch ones to see if there was anything interesting on.

As an adult I've never had an issue with the Flemish, and never noticed Flemish having any great issues with the dutch. Working in a multi-cultural call-centre, the Flemish and dutch gravitated together. Sure, the Flemish have a different accent, but then there are a lot of similarities between an NL Brabants accent and a Belgian Brabants accent!

Interesting article, I didn't realise regular cross-pollination was as limited as that. Shame.

Crikey: The other half of me is Irish (I'm more Irish than dutch really, or maybe), and I live in Scotland, so I'm well aware. The Vlaams very much are not dutch, just as the Scots and Irish are particular about not being identified as english. I'm well aware. That doesn't mean they still don't have a lot in common.

Sagan and podium girls? Defiantly one for the wank bank.

When I was younger... fitter, generally more appealing to the opposite sex, I had my bottom pinched on more than one occasion.

Never did I feel assaulted.

Did I feel objectified? Probably. Did I mind? No.

I'm certainly not condoning such actions, and I've never pinched an unknown or unwilling bottom in my life, but I guess what I am saying is that it wasn't exactly a big deal.

Now Sagan's antics... that's a bit different in my eyes. That wasn't a cheeky pinch of the bottom, that was a power play. The woman in question was rightly angered as it was to all parties a public display of 'look at what I can do, I 'own' this stage and everything on it'.

Ironically, Sagan wasn't actually trying to belittle women, he was looking to belittle Cancellara's achievements, but hey ho.

I guess what I am getting in to (badly), is that this is a greyer area than some would like to believe...

I don't want to live in a world where people can go around 'assaulting' people without control, but at the same time, I am loathed to condone a society where physical touch, or even admission of physical attraction is taboo without written permission.

In summary... I think we all need to chill out a bit.

Quote:

There are a lot of cultural similarities between the Netherlands and Vlaanderen.

Yes, but they don't take kindly to being regarded as one homogenous group. It's a bit like mixing up the Welsh, Irish and Scots. Riding races in the Netherlands in a part Belgian team reminds you of this in a fairly physical way...

crikey: There are a lot of cultural similarities between the Netherlands and Vlaanderen. People there watch each other's telly, read each other's books and comic strips. They speak the same language after all (well, the Belgians have a bit of an accent, and have resisted some of the northern dutch attempts to modernise the language).

I'm part dutch (my surname originates from Belgium ).

Usual rowlocks here...its sexist ,it condones assault, it potrays assault as a bit of a joke...and the discussion is nitpicking about....
Cycling is way behind society in terms of attitude and needs to get into the 20th century let alone the 21st.

Much ado about nothing.

If Marianne Vos pinched some guys ass no one would care. If someone then made a poster alluding to it, everyone would have a hearty chuckle at the harmless sexual assault the fellow was subjected to.

People need to get a grip and chill the fudge out.

Ahem, you are aware that the E3-Harelbeke race occurs in Belgium not the Netherlands, right?

Paul J makes the point. Having lived in NL I'm thinking the Netherlands are probably wondering why the fuss. (Not saying the fuss isn't warranted.) As has been said, the podium girls is just not necessary, well the kissing and 'fawning' to a 'victor'.
attractive women will always be attractive, genetics of the sexes will always dictate that to a degree. But how these women are portrayed and 'used' is the issue. Attractive women presenting prizes? Fair enough. I wonder if the female races will ever have ripped 6 pack male models present prizes with a kiss? Very much doubt it would be wanted never mind happen!?

There is nothing healthy in promoting assault...which this poster does.
Uci were way too slow responding.

i agree with the above. Podium girls are sexist. The poster is not.

The issue isn't the poster. The poster is just referencing Sagan and podium girls. If there is unacceptable sexism in the poster, then the issue is with the entire notion of scantily clad podium girls. If something needs to be banned to fix it, it is the podium girls. Banning just the poster is just a pathetic misdirection of effort.

That said, there is a different attitude to nudity and scantily clad women in the Netherlands, which I suspect is the same in Vlaanderen, which in some ways is a lot more healthy than the attitudes in the UK. To some degree I wonder how much of the outrage over this poster reflects some of those cultural issues. I don't have a good overview of the facts on this though and it'd be a subjective discussion.

I want UCI to tell us which regulations they are referring to, but they seem reluctant to respond.....would that be, because it has been made up...