From the very beginning of motoring the female form has been used time and time again to sell, promote and market all things automotive. From the brolly dollies who parade on the starting grids of motorsport to the heel-clad promo girls who stalk the car shows, cars and (objectified) girls go together like Katie Price and pink ponies.
Strange, really, because in a world where women are pretty much as passionate and enthusiastic as men about their motors, there is a lag between the media reality of the car obsession and the actuality out on the streets. You never see car show ‘boys’ and when is the last time you saw a ripped male torso selling anything other than hair product or after-shave?
General sports punditry, once the sheepskin-clad preserve of the male gender, has with Gaby Logan, Suzie Perry and Helen Chamberlain etc infused a healthy dose of womanhood into the testosterone-tainted aether of sports TV. But will we ever get to enjoy a genuine counterpoint to the stonewash-hitching maleness of Clarkson, May & co? And no, Vicki Butler-Henderson just doesn’t count.
Does the fact that there is something fundamentally bloke-ish about the urge to list, opine, analyse, muse, pontificate and generally blather about motors, mean that the day that we see a proper female motoring anchor is still a long way off?
