Hey let's check out some more awful experiences in applying to be a member of the promotional crew for a hockey team!
Today we lose respect for the Columbus Blue Jackets organization. Just a smidge. God damn it.
Check out the application here, all interested young folks.
It's all going really well until you get to the part where you have to upload a picture.
Then there is some small, gray text.
GRRREAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT.
But I mean only the ladies.
Wouldn't want any women who don't have rock-hard flat stomachs, regardless of athleticism/ability to skate, doing fan promotions in PUBLIC of all places.
We really need to know why it is the norm for NHL teams to discriminate against women based on their bodies. We understand, as we discussed in our super controversial post about the Penguins ice crew, that this is an entertainment position and that they should hire outgoing, friendly people who present themselves well.
But I mean, break out the bikinis, right?
Notice that men aren't asked to show their stomachs.
Let's shame women based on their topless appearance!
Clearly this will get us the most enthusiastic, capable, and qualified applicants!
Anyone who says "sex sells, I like to look at ice girls" is perfectly entitled to that opinion; however, we are of the belief that hockey isn't an appropriate venue for this kind of judgment.
We also understand that this type of work can be considered a resume-builder for people interested in modeling and other types of public, advertising work based on appearance.
But obviously, there are other kinds of beauty.
That is a larger problem with society, but still.
It's like, god forbid we parade women around who don't fit this particular paradigm of fitness and beauty.
How about we stop parading around women?
To the credit of the NHL Blue Jackets Twitter (and the fact that this post probably means nothing and no one who works in hockey promotions at all will ever care about our opinion, because that's the way the world works), they did respond to me:
That page, by the way, can be found here, and looks like this. Couldn't get the whole spread in the pic, but you get the idea:
We also don't want to hate on these women or these men.
We hope they feel awesome about their bodies and are happy people. We also hope they are good at their jobs.
And they're probably nice people. It's not my job to shame them for fitting into the mold, so to speak.
But on the other hand, this is a backwards response.
Why do you have to make women send you pics of their stomachs? Because of the uniform.
But why do you have the uniform? Because we want this type of stomach.
It all comes down to the application process. It's skeezy and inequitable because it never comes out and says what it is, explicitly. I don't know why everyone is okay with skirting around the issue: we're hiring women based largely on their sex appeal because sexy women thrown into the mix at hockey games is a generally accepted marketing practice that we are totally behind. We want model types. No fatties.
It's not simply an exercise in doing arena work in the realm of fan promotions. It's never going to be about your enthusiasm or ability to do the work. It's something else entirely and it always will be. It just looks so sneaky on the page.
And yes: it sends a negative sexual message to females who are interested in working in sports entertainment at any level.
or maybe we're just butthurt because we're not pretty or something idk.
The Columbus Blue Jackets organization is still one of our favorites and it's a team we'll stand behind every day of the week because we want to see them succeed, but the game is played on the ice and we don't have to approve of this from any sports organization.
Women are people who deserve a legitimate place in any organization's payroll, but we really think something is wrong when a minor part of the arena experience that could be fun for EVERYONE is reduced to a judmgent call about women's stomachs. There are lots of people at the game who probably don't care, including straight female fans, homosexual male fans, and children. We totally understand that this type of promotional crew is crafted to appeal most to the heterosexual male fan who apparently needs some extra eye candy, but isn't it time to stop crafting your marketing strategy to appeal to just one type of person? Is it socially acceptable yet to dig diversity? That the fan experience at the arena can be bettered by trimming all of this stupid stuff and focusing on creating an inclusive community that doesn't have an undertone of random sex appeal?
We honestly don't know what the Pepsi Power Patrol even does. They apparently don't have to skate.
w/e
It just seems so old-fashioned and stupid that we continue to pay women to appeal to someone else's idea of "hot."
come at me bro
Go Pens.
ETA:
Thanks, Blue Jackets Organization, for dealing with this better than the Penguins did.
i.e. with silence.
whoever runs the CBJ Twitter is definitely all right.
