Saturday, September 3, 2016

Mansfield Town chief exec in "One Call Girl" sexism row - BBC News

Image copyright John Sumpter
Image caption The tweet went out ahead of the Stags" game against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday night

Mansfield Town"s chief executive has denied accusations that the club"s use of promotional workers - known as "One Call Girls" - is sexist.

The women, who advertise club sponsor One Call Insurance, hand out beer tokens during home games.

Critics have claimed the "call girl" reference effectively compares them to prostitutes.

Club boss Carolyn Radford said it was just a "play on words" and had nothing to do with prostitution.

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Carolyn Radford, whose husband John owns Mansfield Town and One Call Insurance, said the promotional staff also work at the company headquarters

However, Lisa Clarke, from the No More Page 3 campaign, said she believed the tweet"s wording was "intentional" and that it was wrong to make light of prostitution.

She said: "I refuse to think for one minute the board didn"t think about the second meaning of that name [One Call Girls].

"Prostitution, sex work, is a massive issue... it"s generally surrounded by poverty [and] by exploitation."

Image copyright Twitter

The women are frequently seen at the club"s ground in tight Lycra cat suits with the sponsor"s name emblazoned across their chests.

Mrs Radford, whose husband John Radford owns Mansfield Town and One Call Insurance, said the promotional staff also work at the company headquarters in Doncaster.

She said the tweets should have included the word "insurance" and this is where the controversy has stemmed from.

Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Carolyn Radford said women are often used for promotional work in other sports

The chief executive said: "[My husband"s] company has no connotations whatsoever to do with prostitution.

"We"re not trying to demean women, we"ve never had this issue before and the girls have been doing incredible work...

"They actually enjoy it and they say they get a little bit of confidence... they want to do it."

She argued that a number of other sports use women in promotion work.

"Do we just sit down and watch the game and be quiet?" she said. "Or can we have more of a role in football?"

Image copyright Twitter
Image caption A tweet was put out to explain the "One Call Girl" reference

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Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-37255578

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