WAGs

After first hearing this term, it took me a considerable amount of time to figure out what everyone (aka, mainly the media) was talking about. I'll spare you the torment and just tell you what it is, - WAGs is the term used in these parts for referring to the Wives And Girlfriends of sports stars. These are the women with really big sunglasses and big hair often shown in the crowds at England World Cup games. The world's most famous WAG would be Victoria Beckham, and Nadine Cole, the shamed wife of Ashley Cole and member of Girls Aloud, is another well known WAG.

For some reason, WAGs are sometimes treated as celebrities in their own right. Basically, being the arm candy of well-paid athletic types they tend to be busty blondes (or if you are Posh, gaunt brunettes), and society finds these people interesting. In the US we have actresses and Paris Hilton to fill the general role of 'party types we like to look at pictures of getting out of cars in the evening time', but here the supply of genuine female celebrities is a bit short, and aristocrat/socialite types must not be very good looking, so this gap is filled by WAGs. Some, like Posh and the Girls Aloud one, are well known enough to just be listed as themselves in a photo caption, but many others require the name of their HABs (my newly made up term for husbands and boyfriends) to be mentioned alongside their own. A few weeks ago the newspapers got lucky when there was some sort of widely WAG attended event on a windy evening, and so two pages in the London Light showed us the various attempts of these ladies trying to get from the car to the event without getting their hair just totally messed up. It's sad, I know.

And then of course, sometimes these WAGs manage to pick up side jobs based on their WAG credentials. For example, Wayne Rooney's woman has her own show, called 'Colleen's Real Women' where she goes around and tells normal people they are pretty and makes them walk around in very little clothing. Or at least that's the grasp of things I got from the commercial. It's in instances like that where I really wonder about the people in this country. Of course the US gave Jessica Simpson her own show, so I guess we can't really judge.

While I may sound like a harsh critic of WAGs, I must admit they seem to have a pretty good deal. They get money, clothes and attention without actually requiring any talent of any kind. I imagine they spend their days getting their roots touched up, shopping for wind-resistant dresses, and getting their maids to clean up the poo that their adorable little dogs deposit around the house. Oh yeah, and going to the tanning bed. Again, this does not seem like a bad way to go through life.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to point out another, somewhat related topic: the lack of female sports in this land. While the US isn't stellar in this department, we at least have the WNBA, an established professional national women's soccer team, a considerable number of female tennis and golf players, and the odd female race driver. Off the top of my head I can only think of one female Brit athlete off the top of my head - long distance runner Paula Radcliffe, and that's really just because Mark is frequently extolling her virtues as he totally has a huge crush on her. It seems like this country could put a bit more effort into promoting actual female athletes than just the women who date athletes, especially when it comes to promoting positive role models for girls. I mean, who girl's soccer have really ever taken off if it weren't for Mia Hamm? Who, I suppose via her marriage to Nomar Garciaparra is also technically a WAG. Oh dear.