St. Louis Blues Ice Girls Deserve Better

Nadia Archuleta of Mile High Sticking reached out to a number of women who write for FanSided and asked us what we thought of the presence of Ice Girls in the NHL. While you can read her thoughts over here, at MHS, mine are below, and excerpts are included in the original article.

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The St. Louis Blues continue to maintain a crew of Ice Girls, and while I am glad these women have jobs that they presumably enjoy and get to be a part of something they love (because if you’re not a huge hockey fan, I have no idea why you would decide to shovel off the ice in between periods for your city’s hockey team), my issue is with the way the Blues portray and treat the Ice Girls in promotions.

The Blues are actually one of the better teams in the league when it comes to Ice Girls outfits – giving them pants, and full-length, long-sleeved tops to work in on the ice. But many promos still show the Ice Girls in midriff-baring tops, clingy yoga pants and poses designed to show off both butt and boobs.

To be perfectly clear: when you want to work in the entertainment industry, getting a job as one on the Ice Girls can be a huge boost to your résumé and raise your profile locally and nationwide. There is absolutely nothing wrong with taking a job to do so, to earn money, or for whatever other reason one might have.

But there is a problem with the way the Ice Girls are sexualized for public consumption.

I’m not a fan of Ice Girls as they are perpetuated at the moment around the league. The Blues might be one of the better teams to be an Ice Girl for, but they still have a ways to go.

These women are tremendous athletes, and hard workers who deserve the opportunity to showcase their talents. However, the outfits they are provided by many teams and the way Ice Girls are promoted – as hot pieces of ass for hockey fans to watch while there’s no “real” action happening on the ice – shows that teams still think men are their target audience and that these women don’t really matter as people.

It also sends a message to women in the audience that they are not welcome unless they are willing to either take some clothing off or be the Scandalized Mother Who Disapproves of These Ladies’ Choices™. But these are women simply doing their job, and doing it well.

So instead, why not be the woman who disapproves of the franchise’s choices?

Women are the fastest-growing audience in hockey. At this point, estimates of the proportion of women hockey fans following the NHL range between 40 and 50%. We are the ones who purchase the majority of clothing in the world, both for ourselves and our families, meaning that we are statistically likely to be the ones buying, gifting and wearing team jerseys.

Assuming half your audience isn’t women is, at this point, foolish.

If the teams wanted to promote their Ice Girls in a positive manner they would provide multiple styles of uniforms for the women to choose from. They would promote them in a manner similar to the way they promote their hockey players: having them do interviews before/after the game, explaining how difficult a job it is they’re doing, giving training tips, showing off their skills on NHL.com videos, Instagram and whatnot.

At the very least they could simply provide the entire ice crew, male and female, with a warm, gender-neutral uniform.

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