Much ado about the WAGs

I remember seeing a little girl on television one day who said she wanted to be Rakhi Sawant when she grew up. “Because Rakhi is bindaas,” declared this 8-year-old, her innocent face drowning in make-up. Her parents seemed mighty pleased, grinning ear to ear.

How drastically our role models have changed. There was a time when girls wanted to be Indira Gandhi because she was ‘bindaas’.

England is facing a role-model problem of its own. Headmistresses of top girls schools have warned that the WAG (Wives and Girlfriends) culture in the country is bringing down the importance of good character and intellectual pursuits. With Victoria Beckham and Coleen Rooney as role models, high heels and low IQs are becoming the norm.

Apparently, one out of four girls in England wants to be a WAG, i.e. marry or date a footballer.Cosmetic surgery, hair treatments, handbags, fancy high-heels are more sought after than books, arts and culture.

That sort of thing is bound to happen, if Victoria Beckham hogs the news space day in and day out. Her husband, former England captain David Beckham, recently bought her an £80,000 handbag, to add to 80,000 others she probably already owns. It made news here in India too.

Coleen McLoughlin and Wayne Rooney’s wedding has made more front page headlines than Gordon Brown’s entire political career.

Besides, a husband earning over a £100000 a week is a prized catch. It assures a lifetime of parties, purses, pouts and pleasures. Subsequently, the woman can become a celebrity too. If she has even a little bit of talent in marketing, she can grab herself plush deals writing newspaper columns, launching clothes lines and fragrances.

These newspaper columns are a window to the WAGs’ world and titillate our voyeuristic instincts. So we have Alex Curran, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard’s missus, writing a weekly column in the Daily Mirror titled ‘Go shopping with Alex Curran’, where she lists her best beauty must-haves, and tells the world she has had breast implants.

There are self help books on how to be a WAG that fly off the shelves. One such is
called ‘Wag Don’t Wannabe — The smart girl’s guide to dating a footballer’ by Francesca Amber Sawyer.

The WAG culture blossomed in England when their national team was managed
by Swedish Sven Goran Eriksson from 2001 to 2006.

Under him, WAGs were allowed to be part of the England’s team’s entourage. In the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the girl brigade was a huge hit, wreaking havoc during their 10 to 12 hour ‘shopathons’ in Baden Baden, the team’s base. Most blamed them for England’s dismal performance in the tournament, where they crashed out of the quarterfinals against Portugal in yet another penalty shoot-out disaster.

New coach Italian Fabio Capello has taken a sterner stand and banned the WAGs to travel with the team, at least for the time being.

WAGS — are they good or bad for society? Are they the gold-diggers or the support system their man so badly need? Are they just shimmer and shine with no substance?
The answer can never be all black or white - for why do we read gossip columns before the edit page?