Football WAGs

I will be honest – it is no coincidence that the negligence of this site just so happened to begin with the dawning of World Cup fever (these things are inherit, blame my Chilean heritage). So in these last few weeks while our living room sofas provide merciless substitutes for our beds, some of us may have noticed a curious gaggle of silicone blondes claiming their share of newspaper headlines. The Wives and Girlfriends (WAGs) of our beloved footballers have basked in much of the spotlight surrounding the event, so much so that many managers have banned the stylish beauties from staying anywhere near their vulnerable players. Coined by the British media during the 2006 World Cup, the WAG embodies superficiality at its very worse – and we cannot love it more.

The lavish lifestyle is simply irresistible – reality television shows offer coverage of the women’s extravagant shopping sprees, websites are dedicated to the tireless occupation of tracking the women wherever they go, and mainstream media never fail to point to these supposed distractions, regularly blaming the WAGs for their husbands’ embarrassing on-field blunders. The enormous rise in female bankruptcy has been attributed to the glorification of WAGs and their indulgent lifestyles, with young women demanding the hairstyle, wardrobe, beauty treatments, cars and holidays enjoyed by their much wealthier idols, eventually drowning in debt before they’ve even landed a regular gal’s salary. But perhaps what’s even more interesting is that today many women aspire to the sole occupation of sponging off their husbands’ success, pursuing the extraordinarily shallow existence of shopping, pampering and partying.

There is little doubt that we have carelessly stepped away from the empowered working women of previous generations. The WAG phenomenon was created by the media, and happily lapped up by the public. The extent to which the media is able to manipulate our sense of direction and purpose is something else to look out for in the last remaining weeks of the World Cup.