Imagine going to your partner’s work event and having to walk a red carpet in front of hundreds of media and thousands of strangers who are going to judge what you’re wearing, how you look and rate you out of 10.
Welcome to the hell facing all the wives and girlfriends who are attending tonight’s AFL Brownlow Medal with their footy-playing partners. It’s a night centred around the blokes, yet it’s the women who are being judged.
While no one gives a toss what the men are wearing, these poor women have spent weeks, sometimes months, stressing out about what people will say about them.
Tonight, Mamamia wants to celebrate Red Carpet Kindness by supporting the women at the Brownlow Medal and saying “You look bloody beautiful”. Because while it’s fun to get dressed up for a big night out, this is not their day job.
So we encourage you to spread the kindness and hashtag your support on social media: #KindCarpet.
Click through our gallery to see all the beautiful red carpet looks of the night so far.
The Brownlow Medal 2016 red carpet.
Top Comments
Shoutout to Tegan (I think), the reporter on The Project, who didn't get drawn into the 'best and worst dressed' question last night. She said they all looked beautiful.
Come on. You're making it sound like these women are being dragged onto the red carpet against their will. It's obvious that a number of these women enjoy being the centre of attention, they enjoy getting designers to provide dresses and they see it as an opportunity to boost their own profile.
I'm a former 'WAG' as they call us, however my ex was a soccer player, not an AFL player.
You are correct that some of these women enjoy the attention and have/aspire to careers such as modelling or tv hosting. But many of these women are normal girls whose partners just happens to be a well known athlete. I would say at the 2 clubs my former partner played for while I was dating him had a mix.....yes, you had your Bec Judd/Colleen Rooney/Victoria Beckham types who definitely liked to be notice and enjoyed the attention. But you had a lot of normal women who were studying or working or stay at home mums to young kids, all of whom had no interest in fame and being photographed. In fact, a lot of WAGs would try and avoid the cameras and attention at all costs when they went to games to watch their partners or went to events like this. And make no mistake, a lot of WAGs don't go for the attention, they go because it is a big deal to their partner and they want to support him.
When I was a WAG, I was a University student and he was my high school boyfriend who happened to be one of the lucky ones who made it as a professional footballer. It was never about fame or fancy dresses for me. I was a law student whose boyfriend happened to be really good at kicking a ball around a field.
(In case you're wondering, we broke up because in the end, we grew apart and the people we'd become at 25 were not the people we were at 15 and we wanted different things in life).
Thank you for this.
My step sister is the girlfriend of a reasonably well known English premier league footballer. He was the childhood friend of her cousin's husband and they met when paired together as bridesmaid/groomsman at their wedding. At the time, he was 20 and playing in the reserves/juniors where like, maybe 1 in every 15 "make it". He made a deal with his parents if he hadn't "made it" by 25, he'd stop and go to University. She was a 21 year old student studying accounting.
My sister in law is a very lovely, normal girl. Very pretty but doesn't have any interest in modelling or being what they call a "professional WAG". She wasn't one of those women who plotted to meet and snag a footballer. It just so happened the cute groomsman she was paired off with was a good footballer who "made it" a couple of years later.
Like you say, there are some women who love the attention being a WAG brings. But there are also a lot of very normal women whose boyfriends just happen to be good football/basketball/cricket/insertsporthere players.