14 DAY TRIAL // Although they’ve often been painted as an elite group of women whose only aspiration is to dangle on the arm of someone famous – preferably a football player in the UK – and who favor high heels to education, WAGs are not stupid, psychologist Geoff Rolls says in his book “Women Can’t Park, Men Can’t Pack,” as cited by the Daily Mail.
According to Rolls, the WAG stereotype is often regarded with prejudice, solely on the grounds that footballers are not really the most articulate or educated people out there. Because they are this way, people generally assume that their girlfriends and wives must have an IQ to match, which is why they rarely even bother – if at all – to give the woman in question the benefit of the doubt. Or to listen to her speak, or pay attention to her career, Rolls adds.
This is why WAGs have come to be perceived as universally stupid, although most of them are far from that, being actually able to put to shame even their most bitter critics, Rolls says. “While footballers are renowned for their skills on the pitch, their wives and girlfriends are usually seen as airheads whose only interest is spending their partner's money on designer handbags and fake tan. But is it true? Professional football in Britain is a low-brow occupation, albeit an extremely well-paid one. However, we must not underrate these ladies.” Rolls adds.
Speaking strictly of education and learning skills, the psychologist reveals that most WAGs whom we read about every day are better off than many other people we know, and whom we might even consider “smart.” “Of the 12 WAGs most often mentioned in the newspapers in 2007, nine had five or more GCSE passes (grades A* to C); Coleen Rooney has ten GCSEs (including four A grades); two had three good A-level passes; and another two, including Lisa Roughead, wife of Manchester United’s Michael Garrick, have university degrees. Add to this the fact that Victoria Beckham and Cheryl Cole had [already] forged successful careers in pop before falling for their famous footballers and the picture improves further.” explains the psychologist in his latest book.
Nevertheless, people continue to choose to remain oblivious to these aspects, Rolls believes. In this sense, he offers as example the Learning And Skills Council recent initiative, where WAGs were used as the opposite of a role model, in order to encourage 16-year-old girls to stay in school and get a degree, as opposed to dropping out to pursue a “career” as a WAG.