Are female empowerment initiatives in danger of becoming a tad pat and lazy? I ask, because of the mammoth backlash against the lingerie company Bluebella’s new advertising campaign, featuring three players from the rugby sevens Team GB Olympic squad, Jasmine Joyce, Celia Quansah and Ellie Boatman.

As part of the brand’s #StrongIsBeautiful campaign, encouraging girls to feel confident about taking up sport, the women are depicted playing while clad in uber-sexy underwear, teamed with rugby socks and boots.

It looks exactly as bizarre as you’d think: there they are, trudging through the grassy mud clods. Some pose with balls by goals; others hold a teammate up in the air. Most are clad in porn-adjacent BDSM-lite bras and tight pants with see-through panels and gussets that appear to be the width of dental floss.

Despite the feminist intentions and fine physiques, the effect is disconcerting, verging on fetishistic. What, exactly, is going on here? Female strength reinterpreted via balconette bras and mud-splattered camiknickers? Athletic prowess teamed with cam-girl styling? Eat your heart out, Emmeline Pankhurst.

Cue a barrage of complaints, including from tennis ace Martina Navratilova, who labelled it “regressive and sexist”, and swimming champion Sharron Davies. Team GB stresses it’s not involved with Bluebella’s advert. The charity, Women in Sport, has also disowned the “highly sexualised” campaign (awkward, seeing as Bluebella included its name in the publicity........

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