Is Barbie the movie a colourful kid’s film, a corporate product cash-grab or a sophisticated satire? The premise is that Barbie empowers women and embraces diversity. It seems ironic that the central character is a doll that promoted unrealistic body types and “set the feminist movement back 50 years” (a line from the film itself). Perhaps its loudest feminist statement is that every male character in the film is either stupid, a loser or a threat to women. Equality isn’t sufficient because (spoiler alert!) there’s no happy ending until the Barbies run the world.

But whether you love or hate the film, it’s making us all stop and think (at least for 1h 54m) about body image and our own acceptance or rejection of what the media holds up as the ideal. My thoughts turned immediately to our sport and what we represent. Being a sport without the luxury of ‘first past the post’ we rely on subjective judging. But we are not a beauty pageant – hallelujah!

At Physie all competitors can take the floor knowing that what gets judged is the Physie performance, not the person – not their body size or shape, their outfit, grooming, hair do, nail colour, eyelashes or anything else.

When I was a senior girl, back in the 80’s, my teacher wouldn’t let me cut my hair short because ‘physie girls have long hair!’  Thank heavens those days are over. Four decades later, Physie girls and women now represent a range of body sizes and shapes, skin colours, clothing and grooming choices as wide as the community in which we live.

I hope everyone takes to the competition floor this year in whatever way makes them feel empowered and fabulous. And sorry Margot Robbie, you may be “perfect” but how good is your Physie?