the all england lawn tennis club has apologised for using the iconic tennis girl poster from the 1970s to promote an upcoming exhibition but will still feature the work the poster featuring blonde model fiona butler, who was 18 at the time the image was taken, attracted a flurry of criticism when the official wimbledon twitter account included it in a post promoting the powerful posters exhibition some followers accused the home of wimbledon of sexism for highlighting the image, taken by the late martin elliott in 1976 at the university of birmingham's tennis courts and printed by athena 'we apologise for offence caused by the athena tennis girl poster it is a controversial piece of poster history but we do not endorse it,' the profile later said after removing the post athena's tennis girl poster caused a twitter stir and wimbledon was forced to apologise after using it to promote a forthcoming exhibition called powerful posters  last year the dress worn by butler in the famous image, the wooden tennis racquet she is holding, a a 1979 edition poster and a 1980s limited edition canvas print were sold at auction for £15,500 while such a price may indicate its historic value and iconic status, many on twitter felt it had no place as a promotional tool for the exhibit in which it features at the respected venue tennis fan kishore sharma expressed her outrage on twitter, saying: 'can't believe wimbledon used this pic for upcoming 'powerful poster exhibition'' roger federer fans who go by the name 'fed's angels' on twitter, posted: 'come on wimble! i thought you were the classy slam!' the all england lawn tennis club used the iconic poster, which will be exhibited with the handmade dress worn by model fiona butler and wooden racquet used in the 1976 shoot, to promote the exhibition  even the wording of the apology attracted criticism as a twitter user responded with the comment: 'the poster doesn't show the history of tennis, the girl isn't a tennis player, you are just publicising sexualisation of females' and campaign group the everyday sexism project asked: 'wimbledon having deleted your tweet, can you confirm if the poster you tweeted will be included in your exhibition?' twitter user david b backed the club, saying: 'presumably john mcenroe will now have to be airbrushed out of wimbledon history? these pc idiots   'they cannot be serious!'' an all england club spokesman has since confirmed the poster would remain in the exhibition despite the apology he added: 'we're aware that the poster has generated debate on social media and we decided to respond to some of the comments raised since we want to be clear that it is not a reflection of how we view women in tennis 'the image in question is from a 1970s poster that was extremely popular, selling over two million copies worldwide and it is part of an historic exhibition about tennis posters dating back to 1893 'not to include it in the exhibition would perhaps be an oversight since it is the most famous tennis poster of all time and should be regarded in this context only' last night tennis fans were questioning whether the poster, one of the world's best selling, really is that controversial after all use of the saucy shot on the official twitter page immediately raised eyebrows on twitter  roger federer's fan group said: 'come on wimble! i thought you were the classy slam!' sadie hochfield tweeted: 'ridiculous wimbledon are getting stick for sharing iconic poster political correctness gone mad/don't pretend you've never seen it before!' sara smith jones posted: 'wimbledon [has] nothing to apologise for – i think it's a great poster, is of its time in history' mark staniforth said: 'wimbledon has just tweeted an apology for any 'offence' caused by a link to the 40 year old athena girl poster the world's gone mad' others merely saw the funny side 'i think wimbledon were right to delete the athena poster tweet,' one twitter user wrote 'no one should have to see that appalling 1970s court surface again' the year long exhibition will range from the earliest poster in the museum's collection, an 1893 advertisement for the championships, through to the original artwork for this year's grand slam at the world famous venue in london sw19
all england club athena wimbledon lawn tennis museum
all england club used iconic athena girl image to promote exhibition  powerful posters show set to open at wimbledon lawn tennis museum  they faced criticism and were accused of sexism on social media  image deleted from their official twitter account and an apology issued 