Fists, waves and sexism in sport

[petulance]

The obvious point is that by and large girls tend to judge each other and set their own standards.
Its their idea about what is good that matters.
I reckon a lot of guys don't give a stuff really.

Bang. Spot on. Women dress to impress other women.They don't dress to impress men.

[booradley]

Does it matter that Alana is generally photographed going surfing or actually surfing? It certainly takes some of the "steam" out of the equation as opposed to the Sage Ericson stuff which is pretty full on.
I don't know any of us who haven't oggled the female form and so I can't help but feel like a bit of a hypocrite when going the "soapbox sexism route".
Female body image issues are closely mirrored by those of young men in society these days and the repucussions are even more concerning - Check how early male teens are into getting buff and with that comes supplements and with that comes arrogance and with that comes aggression and with that comes violence.

[Skipper]

Bang. Spot on. Women dress to impress other women.They don't dress to impress men.

all the more hideous as they're pitted against each other by the dictates of fashion and frippery.
i dont agree it's true overall. it's a curiously converse thing whereby in the eyes of other women, women consider how they are judged by men. they're a currency meter.

The obvious point is that by and large girls tend to judge each other and set their own standards.
Its their idea about what is good that matters.
I reckon a lot of guys don't give a stuff really.

truth is, too many men are giving a stuff in that they're increasingly becoming victims to the same hideous asprirational disease which too many girls/women suffer from.
representations of boys/men, pretty well everywhere, are geared and driven by the same sort of marketing chicanery we've come to know and loathe in female representations
and it contributes to the currently concerning issue of young men and their 'body image'...
it's the flip side of the obesity epidemic. only the range and degree of self esteem issues determines which way one goes.
too fit or too fat.

i think the whole bikini thing sucks. and i don't buy the whole ..." go grrl! empowerement speil. the only ones in control are the companies.

the girls/women are simply playing into the dictates of marketers and spono managers who on record, as i heard reference to recently, have expressly requested the girls surf in bikinis for obvious reasons.

as far as the righteousness of their 'healthy pursuit' goes - in defence of claims of false marketing - .... that's just sweetening the lie. or else, it's such a fine line between empowerment and entrapment.
these are highly trained athletes, and the women, mostly, not that 'ideal', in that they're often muscular and thick of girth and thighs. the Alana's, Steph Rices etc..are exceptions, and thats why we see so much of them i suspect.


the sexism/exploitation argument can be flipped.
if for instance bill henson's pics were pitched to sell product, you'd easily argue the abbhorance of that.
but they are pitched elsewhere and with pure, creative intent.

i wonder how cori schumacher might photo essay Alana or Sage...

[steve shearer]

It's marginalising and infantilising womens surfing at a time when then there's never been a better athletic "product" to present to the market. Presenting it continuously as teenage boy fantasy.


It's a self defeating strategy and the sport sure needs a strong leader to kind of realise this is 2013 and there's been this thing called feminism for the last hundred years.

Maybe someone could slip Steph Gilmore a copy of Simone De Beauvior in between events.

It's just depressingly retrograde and lowest common denominator.

[nosedrip]

All of this talk is making me want to see Dane naked.

[Beanpole]

As I remember Rabbit did that for tracks as a bit of a joke. Peter Drouyn however did do a spread for Cleo. Maybe they can get him to do a reshoot to promote Billabong That should boost sales.Then they would have all bases covered.

The way I see it there are two separate but intertwined issues. One is how young women and I guess increasingly young men want to present themselves in a ridiculously image conscious world and the other is marketing.

Look at Womens beach volleyball.

[crabmeat thompson]

It's marginalising and infantilising womens surfing at a time when then there's never been a better athletic "product" to present to the market.

Seems dramatic and over the top. No one marginalises them, they are willing participants. Like I said, check out their instagram accounts. There's more titties and arse there, than any of their corpo marketing campaigns.

A shrinking market off the back of the global economy collapse. An industry in peril and in need of resuscitation. Tough times, tough measures and all that.

The girls are getting from the market all that is humanly possible at the minute, imo.

In 2006 when megan abubo and whoever was in her heat didn't catch a single wave at Teahupo'o, and then a vote was taken and only 4 girls wanted to surf there. That could have been the death for women's surfing right there. Fullstop. Gone forever.

The girls are the best they've been, I 100% agree. But their plight will take time. They have to win/ earn back the trust of investors and advertisers. It will happen but not overnight. Until then they earn fairly good money, and with ZoSea, they'll all get big payrises.

Lets see once they're earning better money, what their decisions and choices regarding how they market themselves and allow themselves to be marketed are. I'm guessing the majority will still be fashionistas and wanting to turn heads because they're proud of how they look.

[Davros]

Patria Thomas, gold medal winner in swimming couldn't get a sponsor, why, have a look.

[Beanpole]

Anyway Steph Gilmore is Number 1 at the moment so all is right with women's surfing. Has to be at the highest level ever.
The rest is window dressing.

[BA]

Patria Thomas, gold medal winner in swimming couldn't get a sponsor, why, have a look.

Yep. She was a mutt.

[crabmeat thompson]

Half nude men, you say?

Might be time I bought a surf mag...

[kreepykrawly]

When women are young they have long flowing hair, beautiful bodies and glittery makeup on...all for the purpose of attracting the opposite sex to procreate.
Once they have their hooks in they turn into monsters sucking the life out of you.

I say exploit the f-ckers to within an inch of their lives.

Hey NC...Tom sold his house yet ????

[crabmeat thompson]

If you want to talk about a marginalised collection of women, lets talk about all the rapes in india.

[SurfieC]

Don't like the image about women's surfing. Alana makes it worse. All time she present everybody her ass. It's okay, when she have a nice ass, but she is not a stripper or somebody like that. She is a female surfer, generally the abilities should be focusing in every sport, doesn't matter the gender. What personally Alana do or not, it's he thing. But unfortuately, she make the image for womens worst and she should thinking about that. She is not a role model for me and she is not the best one. Maybe this is a reason for her or just money..

[damo666]

Don't like the image about women's surfing. Alana makes it worse. All time she present everybody her ass. It's okay, when she have a nice ass, but she is not a stripper or somebody like that. She is a female surfer, generally the abilities should be focusing in every sport, doesn't matter the gender. What personally Alana do or not, it's he thing. But unfortuately, she make the image for womens worst and she should thinking about that. She is not a role model for me and she is not the best one. Maybe this is a reason for her or just money..

Yeah, I am sure the only reason she surfs is beacuse of the money. If only she could be as hardcore as you SurfieC?

Im also pretty sure you'll easily find photo's/video of all the women pro's surfing in a bikini in the last 12 months or so - how come no-one is complaining about the frumpy ones wearing the same stuff as Alanna? (a MUCH bigger issue...)

[aaronn]

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8034/789 ... 3d6c_z.jpg

[SurfieC]

Don't like the image about women's surfing. Alana makes it worse. All time she present everybody her ass. It's okay, when she have a nice ass, but she is not a stripper or somebody like that. She is a female surfer, generally the abilities should be focusing in every sport, doesn't matter the gender. What personally Alana do or not, it's he thing. But unfortuately, she make the image for womens worst and she should thinking about that. She is not a role model for me and she is not the best one. Maybe this is a reason for her or just money..

Yeah, I am sure the only reason she surfs is beacuse of the money. If only she could be as hardcore as you SurfieC?

Im also pretty sure you'll easily find photo's/video of all the women pro's surfing in a bikini in the last 12 months or so - how come no-one is complaining about the frumpy ones wearing the same stuff as Alanna? (a MUCH bigger issue...)

Bullshit. I never said she would surfing for money, but maybe for money she present her ass all time. Of course other womens pro's do that as well. The girls have a great body and they're can proud of that, Alana as well. But she do that too much. It's more focusing of her ass, then her surfing, right? This is what i don't like. That's it. I try to explain that for you, but I'm not sure you understand that...

[damo666]

Yeah, no - I rarely understand what you are trying to say.