Negative Representation Of Female Surfing Culture

The negative representation of female surfers to the surfing culture, and the public, is often caused inadvertently by the surfing industry itself. There is a large flow on effect which encourages sexualisation and the controversial portrayal of female surfers to the media and general public. This problem originated decades ago, and hasn't improved. There are three major problems nowadays for these surfers; they fight against small pay checks, prescribed expectations of endorsing products, and suffer judgement of their careers based on their looks rather than performance. These factors have social repercussions that effect the whole surfing industry and its subculture.

The bane and a root cause of the sexualised representation of female surfers …show more content…
This aspect of the surfing industry is where females are at an ‘advantage’, and where most surfers earn the majority of their revenue. ‘Unlike the men’s tour, the women attract more mainstream cash in terms of sponsors’ (Stab Magazine, 2015). This fact is likely to be quite closely related to the amount of exposure the advertisements and surfer receive. This creates a dichotomy in the industry for the surfers, either ‘sell out’ and be sexualised or try and make ends meet on limited income and public exposure.
In general, advertisements are sexualised and show lots of skin. Derek Rielly is a photographer for surf-wear designers. He admits that he is disgusted by some shoots. Reilly says his job description is to photograph surfer girls in a sexually subservient manner (Rielly, 2015), and states that it is hard to give the companies the pictures they want, while preserving the surfer/model’s dignity, as they do not have much control over how they look. This problem is outlined by upcoming surfer Felicity …show more content…
On top of the pressures of competing, training and other people's expectations, there's the media. Everyone's opinion on what you should look like, eat and wear." - Felicity Palmateer (Cos We Can, 2012)
Here, she states that her biggest problem with the industry is the media and how it influences everyone’s opinions. Another example of this is captured in an article in Tracks Magazine: “All sponsored athletes in a commercially driven sport…are to some extent at the mercy of their marketing and publicity teams, and in turn at the mercy of the public.” - (Brugman, 2015)
As highlighted in the article, the athletes’ image are in the mercy of the public’s perceptions and wants, which is a major cause of the sexualisation of female surfers. As indicated above there has never been an alternate marketing strategy, and because of this, the only way the public can influence the sexualisation and portrayal, is if the public perception on the issue alters. The surfing industry is caught in an endless cycle which will only break when one of the aforementioned parties institutes

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Negative Representation Of Female Surfing Culture

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