Shrouding women's surfing in some kind of protective film is the worst kind of paternalism…
A few months ago, I posed the following question on BeachGrit that was as simple as it was surprisingly provocative.
“How good is women’s surfing in 2014?” (Click here to read.)
I’d just watched the 26-year-old Stephanie Gilmore swipe her rails and take it to the rim like so very few before her at the Swatch Pro at Trestles, even scoring a perfect 10-point ride en route to the event win
This was as state-of-the-art, as generationally significant, as day two was at Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast earlier in the year. Better than ninety-nine percent of any non-professional surfer, male, female, transgender, pre-op or even moderately confused. Even the most hateful of misogynists had to admit that, yeah, women’s surfing sure can be electric.
But how far has it come? How does it compare to the men, even the men of 25 years ago? Why is it viewed as an impossibility that that in the future, women can’t compete with men?
And is it sexist to criticise some of the more embarrassing lows, such as the inability to complete relatively simple backside tubes at Cloudbreak or Lakey Peterson winning the Swatch innovation award for a mini-frontside fin-ditch some 10-year-old boys can do in their sleep?
They’re valid questions. The girls aren’t the poor cousins of the men anymore, at least not in the current power structure. In the joint events, competition days are fairly split so both get their fill of good waves. The top women are millionaires. They travel with personal coaches and the best shapers in the world inhale their way to lung cancer to produce their hundreds of custom surfboards.
But, when I asked the question, the reaction from the commentariat was predictable: “Comparing the best surfer in the world (even if it’s 20 years ago) to women’s surfing today isn’t a great debate. Yes, they don’t rip as hard, but you’re just coming off as a sexist douche with a lame, invalid argument.”
Surfing isn’t football or basketball. There is no physical reason why there isn’t at least one woman out there who can be as good as any of the Top 34 men. I get the law of averages. There are way more men than women surfing and, yeah of course, the standard is higher.
But I always think of how girls like Carissa and Stephanie killed it in the menehunes and the juniors against the boys, before they were segregated and how it seemed to…not retard their surfing… but keep it from soaring into any never-before-explored stratosphere.
Can you imagine how good Stephanie and Carissa might be if they slugged it out for a year or two on the Qualifying Series? It isn’t a stretch to imagine Carissa’s occasional finner becoming an every-wave reality or Steph’s tentative forays into the air as reliable hammers.
There’s a hand-scrawled message on the wall of filmmaker Kai Neville’s wall. It reads: Seek criticism. Not praise.
Shrouding women’s surfing in some kind of protective film is the worst kind of paternalism; it’s sexism at its most ill-defined and applied.
What does it imply? That women can’t be as good as men. Run like a girl? Throw like a girl? Fight like a girl?
Surf like a girl?
At Honolua Bay in Maui, there were five women who etched lines as good as anything y’might see out of a men’s tour event. The rest jerked down the line in a monstrous approximation of the game of surf. Boards too curved, stance out, timing a full-second off the ball.
Why can’t we criticise without fear of censure? How else do limits get broken, ceilings shattered?
Seek criticism. Not praise. #LikeAGirl
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Yeah, if you ignore the actual physical differences between men and women then you’re right, there are no physical barriers. But really, you hit the point yourselves – until men become men and women become women, the surfing’s pretty much the same. Carissa over JJF wasn’t uncommon 10 years ago, but then that pesky puberty came along and boom.
But while we’re at it, why can’t all men surf like the top 5 men? Why can’t Travis Logie do the air reverses 10 year olds do? Why can’t Adriano draw lines like Parko?
As a big fan of women’s surfing, I think these are all valid questions, but they are questions about yourself and what you are allowed to say.
As far as comparisons stand, why not compare where the level of surfing was 2 years ago to where it is now? Does a comparison with the men NEED to be there for the tour to be viable? I can think of plenty of criticisms about the surfing on the men’s tour, but they do not automatically get translated to the women’s tour.
Everything needs time to germinate, and the increased media attention and professionalism on the tour seems to be pushing the women forward faster than slower.
I thought the surfing at Honolua was top notch and super entertaining over all.
Yeah, each time I find myself saying something like, “wow, Tyler’s turn had so much power; she could be on the men’s tour with that,” I try to stop myself. I don’t need to be constantly comparing the women to the men. The women’s tour should probably just be compared to itself.
Not sure I agree with this statement, even with your caveat about the law of averages: “There is no physical reason why there isn’t at least one woman out there who can be as good as any of the Top 34 men.” Exercise physiology tells us otherwise – I’d recommend Epstein’s “the Sports Gene” if you’re interested. Men have radical physical advantages in muscular strength, cardio- and respiratory capacity, plus proportionately (even controlling for height) longer limbs. This is why a dwarf like Logie turns harder than Carissa, why rails are better held in the heavy Pacific tubes (not to mention the advantages of paddling in earlier) and so forth. Is it possible that a woman (likely Carissa) will one day match a top 34 for performance? Sure, possible. But tube ride like John John, or gouge the face like Michel? I’d argue no; the physical limitations are too extreme. That said, I very much agree with your point about holding the women to a higher standard, especially following the poor tube riding in Fiji, and I do think that it would be interesting to stick Moore in a few men’s QS events for a couple years and see how that improves her performance.
“I’d just watched the 26-year-old Stephanie Gilmore swipe her rails and take it to the rim like so very few before her.”
It’s all true! It’s all so, so true!
I’m impervious to your jibes, Carroll. Wait…what’s that terrible pain in major centrally located organ?
ha ha “Clickbait” Rielly strikes again!
Really? I agree that the use of click bait on this site is heavily disappointing, but, in my opinion, I don’t think that’s the case with this article.