Should WSL atone for Pro Surfing's historical sexism?
Shot me old pal Pauline Menczer a text the other morning to congratulate her for the successful GoFundMe campaign following the premiere of the movie she stars in, Girls Can’t Surf.
Me and Pauline go way back grafting a semi-honest living working as sham contractors for one of Byron Bay’s biggest shuttle bus services. Pretty hectic gig. Running a too-tight schedule rounding up tourists in Bangkok-style traffic and getting them to the steel bird on time so they could resume normal life in the city.
Menczer is one of God’s great hustlers, a tough-as-teak old-school Bondi street urchin who does not take a backward step, for anybody. Tales of her various confrontations in the surf and on the street are legendary: getting spat on in the surf, screaming matches on the streets, standing up to crooked bosses. Menczer can scrap.
As the world’s grittiest surfing champion Pauline was also the victim of maybe world sports’ most brutal and blatant sexism. A world champ who could not raise a dime in sponsorship, who received a trophy that would not make the grade for the second-hand shop at the dump. Lesbian, when that was taboo, lacking the physical accouterments that were classically assumed to stimulate the desire of a presumed male audience and thus moreorless discarded by the companies that largely funded the sport.
Bad old days.
Very bad.
A clear historical wrong, yes?
Things are very different now, of course.
Equal prize money thanks to Sophie G and Natasha Ziff.
Dual World Champ and one-time highest paid surfer on Earth, Tyler Wright, plies her trade as an openly gay athlete and basks in nothing but full-throated support from her sponsors and employer. That being the WSL, one of the most fiercely progressive organisations on Earth.
Most likely, in the near future a transgender athlete will strut the stage and will be likewise welcomed into the warm bosom of Pro Surfing.
WSL has been shameless in its cultural appropriation of the pro surfing history of the organisations which preceded it. Question: if it is going to claim the good, should it also own the bad?
Redress the wrongs and make reparations for sexist blunders like Pauline’s busted trophy and lack of financial support?
Oh, I know, slippery, slippery slope.
Ziff can’t be expected to stick his hand in his pocket to make good a World Champ who got so royally shafted by the sport she loved so had to drive buses for daily bread. Didn’t get enough to get the coastal real estate that any pro who gets within cooee of the CT now considers a birthright.
Still, even acknowledging the sexist pig managers and the sexist pig pros and the sexist pig contest organisers were no fault of Ziff or any of the revolving door CEO’s of the WSL they couldn’t pitch in and raise the 25K for the GoFundMe?
You claim ownership of every facet of the history of the sport and then let one of the true legends still alive dangle in the breeze with their cap in hand?
A bad look, I think.
Menczer herself has referenced other sports that provide more support to former stars fallen on hard times, in this case the “Men of League” program run by the governing body of Rugby League in Australia, the NRL.
Very low hanging fruit for the WSL if they wanted an easy win to generate real goodwill amongst former pros and the great unwashed.
Off the top of my head I could think of a few former stars who could very much benefit from a little hand up, and so could you.
As for the greater issue of a #Metoo style reckoning for the historical enterprise of pro surfing many questions remain.
A former women’s CT pro backgrounded me for the story but declined to be named.
According to her, and if even half of what she said is true, there are very many skeletons rattling around in very man closets.
Very many instances where consent between those with stars in their eyes and the gatekeepers with access to money and career paths were, lets say, less than enthusiastic.
Different times of course.
In the current climate maybe now some nervous moments in the dead of night for those who took advantage and wonder if the axe of justice will fall.
Very interesting times.
I clicked on ‘load comments’ to give a thumbs down on this ‘load’ of shit article!
fuck mate, every sport has it’s prettier more marketable athletes(male or female mind you) that get more money in endorsements than the fuglier ones. it’s simple marketing….who does the influenced grom/ette strive to be like and more likely support their sponsors than the good looking stand out athlete? not fair but the way it is. the same in every sport
Australia’s funny innit. Ex world champs and surf journos driving your buses.
I tell ya i was robbed, robbed i tell ya i was robbed.
aah ok, have not seen it.
SURFER was nice to Pauline. We interviewed her when she won. I called her a “freckled gromette.”
And now this:
https://www.indiegogo.com/p…
10% of MAGA is gay
It’s science
Hey Coco, is there anywhere this is online because i’d like to read up on it. I don’t remember it being in the magazines unless it was connected with those years in the early 2000s where Bells didn’t run a women’s event and Hardman was still contest director?
Head for the hills Negs.
I thought it was quite ironic that Longtom painted her as a confrontational scrapper, and then two paragraphs later wonders why she couldn’t get a sponsor. Not knocking Pauline, it really sounds like she got a raw deal; this is more a comment on the writer. I mean, how can you cry on one hand that the girls have always been ignored, while on the other you’re claiming that you’ve been friends with Pauline for ages? If that is the case, then not telling this story sooner is a perfect example of the very sexism he is supposedly concerned about.
LOOKS! AN EAGLES!
Why did A.I really die?
100%. Match the donations and give her one of those new trophies. It would be the right thing to do and, maybe more importantly, it’ll be good business. With surf sites/mags and newspapers globally picking up the story how can you led an opportunity like that for free/cheap advertisement go to waste?
To me this is somewhat emblematic of the WSL as an organisation. It takes a tour to make a champion, until it doesn’t. They buy a league, tell everybody they’re a media company until they are a sports league again. They fly around the world to a remote coral reef with a 100+ crew to raise awareness against its destruction. They sign a Charta for ocean protection, but their main sponsor is Jeep. They talk about athlete’s interests and women’s rights, but squander this opportunity.
Agree with you about the hypocrisy of the WSL but hey we all know it’s just a platform waiting to be sold and not a real sporting body whose sole interest is in crowning a legitimate world champion.
The problem is that the ASP was not and the WSL is not not in the business of sponsoring surfers. If anything what they should be replacing the trophy, the details of which are completely lacking (was it broken, or just “shit”? and what did the Men’s trophy look like the same year).
Unless Longtom is pushing for retrospective prizemoney? In which case there will be a whole heap of women competitors (and longboarders) putting their hands out, not just former world champs.
The thing is, it’s the sponsorship dollars that screwed her, not prizemoney (men didn’t make much prizemoney back then either). But sponsorship is quid pro quo. They sponsor you and you get photos in the mags wearing their stuff.
So we come to the conclusion that the world is not fair, sponsorship is directly proportional to how much shit you can sell, and beautiful people sell more shit than ugly ones. Well blow me down with a feather.
I hear you and I partially agree. But my rationale isn’t based on what Pauline or anybody else deserves, but what the WSL ought to do. If you claim to care about women’s pro surfing (as the WSL freq does) you ought to give back now that one of the trailblazers has fallen on hard times.
Actually I don’t mind a “retirement fund” being set up for past surfers who have hit the skids. The football leagues are starting to do this. Unfortunately there are a lot who probably need it, e.g. Shane Herring who ended up a junkie, got his teeth kicked in and ended up on the street. Mind you, there’s the issue of personal accountability. There’s also only so much money to go around. The bigger the sport the more money obviously.
But I don’t think Longtom is suggesting she be given a handout because she has “fallen on hard times”, he’s saying something vague about sexism while she was a competitor (that only applies to Pauline??) and therefore she deserves a handout on the basis of past injustices by the ASP. He hasn’t explained what these past injustices were except for a dodgy trophy.
I suspect it’s just the fact that he knows Pauline and at least Pam Burridge and Frieda Zamba were good looking even if they had no sponsorship money either.
Longtom ain’t no Brad Pitt either, so that could be a factor.
The WSL is pushing hard to promote women’s professional surfing a part of their “product”, so is it still a “handout” if you, belatedly, recognise the contributions of someone like Pauline to said product? Should the fact that you can’t reward all contributions stop you from rewarding it here?
I think the WSL squandered a really good opportunity to show they actually care beyond just lip service. It wouldn’t have cost much and it would have created tons of positive press and goodwill in the general surfing population, something they’re trying hard to manufacture only to fall flat on their face more often than not.
Ssshhh… that’s the type of talk that leads us to conversations on guardrails around capitalism, minimum wage, universal health care, and progressive taxation.
She sounds like a tough nut, and a very likeable one too.
The more I read about her and her battle with arthritis the more I admire her
Yes, now that the Democrats are in control, you can pretty much book on it. They’re probably going to let kids pick their own gender too.
They’re way ahead of you.
Allready happening.
Well, Trump kind of held them in check, but ya, the very ‘first’ day of Biden’s presidency, he got rid of the don’t ask don’t tell policy.
Why does it matter if a trans person wants to join the military? Are you worried you might become attracted to them after a month of being around men?
Whats it like?
Is this an attempt at saying “no, youre gay!”
Just harmless banter
didn’t you confess to some young trans gender boys in Thailand?
What about you and your tennis coach?
nah never played tennis Bexy , but you sure put your hand up when the discussion turned to Thailand…..
No, I’m happily married and very content with my beautiful wife.
“There were well-justified concerns that Obama (now Biden) was, is, using the military to advance the latest social justice culture warrior agenda item—seeking to mainstream transgender identities and promote controversial therapies for ‘gender dysphoria’.
Obama’s policy change ignored the reality that placing individuals who might be at increased ‘risk’ for ‘suicide or other psychological injury’ in the most ‘stressful’ situation imaginable—the battlefield—is very ‘reckless”.
Just curious too, what barracks does a transgender person stay in? The gender that they were born with or the one they identify with?
If you think the Military gives a rats ass about the mental health of its soldiers you are sorely mistaken. If they cared about their mental health you wouldn’t see the highest suicide rate amongst war veterans. That is simply a cop out.
“Just curious too, what barracks does a transgender person stay in?”
In the U.S., nearly all barracks are coed, though individual bedrooms are still segregated.
Glad you changed the would, to a would not.
I am currently active duty. You are full of shit on this. Nearly all barracks are certainly not coed. On the mental health part, you’re not totally off.
Sounds like you are in basic training, which is one of the few places were barracks are separated by gender, and even then a new law was passed back in December of 2020 to end gender segregation in basic training.
That’s cute JK. I’m 2 years from retirement and I can tell you that coed berthing is absolutely not a thing. At best, separated by floor and or hallway. Gender segregation while in a student status during any particular course of instruction is certainly different that sleeping/shitting in the same facilities. I’m sorry, but on this point, you are still full of shit.
What are you talking about, you literally just said they are coed, “separated by floor,” segregated would mean they have their own building and everything. Feel free to google it. They don’t share rooms but they do share the barracks, the barrack being the building everyone is housed in.
Just like in college we had coed dorms but we didn’t have coed rooms.
What do you identify with Bex, just out of curiosity?
Drivers license, medicare card, the usual.
Socialized healthcare!? You really do hate yourself.
Hot stuffed bex?…..medicare?
Sometimes a license isn’t enuff.
And I will always love you. Oooo Oooo oooo
Mostly paid for by rich people’s taxes
WTF would you know about rich peoples tax….they pay less than low to middle class….and everytime Capitalism wobbles , the Tax payers/Govts have to bail them out to ” save jobs”…and increase their profits……so as usual Bexy , full of shit /no idea about much…I think your avatar should be Dodo bird , Not Tuff!
I don’t mind helping pay for your anti depressants
Enjoy!!
no need Bexy , knowing your history of racism , gullible Trumpism…you are a troll of the lowest kind….but carry on and keep embarassing yourself…and the right wing whineers
Wait but what about trickle down economics or some bullshit?
It works here
There’s no poverty at all.
I’m talkinig real poverty.
Some people here think a houso flat a flat screen tele, smartphone and a few hundred a week from the govt is poverty,
So it’s in the eye of the beholder
You’re saying a livable minimum wage and socialized medicine actually works and keeps people out of poverty?
How liberal of you.
This is literally the Democrat agenda.
I vote for the Liberal party
Check it out.
Been in for 20 of the last 26 years,
They run a good show
You’re an enigma bexy. What’s with the trump love then?
He’s a tool but I like his policies and energy.
I don’t think he’s at all racist and I think he genuinely wants what’s best for the US.
Also I like a stir.
stir it up little darling…
What you’re not wearing your Trump 2020 hat anymore? I’m disappointed
2024
MA?A
Ay?
MAAA?
Make America Awesome Again?
MAFUA?
Make America Fucked Up Again?
That’s funny.
Do all your personalities use the same id?
Why do you let people scare you so much?
Nah mate, anyone that had a phase of adulthood during the 90s isn’t deserving of a handout. Plenty of cheap coastal real estate to be had at the time.
But man, you just can’t see what’s going to happen in the future.
Cheap is relative.
I do think this might be the greatest gift of the #metoo movement, that a bunch of heinous cunts who did rapey shit in their past can’t sleep at night because they fear that come morning there’ll be a pack of rabid paparazzi on their doorstep. We all know the type…
Surf journalists
Surf judges
Surf company account executives
They’re the ones that misused their positions of power to their own advantage.
Funny that those very same dodgy journos, judges and execs, and their whole shifty pro surf culture have mainly been cancelled now…
The premise of her being hard done by is due to her being freckly and plain and having arthritis. That doesn’t make her plight any worse than any of her contemporaries. They all had to eat a shit sandwich.
You reckon any of the other female competitors didn’t get shafted before Lisa Anderson came along? How much sponsorship did I dunno, Michelle Donoghoe get? Jodie Cooper? Or doesn’t that count because they didn’t win a world title?
Prior to Lisa Anderson coming along all the women had to scrap it out. Well after too. How’s Sofia Mullanovich doing these days? There probably wasn’t any money to be had until Layne.
Talking of skeletons in the closet, what about sleeping with the head judge? Who was that again?
Longtom is fast losing credibility.
Tyler has clearly stated that she’s bi sexual not gay.
Slippery slope to ask someone who had nothing to do with the entity that supposedly screwed her to compensate or give her a handout. Slippery.