Teen Takes On Surfer Sexism in Awesome Letter to Mag
It's girl power at its best: A 13-year-old with a passion for surfing has a major problem with what she calls rampant sexism in the sport. Not about to keep her feelings to herself, she recently criticized a popular monthly surf magazine in her home country of Australia by writing a letter to its editor in chief, scolding him for the way women are portrayed in the magazine’s pages.
Her claim that the magazine applauded men for their surfing skills, while delegating women to scantily clad decoration, began circulating in the Australian media a few days ago. In the letter, the girl, Olive Bowers, writes, “Dear Tracks Surf Magazine, I want to bluntly address the way you represent women in your magazine. I am a surfer, my dad surfs and my brother has just started surfing. Reading a Tracks magazine I found at my friend's holiday house, the only photo of a woman I could find was ''Girl of the month''. She wasn't surfing or even remotely near a beach. Since then I have seen some footage of Stephanie Gilmore surfing on your website, but that's barely a start. I clicked on your web page titled ''Girls'' hoping I might find some women surfers and what they were up to, but it entered into pages and pages of semi-naked, non-surfing girls. These images create a culture in which boys, men and even girls reading your magazine will think that all girls are valued for is their appearance. My posse of female surfers and I are going to spread the word and refuse to purchase or promote Tracks magazine. It's a shame that you can't see the benefits of an inclusive surf culture that in fact, would add a whole lot of numbers to your subscription list. I urge you to give much more coverage to the exciting women surfers out there, not just scantily clad women (who may be great on the waves, but we'll never know). I would subscribe to your magazine if only I felt that women were valued as athletes instead of dolls. This change would only bring good. Olive.”
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According to Australian news website The Age, Olive is the daughter of writer Alice Garner and the granddaughter of Helen Garner, one of Australia’s best-known writers, and according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Olive is an eighth-grader at Princes Hill Secondary College in the town North Carlton. It's unclear which publication Olive originally sent her letter to, but the teen's letter has clearly stirred positive reaction on Twitter, and she’s been applauded for being a “feminist” and “brilliant.”
Commenters on Jezebel, a website here in the U.S. focused on women, also debated the issue. User "Cabridges" wrote, "Tracks' slogan, right under the title, is 'The Surfer's Bible.' That suggests their target audience is, you know, surfers, and surfers come in more than one gender. Thing is, sexism aside, it's a poor business decision. Why ignore or actively alienate a chunk of your audience?" And NYWoman92: "It really melts my heart to see so many young girls showing concern for how women and girls are portrayed in the media. As much as I'm disappointed with humanity every single day, I can't help but feel a little hopeful that kids will become more and more enlightened as the years go by."
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Yahoo Shine could not reach the Bowers family nor Tracks editor in chief Luke Kennedy for comment, however, on Monday, Kennedy published a lengthy response to Olive's letter and its subsequent media coverage on the magazine’s website. Though he referred to the letter as an “outburst,” Kennedy also defended Olive's right to express herself and then took aim at the Sun Herald, an Australian tabloid newspaper for publicizing the issue.
“It’s no secret that Tracks and myself were vilified in the Sun Herald on the weekend — skewered by thirteen-year-old Olive Bowers who was outraged by the lack of women’s surfing content in the issue of Tracks she picked up off the stands,” wrote Kennedy. “Firstly, Olive has every right to voice her opinion and her comments have definitely been taken on board. However, if I may say a few things in my defense and in the defense of the magazine. My own interest in surfing was largely inspired by my mother who was a prominent Maroubra surfer in her youth.”
To be fair, Kennedy did have some valid points — he remarked that girls in bikinis have always been part of the surfing culture — a theme reflected in classic surfer movies and television series such as “Gidget” — and in regards to the bikini model page he wrote, “I’m not going to pretend that this isn’t pitched at our male audience and that the decision to include the page isn’t made with an eye towards commercial realities – namely that male surfers have historically been our major audience." He also expounded on the extensive women’s surfing coverage the magazine has included over the years, which has included reporting on female surfers and women-only competitions, and commissioning stories to female authors.
Olive's letter is the latest example of a young girl taking a corporation to task for its portrayal of women. In February, a 7-year-old girl from the U.K. named Charlotte wrote a letter to toy company Lego which read in part, "I don't like that there are more Lego boy people and barely any Lego girls. I want you to make more Lego girl people and let them go on adventures and have fun. OK!??" Her mother posted the girl's note online and it quickly went viral. Here's to more girls calling out corporations and standing up for what they believe in. Keep up the good work ...
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