Alana Blanchard takes a lot of shit for wearing small bathing suits or being bad at surfing, or something. Whatever. She’s a great surfer, and I don’t really give a shit if she’s wearing dental floss while she’s surfing. I can, though, see why some do: she’s not marketing her surfing, she’s marketing her body, and that’s bad for women. Which might be true, depending on the person being marketed to and looking at the marketing.
Sexuality in surfing is much too big of an issue to get into here (but if you want to get into it, here are a few pieces to sink your teeth into: Devil’s Ass-vocate: Beauty is Great and Sex is Honest, The Sad Fact that Women’s Surfing Has Image Issues, Ass and the Roxy Pro Biarittz).
Anyway, here’s a new video from Alana Blanchard. Yup, she’s wearing a small bathing suit. And yup, she’s surfing well. That’s because she is allowed to wear a small bathing suit in her/our culture and because she’s a good surfer. She’s surfing on the Gold Coast, the water is warm, and the waves are fun. Let’s not read too much into it.
