Really interesting video

[fluffles]

I'm not sure if anybody here is into action sports.. it's kind of why i got into feminism, being a woman in men's worlds..

anyway, even if you're not, this is a fascinating short film about being an indonesian woman into action sports... made by a canadian pro mountain biker called Darcy Turenne for her MA in intercultural communication or something like that...

anyway, i enjoyed it..

would be interested in hearing from anybody else into sports traditionally male-dominated (i used to do lots of martial arts, now mountain bike and trail run).

vimeo.com/22426145

[DontCallMePeanut]

27 mins, a bit long for my attention span atm, but have bookmarked it.

[malinois]

Sorry, haven't had time to watch the video but I will do and report back.

My experience: I used to climb (rock, ice and mixed/alpine) but now stick to mountain biking and snowboarding. In my experience there is a lot less sexism in 'extreme sports' (god I hate that phrase) compared to conventional team sports.

I would never be able to put up with the patronising shit that women footballers or hockey players put up with, whereas things felt a lot more equal in the action sports world, possibly because a lot of the men involved are of the non-jock variety.

I also play roller derby which is unique I think in being a women-only sport and therefore does not have the stigma of being compared (and found lacking) to the male equivalent. Of course being a women-only sport it just gets ignored or treated as a novelty instead

[fluffles]

yes, i have found men nothing but friendly in mountain biking - however i do still ride with women when it comes to freeriding and downhilling.. we're usually the only women on uplifts for downhilling and can often be the only women in the freeride park and so tend to organise ourselves in a group using facebook.. i think xcountry is more mixed.

in the martial art i did there were women but at a ratio of about 6to8 men for every woman and we were the first generation of women to go all the way.. it was generally my peers that were the first black-belt instructors in the organisation.. the organisation had a lot of challenges in trying to ensure standards remained high without disadvantaging those with lower muscle mass and size. now they even run 'returners' sessions for the women who've had babies and don't have the core for a full on session straight away (we're a throwing art, not striking).

roller derby looks fun... but i've never seen it in real life.

[malinois]

I've finally had time to watch the film and thought it was amazing. I've actually worked in Indonesia and had a chance to surf some of the Lombok breaks and I'm in awe of the women and girls in this film - Indo is a massively patriarchal society, even in Bali.

I loved the wee MXer girl - she seemed like a right stroppy teenager and was caning into the berms with her sleeves up and her arse out without a care. The DHer was excellent and the surfer was lovely, I loved the shot of her cliff diving with her board.

Most importantly for me were the quotes at the end from "Women, Sport and Development", a paper by Martha Saavedra at UCB, available here.

I'm not really sure how to articulate this, but I think that perhaps women in sport, and more importantly the transformative possibilities of sport and how women think about their bodies is something that has not been really discussed in feminist circles. I really think that the physical gap between men and women is far smaller than is generally accepted and that much of the perceived physical gap is due to conditioning from a very early age ("girls can't throw, sit with your legs together, don't flash your knickers, be nice and quiet, don't play with the rough boys, play with your dolly instead etc.")

My DS is only small but I want him to grow up knowing that women like Ellen Macarthur, Katie Brown, Vicky Pendleton are just as admirable as any male athlete.

Also, do I get extra saddo points for guessing "climber, MTBer, surfer" from the opening closeups of womens' hands :)

fluffles - derby IS fun. There are plenty of derby leagues in the UK, there might be one near you! Good intro

[blackcurrants]

fluffles what martial art? I'm not (just) being nosey, I did aikido (graded once, so still pretty basic, but I loved it!) but stopped really soon when pg because I got so dizzy, and now my DS is 1 I still haven't gone back cos I've moved and am worried about basically not having the core strength to start again in a new dojo where I suck....

I'm in the USA so you probably can't help me but I LOVE that you have a 'returners' thing, and I want one! :)

[fluffles]

ah yes, it's a style of jiu jitsu.. NOT brazilian, japanese jiu jitsu - quite similar to aikido in a way but maybe aikido crossed with judo would describe it better.

the returners thing is in london only... it's great. i don't live in london anymore but wish i did as i had three years out with a snapped ankle ligament (skiing injury) and am not sure about getting back into it myself.