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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To despair at a man who thinks Chanel are prostituting surfing?!?

37 replies

Mrbumpsbruises · 20/10/2014 21:53

FB post from a friend's DH. He is a keen surfer and is complaining that the sport is being used to promote Chanel. He is upset because he maintains that surfing is a relatively cheap sport (I have no idea whether it is or not), and it upsets him to see it being used to promote a luxury brand.

It amazes me that this man seemingly has no issue with women being used to sell items, purely on the basis of their looks, with Gisele's arse all over the telly, (especially as he is married with a daughter) but can actually get upset over a sport being used in this way.

AIBU to think that this is so sexist it is almost laughable? I am actually flabbergasted at him.

OP posts:
MorrisZapp · 20/10/2014 21:56

He sounds like a decent bloke. Fair play to him for noticing how shit is is when luxe brands appropriate interests and pursuits. It pisses me off no end too.

I don't see how his observations are sexist.

Littledidsheknow · 20/10/2014 21:57

Am confused... did he actually say it was OK to use women to sell items, or for Gisele's arse to be all over the telly, or are you presuming so, because he "seemingly" thinks it?

MorrisZapp · 20/10/2014 21:58

Sorry I meant to say 'everyday interests and pursuits'

iPaddy · 20/10/2014 21:59

Surfing is not a cheap sport Confused

squoosh · 20/10/2014 22:07

He's worried his sport will go more mainstream and thus not be his special thing anymore. It's the same when people get furious that 'their' band hit the big time and the new fans didn't put the time in going to gigs in dumps and dives.

VivaLeBeaver · 20/10/2014 22:12

I think surfing is cheap. 15 years ago I bought a wetsuit and a second hand board. Hasn't cost me much since then. The surfing is free. I bought some wetsuit boots and a glove and a good one winter I guess. Some sex wax every now and then.

The surfing part of the ad is shit. So obvious she's not actually surfing.

Original poster
Mrbumpsbruises · 20/10/2014 22:13

Morris & Little - I suppose that I think that the fact that Chanel are using Gisele's bum to advertise something seems more concerning than the plight of surfing.

He didn't say it was ok to use women to sell items, but I can't believe that someone would worry about surfing being demeaned and not even mention the woman being demeaned too.

Plus, he didn't get his knickers in a twist about surfing being used in the Guinness adverts!

OP posts:
Original poster
Mrbumpsbruises · 20/10/2014 22:15

And if luxe brands don't appropriate interests and pursuits, what can they use to sell their stuff? "Buy this, it smells nice" obviously isn't working for them.

OP posts:
iPaddy · 20/10/2014 22:20

Try paying for lessons for your kids and then tell me it's cheap.

Surfing is one of the most exploited, monetised, commercialised sports there is. The hippy dippy, grab your board and find a magical deserted beach is a movie myth. The more likely scenario is grab your board, pay £5 for the car park and get corralled onto one wave with 50 others by an over-cautious life guard.

MorrisZapp · 20/10/2014 22:20

I loathe perfume adverts, they are the worst part of Christmas. But to be fair, on the sexism scale I've seen a lot worse. Most of the luxury brands are trying to sell an upmarket image of glamour, not an overly sexualised one. As much as it depresses me to see Giseles or anybody's arse used to sell stuff, I suppose luxury cosmetics are about as close to legit users of women's bodies as its possible to be.

After all, they're trying to get women to buy stuff to make themselves more alluring. Hello, alluring arse pic.

Original poster
Mrbumpsbruises · 20/10/2014 22:26

I just think its woeful that he was sooooo upset over the exploitation of his sport, with no mention of the exploitation of women. It has made my feminist hackles rise. My husband tells me it was Old Spice that used surfing in their adverts, not Guinness. Even more ironic IMHO.

I think I'm probably being unreasonable because he started his post "I am a surfer, but that's not all I am". Eh?

OP posts:
squoosh · 20/10/2014 22:27

I love perfume ads.

Littledidsheknow · 20/10/2014 22:29

Forgive me, OP, I didn't realise the advert in question had said arse in it, so I can see why you're annoyed that it is the surfing aspect rather than the arse aspect that bothers him.
Perhaps he's just resigned to that aspect; alas its hardly new nor showing any sign of going out of fashion so its not sexist of him not to complain about it.

I live very surfy area of south wales so a bunch of rich morons trying to surf with Chanel gear on (what with surfing being the epitome of luxury chic and all) would make for quite an amusing day at the beach if they do manage to appropriate surfing fully.

VivaLeBeaver · 20/10/2014 22:29

Try living on the east coast. Grin

No surf schools, no charge in the car park, hardly any other surfers.........there probably is a reason for this.

VivaLeBeaver · 20/10/2014 22:31
Original poster
Mrbumpsbruises · 20/10/2014 22:54

Ta for the Guinness ad Viva

Won't somebody think of the horses???

OP posts:
PomBearWithAnOFRS · 21/10/2014 00:56

WTAF is "sex wax"? Confused
Whenever I see that Guinness ad all I can think of is Christy Moore singing Delerium Tremens with "as I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out, how yer man stays up on his surf board after forty pints of stout..." Grin

SurfsUp1 · 21/10/2014 01:19

OMG those boards will be all over Bondi soon.

IME surfing is generally a cheap sport. Of course you can always find ways to spend lots of money doing it - trip to the Maldives anyone?

Then again, you can spend lots of money gardening, jogging or cooking too, so I really don't see what the issue is. No one makes you spend lots of money and you certainly don't have to. I pay around AUS$40 for a lesson and the rest of the time it's free.

Other than than the shots where they are fully dressed and carrying a board in heels I actually think the Chanel images are really gorgeous! I think it's great to see a very lady-like brand showing women getting into sport and being active.

SurfsUp1 · 21/10/2014 01:31

He's worried his sport will go more mainstream

I think Billabong, Quicksilver, Hurley, Roxy et al might have somewhat beaten Chanel to it!!??

SurfsUp1 · 21/10/2014 01:32

PomBearWithAnOFRS Sex Wax is the wax that goes on the board to stop your feet slipping. It's cheap btw.

iPaddy · 21/10/2014 07:14

Yes surfsup the anti-establishment, underground, deviant act of surfing that only rebels and true individuals do Grin

Here in Cornwall we call it 'sheep dipping' when the tourists come down in their 10,000s for their annual hour in the sea Grin

SurfsUp1 · 21/10/2014 08:20

I love it iPaddy! There's a good dose of sheep dipping that goes on here at Bondi too! We also have a rip at the south end of the beach called the Backpacker Express.

It seems to be a right of passage for the newly arrived to burn themselves to a crisp ("I always sun bake in Spain and I never burn!" you hear them say") and then throw themselves in the rip (the nice calm spot where the waves aren't so big Hmm).

SurfsUp1 · 21/10/2014 08:21

I surf with a bunch of middle-aged Mums - that's about as deviant as you can get in surfing these days! Grin

ithoughtofitfirst · 21/10/2014 08:56

Pisses me off when a certain type of people think they own a sport or a genre of music. Get over yourself. Worried it will go mainstream? Tosser.

Takver · 21/10/2014 09:22

Neither underground nor expensive round here - mostly scrubby teenagers Grin

I'd say it's a cheap sport, dd loves surfing and all it needs is a wetsuit replaced every couple of years and a board. Also, what you pay out in wetsuits, I reckon you get back in easy teenage wage earning, all the kids a few years older than her do beach lifeguarding in the summer which pays remarkably well.