Sex, gender and sexuality have played an important role in shaping the culture of surfing and are central themes in the study of sport and movement cultures. Rooted in a rich precolonial history, surfing has undergone a modern transformation shaped by visual culture, commodification, sportization, mediatization and globalization, arguably all linked to sex, gender and sexuality. Using the physical culture of surfing as its focus, this international collection discusses the complex relationships between surfing, sex/es, gender/s and sexuality/ies.
This book crosses new theoretical, empirical and methodological boundaries by exploring themes and issues such as indigenous histories, exploitation, the marginalized, race, ethnicity, disability, counter cultures, transgressions and queering. Offering original insights into surfing’s symbolism, postcolonialism, patriocolonial whiteness and heteronormativity, its chapters are connected by a collective aspiration to document sex/es, gender/s and sexuality/ies as they are shaped by surfing and, importantly, as they re-shape the many, possibly previously unknown, worlds of surfing.
Surfing, Sex, Genders and Sexualities is fascinating reading for anybody with an interest in the sociology of sport or gender and sexuality studies.
"Foreword [Jayne Caudwell] 1. Surfing, Sex/es, Gender/s and Sexuality/ies [lisahunter] 2. E Hua E: Surfing and Sexuality in Hawaiian Society [Ian ʻAkahi Masterson] 3. Surfing, Sponsorship and Sexploitation: The Reality of Being a Female Professional Surfer [Roslyn Franklin and Lorelei Carpenter] 4. Multiple Marginalization?: The Representation and Experience of Bodyboarding in Japan [Eri Mizuno] 5. ""Mexicans Don’t Surf"": An Intersectional Analysis of Mexican American’s Experiences with Sport [Cassie Comley] 6. Social Uses of the Beach and Relationships with Transgressive Bodies: Being a Female Surfer in Morocco [Christophe Guibert] 7. A Tale of Two Surf Contests: Gender, Sex and Competitive Surfing in South Africa During the Late 1970s and Early 1990s [Glen Thompson] 8. Stories of Surfing: Surfing, Space and Subjectivity/Intersectionality [Rebecca Olive, Georgina Roy and Belinda Wheaton] 9. Queering Surfing from Its Heteronormative Malaise: Public Visual Pedagogy of Circa 2014 [lisahunter] 10. Surfing Ali‘I, Kahuna, Kupua and Akua: Female Presence in Surfing’s Past [Ian ʻAkahi Masterson] 11. (Counter)Cultural Changes in Surfing and Surfing Scholarship: Towards Diverse, Intersectional, Liminal, Complex and Queer Activism Dialogues [lisahunter]"
lisahunter conducts research on, with and for surfing focusing on pedagogy, identifications, practices, events and representations. Recent publications include ‘Seaspacetimes: cyborg assemblages of flesh, water, technology and spacetime using mobile methodologies with sensory (auto)ethnography’, ‘The long and short of (performance) surfing: tightening patriarchal threads in boardshorts and bikinis?’, ‘Positioning participation in the field of surfing: sex, equity and illusio’, and ‘Desexing surfing? Pedagogies of possibility.’ ‘E teaches and researches in pedagogy, health education, HPE teacher education, movement studies, sexuality and gender, ethnography and visual, narrative and sensory research methods. lisahunter conceived the International Surfing Social Hui in 2016 to establish a supportive and activist-based academic network with ongoing meetings and synergies, including those with surf-related community groups. With a southern Pacific Ocean base ‘e is currently establishing the Institute for Women Surfers (South) and welcomes interested participants.
Reviews for Surfing, Sex, Genders and Sexualities
"""In this collection of essays, contributors use surfing as the lens through which to examine sex, genders, and sexualities (SGS) from an international perspective. This book represents a significant contribution to the sparse critical SGS scholarship on surfing … This text will interest those in the fields of surfing/sport studies, sociology, and gender studies, among others. Summing Up: Recommended."" - A. Curtis, Lake Erie College, CHOICE May 2019"
