This article originally appeared in T&S Issue 33, Summer 1996.
All women involved in sport face barriers and conflicts, problems of access and free time and expectations about feminine appearance and behaviour. Val Woodward has interviewed women involved in windsurfing, a sport which exemplifies these problems.
For the past six years I have been enthusiastic windsurfer, although developing my skills at a leisurely pace. The title of this piece, ‘Gybing Round the Buoys’ is a play on a windsurfer’s dream to perfect a gybe, that is a turn of the board through the wind at speed, and is the logo of Windsurfing Women. My tale is amazingly similar to those told to me by many of the women windsurfers I interviewed during a
small scale research project. Windsurfing to aid recovery — from relationships, death, loneliness, bad experiences at work, children growing up and going away — this was a recurrent theme in the accounts women gave as to how they started windsurfing.
My research is based on interviews with thirty British women of widely varying backgrounds and levels of windsurfing ability. Approximately fifty per cent of these women were members of the organisation ‘Windsurfing Women’ which provokes strong controversy within the windsurfing community because it organises women only events. Grace, for example, said:
Men are threatened by us women getting together and doing something like windsurfing which is so unlike what proper women are supposed to do.
My main interest is in women who like me, prioritise enjoyment over improvement. I therefore deliberately interviewed women at windsurfing venues where the emphasis was on recreation, not competition. They all derived a great deal of pleasure fom the feelings of speed, open space, connection with the local environment, freedom and being in control, that they gained from windsurfing. Their stories are not necessarily representative of all women, or even of all windsurfing women, but instead provide interesting insights into the restrictions femininity imposes on women and women’s resistance to such restrictions.
I argue that women who windsurf are challenging conventional ideas about both masculinity and femininity, as well as having a really good time. Windsurfing women, through their participation in a male dominated activity, are actively engaged in resistance and strategies for change, whether conciously or not. Windsurfing involves entering a privileged masculine world and an active physicality which contravenes norms of feminine embodiment.
…when my mother was here, she was asking is there something that happens to women when they get physical…like do they get more testosterone… she thought I was becoming more like a man (Rachel).
Through windsurfing we challenge the oppressiveness of femininity and the privileges of masculinity and push at the boundaries of gender.
Feminine/ist guilt
Feminist researchers have alerted us to how small a part sport plays in the leisure activities of most women and how material and practical constraints, such as lack of money, transport and time — along with continual responsibility for others — severely restricts the possibilities for women to indulge in any leisure activities. Spare time and freedom to engage in pleasurable pursuits is a privilege in our unequal society, associated with those who enjoy the greatest power. Therefore it is no surprise that windsurfing, like most sports, is very male dominated, especially at expert levels. One glance at the glossy commercial magazines ‘Boards’ and ‘Windsurf’ confirms this. There are few ‘photos of women in them and these tend to be of ‘beach bunnies’, emphasising the idea that ‘real’ feminine women are objects to be looked at, not active windsurfing subjects. Most of the women interviewed go out windsurfing with men most of the time.
There are no women in the group that I sail with, in fact I don’t know any other women windsurfers at all; I hadn’t met any until I came along on this week (Lisa).
This comment was made when I interviewed Lisa at a Windsurfing Women event. While those interviewed include women with a range of experiences and perspectives, only two are not reliant on a partner for their income and all are white and able bodied. Although windsurfing is the cheapest form of sailing it has been used in recent television imagery to signify conspicuous consumption, independence and freedom. It is therefore not just dominated by men, but by fairly well off, white, young, able-bodied men. Women who windsurf enter a privileged world, although the ease with which they find the time and money to participate varies.
A windsurfer, like a rock climber, hang-glider or off-road motorcycle scrambler needs a large degree of control over her life, which few women have. Windsurfing is a self indulgent activity. Any time that women do spend on physical sporting activities, is more likely to be spent on keep fit or aerobics, which are relatively cheap, and easy to fit into their scarce ‘free’ time, as well as conforming to gender stereotypical ideals of ‘improving’ body appearance. As Grace, another interviewee, said: ‘you can go to work, do aerobics, go home and make the dinner. Whereas, windsurfing is so totally different, it gets you out, you spend the whole day doing it’.
For women, who have historically been defined by their ability to nurture others, a commitment to nurture themselves, through windsurfing or any other means, is a radical departure from what is expected of them. Responses from the women interviewed revealed varying, but universal, feelings of guilt arising from that self indulgence. Women in this study have learnt to put others before themselves.
Those with families reported a sense of guilt that they did not always put the demands of their family before personal pleasure.
Dorothy commented, ‘I’ve never actually talked to other women about feeling guilty, I think it is something we hide’. She goes on:
The whole thing about women feeling guilty about having time to themselves is a big thing… It was windy and I wanted to go out, I did feel bad leaving the children… Like even going out windsurfing with you, I have to get up early, get everything organised, get packed lunches for my sons, so as to be able to feel that I can do something like go out and windsurf with you. I have to organise everything so that I know everyone will be happy while I’m gone.
This was not restricted to those women with young children. Kim, who was nearly 70 years old when interviewed, had been interested as to why so few women were active within the organisation for older windsurfers, ‘Seavets’, and found that ‘family commitments stop loads of women from going out windsurfing very often’.
This is despite many of the heterosexual women with male partners reporting them to be exceptionally supportive, especially if they too enjoyed windsurfing. Marcia claimed, ‘I’m really lucky, because when I’m going through all the guilt feelings we women go through, my husband tends to encourage me’. Expectations about masculine and feminine behaviour lead to the women I interviewed, and those around them, being surprised when men encourage women to indulge themselves.
Those interviewed found themselves feeling guilty if, when they escaped family commitments, they did not prioritise ‘worthy’ activities. There are so many battles needing women’s time and energy, it is very difficult to indulge ourselves. One interviewee admitted she was reluctant to let those she worked with at Women’s Aid know where she was going when she set off windsurfing.
On top of feeling a need to tend to the problems in women’s personal or political spheres, those interviewed reported feelings of inadequacy. The contemporary myth of the superwoman tells them that they, and other women, should be able to prove their individual abilities and successfully participate in ‘post feminist’ society. They often felt guilt that they were unable to excel at each of the competing roles expected of them.
Most of us still want to be feminine and caring and nurturing, but we’ve also seen opportunities and got some messages about the possibilities for being independent and adventurous, and it can be quite confusing (Jessica).
Windsurfing women are independent and adventurous and do enter a masculine world but they engage with that world in different ways. Some happily embrace behaviour that is associated with masculinity through being ‘tough’. For example at residential Windsurfing Women events there is often some tension between women who consider warm and comfortable beds and hot baths as essential and those who wish to continue their challenge to stereotypical ideas of femininity, by camping. While this partly reflects the differing economic freedom of participants it also reflects differing attitudes to the retention or rejection of acceptable feminine behaviour and differing analyses about how women define themselves as female individuals, within the context of definitions provided by others. Discussions during interviews highlighted how difficult it can be to differentiate between what is oppressively feminine and what is sensible. Pam said, ‘I think, maybe quite a few of us who want to go out windsurfing, actually enjoy being one of the boys’. For these women not being a ‘boy’ has been oppressive for them in terms of restricting their freedom to participate in chosen activities. This group of women tend to participate in many outdoor activities other than windsurfing, although interestingly only one out of all the women interviewed participates in mainstream sports and very few of the women interviewed saw themselves as being ‘sporty’. Pam knows women are as capable as men and wishes to prove it. She does this very successfully. She is a very competent and energetic windsurfer. She admits to frustration that so few women feel able to develop her skills, competence and confidence.
Pam is willing to tackle almost anything. This can be seen as engaging with the freedom and power of male oriented activities, but can also be foolhardy.
I have noticed that women seem to have more of a self preservation instinct. I don’t know why it is. I know I’m quite reckless myself in lots of ways (Pam).
Most women interviewed suggested that learning to be less reckless and foolhardy than men, is a positive side of femininity, though still complex and often double edged.
I don’t know why it is but men just seem to be more fearless and more willing to do what I’d consider to be stupid things (Trish).
The whole issue of being safety conscious which is good, against letting that hold you back from ‘Going For It’, is totally fascinating. I think women are really bad at pushing their limits. So it’s difficult for them to progress (Tracy).
Men will go for things and women won’t. It’s the way they’re brought up. Men aren’t constantly having people warn them not to do things (Linda).
Even though few of those interviewed are as good at windsurfing as Pam, all gained pleasure from women being able to play men at men’s games. Dorothy said, ‘It was really nice going out with you today, I really felt, well sit up and notice world — this is two women going out’. And despite claiming not to be competitive, interviewees enjoyed being better than men windsurfing nearby.
When you are sailing and you screech past men, like we were the other day, well I think that’s really good (Lisa).
I love it when I go out there and I’m better than a man, especially when on the beach they’ve probably made an assumption that they are better than me (Fiona).
The feminine body and windsurfing
Men just want to be stronger than us. They’ll do anything to keep that idea that they are stronger than us because it advantages them. Men feel threatened by images of strong women and they’ll do anything to counteract it (Lynne).
Women may generally be less strong than men, but some women are stronger than some men. Women are able to dramatically increase their own body strength and agility if they resist messages about how women should live in feminine bodies. Recent feminist work, as Diane Costa and Sharon Guthrie say ‘reveals a patriarchally imposed movement vocabulary that physically disables and thus oppresses women’.
A windsurfer needs to bring her whole body weight and strength into lifting the sail, and turning and twisting to steer the board. This starkly contrasts with a learnt feminine movement vocabulary as described by Iris Marion Young. For example when attempting to lift something, women tend to concentrate effort on those parts of the body most immediately connected to the task — the arms and the shoulders — rarely bringing the power of the legs to the task at all. When turning or twisting something, we frequently concentrate effort in the hand and wrist, not bringing to the task the power of the shoulder, which is necessary for efficient performance.
According to Iris Marion Young, learnt feminine body vocabulary also includes a lack of confidence in ourselves and our bodies:
We decide beforehand — usually mistakenly — that the task is beyond us, and thus give it less than our full effort. At such a half hearted level of course, we cannot perform the tasks, become frustrated, and fulfil our own prophecy. When we do release ourselves from this self perpetuating spiral we are surprised at what we can do.
These findings were mirrored by stories told during interviews:
Time and time again, the men came along with lots of confident expectations about soon being able to do the fancy tricks they’ve seen the good sailors do. But the women don’t tend to believe that they’re ever going to be that good. They start by saying they will be happy if they can just stand on the board….. and they get such a buzz when they can actually do things and get so excited. At the end of the course they are so surprised at what they’ve achieved, but the men tend to go away frustrated because they can’t do more (Vanessa).
Vanessa also commented: ‘men just mean a completely different thing, when they talk about lack of confidence, to what women mean.’ Similarly, Rachael commented, ‘…The men just wellie in there and they assume they can do it, so they just start’. This is bound up with the double edged sword of women’s greater safety awareness.
Women who windsurf are overcoming gendered barriers to enjoying the power of their bodies, but are unlikely to have completely escaped them. If encouraged to see these barriers as a matter of individual competence, rather than as a collective response to patriarchal relations, they are unlikely to have much patience with themselves or other women who fail to ‘wellie in’. To different degrees, about half of the women interviewed wished more women would develop the confidence they felt and so increase the number of women they could windsurf with, and admitted to occasional exasperation with feminine behaviour. Creating acceptable norms for women’s behaviour and at the same time blaming women for conforming to those norms is a pervasive aspect of patriarchal thinking, which women can easily internalise however feminist they see themselves as being.
The hesitant, fearful body movements of women are symptomatic of a wider context in which women’s bodies are considered objects to be gazed at. Learning how to use our bodies as women is closely bound up with western constructs of feminine beauty. Few women feel happy with their bodies because we are taught how to mould them into a particular size and shape, emphasising their ornamental value. We learn that being feminine makes us attractive and acceptable to society and that a strong, powerful body is a non-feminine one and therefore not acceptable for women.
What’s being feminine? Definitely not being strong; rather looking pretty, as in portraying an image that’s sort of angelic, or sexy, or being attractive to men… (Rachael).
Only by transgressing the limits and constraints placed upon us as women, can we thrive. Yet, those who reject the lessons about controlling our bodies to fit society’s norms are likely to be defined by others as not real/ acceptable women.
I really want to get my muscles into shape and to look fit but my boyfriend said he didn’t want me too muscley because then I wouldn’t be attractive (Lorraine).
I didn’t like wearing wetsuits and that was one thing that made windsurfing more difficult for me. I used to wear long tee-shirts over a wetsuit, because I thought my body was horrible (Grace).
The windsurfing women interviewed are challenging the culturally ascribed and gendered meanings imposed on their bodies by others. Their bodies can be seen as sites of struggle and resistance; they are constructing themselves while resisting constructions deriving from patriarchal ideology. Through defining their bodies for themselves and their own enjoyment they reported developing a confidence in their bodies, and their ability to positively occupy space, acquire strength, muscularity and athletic skill — all attributes associated with masculinity. Entering that privileged world has always been empowering for men. The experiences of those I interviewed suggest windsurfing, and similar activities, hold a strong potential for empowering women. We can re-learn ways to use our bodies and shift the focus to women as embodied subjects, challenging prevailing patriarchal depiction of women’s bodies as objects.
The first time I started planing…wow…I just remember it so clearly, I just thought ‘gee whizz’…I was planing, and I was in control, and I could do it… and I just felt so good (Vanessa).
Planing is when you are windsurfing at sufficient speed to lift your equipment out of the water, so that you feel as if you are flying across the water rather than travelling through it. Once competent enough to achieve this exhilarating state, many windsurfers do not go out unless there is sufficient wind to allow it. However, whatever the level of competence, windsurfing can produce great mental and physical feelings of strength which can spill over into everyday life.
Being able to sail round to that next bay was just an amazing feat, an incredible feeling of achievement (Jessica).
I’ve become a much stronger person since I windsurfed. I mean, ten years ago, I would have been sitting at home with my knitting and I would never have had the confidence to let you interview me (Olga).
Now Olga Gybes Round the Buoys with Windsurfing Women.
Sexuality and windsurfing
As windsurfing attracts women who are physically, mentally and emotionally strong, it can provide a meeting ground for women who reject patriarchal ideology, whether lesbian or straight. Lesbians are less dependent on male approval and are less likely to be restricted, by themselves or others, as to the activities they indulge in, or the images they portray. Both lesbian and straight women reported that they frequently came across assumptions that windsurfing women, because they reject patriarchal definitions of femininity, are more likely to be lesbian than straight.
I said to this bloke I know, that I am going away for a weekend with a group of women windsurfing, and he said, ‘Oh, a lesbian weekend then’ (Marcia).
The women, in the room at the time this comment was made, laughingly confirmed similar experiences:
In fact, there aren’t that many dykes in Windsurfing Women, it’s just that people have made such a big thing about the few that there are (Vanessa).
‘Compulsory heterosexuality’ and ‘lesbian baiting’ are both reflections and reinforcements of men’s general control of women’s sexuality. Windsurfing women generally look relatively happy in their bodies, probably look strong and therefore may look ‘unfeminine’. Also, by concentrating on indulging themselves windsurfing women may be distancing themselves from conventional male and female sexuality. While some of those interviewed found this empowering, others felt a need to emphasise their femininity in order to be ‘acceptable women’ to the malestream windsurfing community. This usually means not appearing to be lesbian. Windsurfing lesbians are often made to feel uncomfortable about their sexuality.
I tend to be pretty much in the closet I suppose about my sexuality mostly because of my experience of how people react to my sexuality, particularly within windsurfing (Vanessa).
Dominant constructions of femininity and heterosexuality indicate a male fear of female empowerment.
That’s the threat — it’s women wanting each other’s company rather than depending on men. It’s not really a fear of women going to bed together, it’s fear of men not being needed (Celia).
Strong women, and particularly lesbians, are a threat to masculine dominance. Femininity is posed in opposition to masculinity and it is convenient for those currently enjoying the privileges of masculine power to dismiss all women who do not conform to femininity, as not real women.
Women who windsurf are a threat to masculinity and to male privilege, and we should celebrate that threat along with the enjoyment we get from actively using our bodies.
Gybe Round the Buoys!
Note
Names of interviewees have been changed.
References
Costa, D.M. and Guthrie, S.R. (eds.) Women and Sport (Human Kinetics, 1994)
Young, I. M. Throwing Like a Girl and other Essays: Feminist Philosophy and Social Theory (Indiana University Press, 1980)