hellwoman
12-01-2007, 04:36 AM
Catching Waves
Anthropologist studies culture, history of female surfers.
By Cheryl Reid-Simons
November 30, 2007
Liz Strober wants to make a movie about women surfers. But her documentary isn't Blue Crush: The Next Wave and it won't be set to the Beach Boys or other music synonymous with summer and surf fun. Banish those images of impossibly tiny, blonde, bikini-clad women holding surfboards from your mind.
The story that Strober, an anthropology instructor at Seattle University, wants to tell is about real women, real surfers and their real struggle to be acknowledged as both athletes and equal partners with men in the history of surfing.
“It's an inversion of what you are fed by the media of what a surfer girl is. It's not a 'go-out-there-and-shred-the-waves' bimbo-in-a-bikini.”—Liz Strober
“People will just about die when they see a grandma of 17 who is 57 years old get up on a surf board and shoot Pipeline,” Strober says gleefully, referring to a beach on Oahu's North Shore that is legendary among surfers as the most dangerous in the world.
Strober herself—though not a grandmother and at 38, nearly two decades younger than the subject of her documentary film—isn't exactly what you envision when you think of women surfers. A college instructor in anthropology with a doctorate and a 3-year-old son isn't supposed to spend her free time surfing anything but the Web. But she does.
Strober came to the sport 13 years ago while working on her dissertation for a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Washington.
As a medical anthropologist Strober focused her research on issues of culture and mental health. She found herself on Oahu, Hawaii, in a predominately native community.
To get involved with the culture she was studying, she began surfing with the women of the region.
“Native Hawaiians use surfing as a healing modality,” she explains. “For them surfing is bound up in healing and spirituality and myth. When you are surfing you are connecting, visiting your ancestors.”
The female surfers Strober met while working on her dissertation were a revelation.
“It's an inversion of what you are fed by the media of what a surfer girl is,” Strober says. “It's not a 'go-out-there-and-shred-the-waves' bimbo-in-a-bikini.”
The women also nearly derailed her research. “I wanted to stop working on my dissertation and start looking into what surfing is and what it means to women,” Strober says. Although she stayed on track, she made a mental note to return to the theme.
In the years since women's surfing has exploded into a global and commercial phenomenon. “There are women surfing what had previously been men's big wave areas,” she says. “Women participated in the X Games surfing competition for the first time this year.”
But the growth in the women's sport didn't translate into equity in terms of competitions, prize money and sponsorships.
Increasingly, professional women surfers are being pushed out of the picture in television and print ads. Instead of portraying the actual athletes, sponsors are using slender, white models in advertising.
It's not so surprising to find gender biases—after all, in virtually every professional sport women earn less money, in salary and endorsements, than men. But surfing should be different, Strober says, because women aren't newcomers to the sport. They are co-founders.
Strober points to the earliest etchings of people riding waves while standing atop boards, showing queens and princesses who were clearly expert surfers. Queen Ka'ahumanu, favorite wife of Kamehameha the Great, was one of the all-time great surfers and a true pioneer of “tow-in” surfing because she would ride out on a canoe then jump out with her surf board to surf waves too big to otherwise catch.
Giving surfing legends like Ka'ahumanu as well as contemporaries their due prompted Strober to start working on a documentary about women and surfing.
“There's kind of this pantheon of men's surf films out there,” Strober says. She chose film as her medium “to get into popular culture the correct socio-historical background of women in the sport.”
The documentary will look at the origins of surfing, when surfing was a sport and even a courting ritual that both genders participated in equally.
One of Strober's collaborators on the film is Franny Palama, a native Hawaiian community leader and surfer. They met two years ago online after Strober posted a query on an anthropology listserv.
Palama, 57, is featured prominently in the short trailer that has been produced to help stir interest—and funding—for the documentary.
“I'm fluffy,” Palama says referring to her size. “I'm about a size 18. There's the image that you've gotta have a flat belly to surf,” she says, breaking into laughter.
But Palama quickly eliminates any doubts about whether a voluptuous woman can surf. She tells a story about when she took five of her grandsons with her to surf Oahu's famed and treacherous Pipeline. The waves were only about two to four feet high at the time, but just knowing the legend of Pipeline was enough to frighten the youngest, who is 7 years old. “He said, 'But Grams, this is Pipeline!'” she recalls. Soon enough, though, he was paddling out with his grandmother.
“I told them, 'Your parents buy you rash guards and shorts, that's $100. They buy you a board, that's $500 to $800. But surfing Pipeline with your grandma, that's priceless.'”
Palama says she agreed to help with the film because Strober understands and respects how meaningful surfing is to native Hawaiian women. “She's really setting the record straight about women surfers,” Palama says.
Dan Tripps, director of the Center for the Study of Sport and Exercise at SU, says he thinks Strober's film will fill a gap in the surfer film genre. “It's clearly an intriguing story first of all from a cultural perspective,” Tripps says. And Strober's focus on surfers such as Palama challenges the notion of what an athlete is. “She's showing the engagement in sport of people not normally considered to be athletes.”
Besides working on the film, Strober is incorporating her interest in the subject into her SU courses such as Anthropology of Gender and Sport.
“I'm incredibly lucky to be at Seattle University,” says Strober, who's taught here for five years. “I've been blessed by the interdisciplinary and social justice focus.”
Strober hopes to enlist the help of alumni and the university community as she continues to develop her film.
“I know we have a lot of alumni from Hawaii,” Strober says. “I'd like to invite them to participate.”
To learn more about Strober's documentary, or if you are a female surfer and want to share your story, contact her via e-mail at strobere@seattleu.edu. Seattle University - News & events - Featured stories
Anthropologist studies culture, history of female surfers.
By Cheryl Reid-Simons
November 30, 2007
Liz Strober wants to make a movie about women surfers. But her documentary isn't Blue Crush: The Next Wave and it won't be set to the Beach Boys or other music synonymous with summer and surf fun. Banish those images of impossibly tiny, blonde, bikini-clad women holding surfboards from your mind.
The story that Strober, an anthropology instructor at Seattle University, wants to tell is about real women, real surfers and their real struggle to be acknowledged as both athletes and equal partners with men in the history of surfing.
“It's an inversion of what you are fed by the media of what a surfer girl is. It's not a 'go-out-there-and-shred-the-waves' bimbo-in-a-bikini.”—Liz Strober
“People will just about die when they see a grandma of 17 who is 57 years old get up on a surf board and shoot Pipeline,” Strober says gleefully, referring to a beach on Oahu's North Shore that is legendary among surfers as the most dangerous in the world.
Strober herself—though not a grandmother and at 38, nearly two decades younger than the subject of her documentary film—isn't exactly what you envision when you think of women surfers. A college instructor in anthropology with a doctorate and a 3-year-old son isn't supposed to spend her free time surfing anything but the Web. But she does.
Strober came to the sport 13 years ago while working on her dissertation for a doctorate in anthropology at the University of Washington.
As a medical anthropologist Strober focused her research on issues of culture and mental health. She found herself on Oahu, Hawaii, in a predominately native community.
To get involved with the culture she was studying, she began surfing with the women of the region.
“Native Hawaiians use surfing as a healing modality,” she explains. “For them surfing is bound up in healing and spirituality and myth. When you are surfing you are connecting, visiting your ancestors.”
The female surfers Strober met while working on her dissertation were a revelation.
“It's an inversion of what you are fed by the media of what a surfer girl is,” Strober says. “It's not a 'go-out-there-and-shred-the-waves' bimbo-in-a-bikini.”
The women also nearly derailed her research. “I wanted to stop working on my dissertation and start looking into what surfing is and what it means to women,” Strober says. Although she stayed on track, she made a mental note to return to the theme.
In the years since women's surfing has exploded into a global and commercial phenomenon. “There are women surfing what had previously been men's big wave areas,” she says. “Women participated in the X Games surfing competition for the first time this year.”
But the growth in the women's sport didn't translate into equity in terms of competitions, prize money and sponsorships.
Increasingly, professional women surfers are being pushed out of the picture in television and print ads. Instead of portraying the actual athletes, sponsors are using slender, white models in advertising.
It's not so surprising to find gender biases—after all, in virtually every professional sport women earn less money, in salary and endorsements, than men. But surfing should be different, Strober says, because women aren't newcomers to the sport. They are co-founders.
Strober points to the earliest etchings of people riding waves while standing atop boards, showing queens and princesses who were clearly expert surfers. Queen Ka'ahumanu, favorite wife of Kamehameha the Great, was one of the all-time great surfers and a true pioneer of “tow-in” surfing because she would ride out on a canoe then jump out with her surf board to surf waves too big to otherwise catch.
Giving surfing legends like Ka'ahumanu as well as contemporaries their due prompted Strober to start working on a documentary about women and surfing.
“There's kind of this pantheon of men's surf films out there,” Strober says. She chose film as her medium “to get into popular culture the correct socio-historical background of women in the sport.”
The documentary will look at the origins of surfing, when surfing was a sport and even a courting ritual that both genders participated in equally.
One of Strober's collaborators on the film is Franny Palama, a native Hawaiian community leader and surfer. They met two years ago online after Strober posted a query on an anthropology listserv.
Palama, 57, is featured prominently in the short trailer that has been produced to help stir interest—and funding—for the documentary.
“I'm fluffy,” Palama says referring to her size. “I'm about a size 18. There's the image that you've gotta have a flat belly to surf,” she says, breaking into laughter.
But Palama quickly eliminates any doubts about whether a voluptuous woman can surf. She tells a story about when she took five of her grandsons with her to surf Oahu's famed and treacherous Pipeline. The waves were only about two to four feet high at the time, but just knowing the legend of Pipeline was enough to frighten the youngest, who is 7 years old. “He said, 'But Grams, this is Pipeline!'” she recalls. Soon enough, though, he was paddling out with his grandmother.
“I told them, 'Your parents buy you rash guards and shorts, that's $100. They buy you a board, that's $500 to $800. But surfing Pipeline with your grandma, that's priceless.'”
Palama says she agreed to help with the film because Strober understands and respects how meaningful surfing is to native Hawaiian women. “She's really setting the record straight about women surfers,” Palama says.
Dan Tripps, director of the Center for the Study of Sport and Exercise at SU, says he thinks Strober's film will fill a gap in the surfer film genre. “It's clearly an intriguing story first of all from a cultural perspective,” Tripps says. And Strober's focus on surfers such as Palama challenges the notion of what an athlete is. “She's showing the engagement in sport of people not normally considered to be athletes.”
Besides working on the film, Strober is incorporating her interest in the subject into her SU courses such as Anthropology of Gender and Sport.
“I'm incredibly lucky to be at Seattle University,” says Strober, who's taught here for five years. “I've been blessed by the interdisciplinary and social justice focus.”
Strober hopes to enlist the help of alumni and the university community as she continues to develop her film.
“I know we have a lot of alumni from Hawaii,” Strober says. “I'd like to invite them to participate.”
To learn more about Strober's documentary, or if you are a female surfer and want to share your story, contact her via e-mail at strobere@seattleu.edu. Seattle University - News & events - Featured stories