Sign the petition
Three-time women's world longboard champion Cori Schumacher has started a petition calling on Roxy to stop sexualising female surfers in their marketing. The petition reads:
Roxy is the world's most visible and well known women's surf brand. Recently, Roxy released a trailer for the 2013 Roxy Biarritz Pro contest that showcases a style of marketing women's surfing that is not conducive to a healthy, empowered vision of women. Instead of women surfers being presented as an alternative to the sexualization and objectification of women in the culture-at-large, this campaign succumbs to the lazy marketing that is already so prevalent.
As the most visible and well known women's surf brand, Roxy has a unique opportunity to truly make a difference in how women and girls are represented in the world.
We ask that you stop the sexualization of women in your marketing and advertising and instead, help to present women surfers in a light that women can be proud to be associated with and young girls can truly admire.
Click here to sign the petition.
IT shows the sport of surfing in a new and sexy light but an online advertisement for a leading surfwear brand has attracted criticism for its "sexploitation" of women.
In the video, a young woman is shown half-naked on a bed.
The camera pans slowly up the topless woman's tanned legs and focuses on her body as she checks her phone and dons only a white shirt - which is provocatively dropped to the floor as she enters a shower.
But what looks like a soft-porn video or a lingerie ad is, in fact, a YouTube promotion by Australian women's surf and swimwear giant Roxy for a womens' professional surfing contest it runs and sponsors in France this month.
The video, which shows no riding of waves, has been attacked as sexualising female athletes - attracting a storm of protest on social media.
Read more here.
The Australian Sports Commission's Fact sheet on Sexploitation discusses why sexploitation of women in sport is harmful:
"Viewing female athletes primarily in terms of their sexual attributes rather than their athletic endeavours has the potential to denigrate the individual both as an athlete and as a woman.
Sexploitation is not simply a matter of skimpy costumes on female bodies. It is also the inappropriate portrayal of female athletes either in their sporting apparel or in alternative situations."
Read the full document here.
Take Action!
Tell Roxy what you think, leave a comment on the website here.
Contact Roxy here.
Add your comment
Be the first to comment
Sign in with