kelly said:
midget-mafiosa said: I'm with Spenser. Fuck that noise. They Myspace stalked me for like a year. The only two "women's snowboarding" endeavors I support are Powderroom and Mode Snow. Main reason? Girls I know run both, and I can count on them to treat women as riders, not "betties." Betties were the Clueless era 90s snowboard girls that came to the mountain in their leopard trim jackets with full (non-waterproof) mascara, a ski band so they didn't wreck their hair, and their boyfriend's snowboard. Later, whatever snowboard was the "prettiest."
Snowboarding can be fun, fashionable, and everything else women want. But I always have and always will take personal offense to dumbing down content and product to pander shit with butterflies to me.
Funny, I don't remember myspace stalking you. You must have had a super sexy profile pic... did I hit on you, too?
hai. good for you for jumping into the fray. i just remember back when i was using myspace getting a LOT of stuff from shred betties, all unsolicited. did you guys have an aqua/turquoise logo at the time? if i am mistaken, i am truly sorry.
having grown up snowboarding and seen the effort women have put in just to be taken seriously while wearing pink is something i respect very deeply. i didn't wear "girly" shred clothes untl 2006, i think, simply because i was too afraid of being mistaken for a "shred betty." the name was a derogatory moniker, and the antithesis of what i was, and the face i wanted to show the world.
this said, i also respect that there is room for reclamation of formerly derogatory terms in feminism. bitch is one that comes to mind. it is a powerful word, an emotionally/politically charged word, and i take a similar issue with the company bitch boards, whom i have written to precisely to express my objections of marketing "pretty" as feminism.
i have a chip on my shoulder; i'll freely admit it. i don't read cosmo, i read BUST. if you check my profile, you'll see that i blog about sexuality and women's issues. i also believe that knitting is a third wave feminist hobby, as are other traditional "home crafts" like needlepoint and baking. my friend lorene (an editor of Powderroom) is a prime example of a craft maven making vegan margarita cupcakes while creating content for PR and developing sites like ridersjournal.com. my friend mayta (a mega rad tomgirl international shred/skate/surf chick) started Mode Snow and asked myself and some friends to contribute to it. it's a snow fashion blog, make no bones about it. i am proud to have come far enough that we can even HAVE enough content to make a women's snow fashion blog.
i respect you kelly about 100X as much as i did ten minutes ago simply for being willing to engage in discussion about this. i was on the BMB for a long time. female voices, particularly strong ones, are rare in internet snowboard world. i had said my goodbyes when my friend Suze (Serraph) brought me back over here. i'm here as another strong female. i'm here because with Suze, we created an annual womens' only snow gathering called Boobcon, designed solely to put together an amazing, large girl crew from far-flung places, have fun, and progress without the influence or distraction of whatever the guys are doing. we've got riders at every level, and i think this year (though the details will be kept under wraps) will be more epic than last, compiling women from all corners of the globe.
i'm happy to have you here, kelly, as another strong female voice. thanks for entertaining mine, and remember that the only way we'll get things like smaller powder boards is if we rise up with one voice, communicate our wishes, and vote with our dollars.
