Notes on being female. Images by Mariah Main, Vanuatu. I have always thought that the best way to overcome the gender divide was to be excellent. Train, study, practise, be better. “Be so good they can’t ignore you,” I heard a red-carpet celebrity comment once. I chanted this mantra over and over again, personally discrediting those who spoke outright about gender issues. Grouping outspoken feminists in with vegans – recognising the value of practising rather than preaching s

I was going to open with an essay on beauty as a commodity in surfing. An impassioned monologue on the way female athletes are reduced to items of sex appeal as opposed to talent across so many facets of the surf industry, and we, the brainwashed consumer, continue to buy it. I couldn’t really think of where to start. How to explain it in a way that wasn’t “I am woman hear me roar,” but rather “I am woman, let me carefully and rationally explain to you how this is pretty unfa