I've been subjected to a level of transphobic abuse that left me unwilling to have anything to do with that sport/pastime, although sailing organisations have, for some years, been trying to address that. They've got the policies in place, although they are generic, but I don't know how well they have implemented them, and I don't feel like being a guinea pig. I'm more interested in cruising, but getting a mooring takes so long I would have to get a berth in a marina (I don't have car that could tow a trailer-sailor, and don't have the money or inclination to get one), which is another place I've received transphobic abuse.
I once wrote an email to a cruising blog about this topic, when a few people there were trying to discuss it.
My email was:
I thought I'd add my two cents worth to the debate about women in sailing - mainly, by providing some links about surveys on what keeps women out, and what has been done about overcoming those problems:I've also written about this on my main blog.
First off, the survey to find out what stopped women getting into sailing which was commissioned by my local state-based organisation, Yachting Victoria: http://www.foxsportspulse.com/get_file.cgi?id=2714747, with the support of a government body - VicHealth, because of the benefits to health of being active.
Of the issues identified in that survey, I can certainly relate to time commitments being a problem. When I was last sailing I had just begun a relationship with someone who wound up needing both hips replaced and on disability pension just after we got together (and just after we took out a joint loan), and since then there have been a swag of step-kids and now my father has Parkinsons.The main reason I got out of sailing, however, was because of some blatant discrimination (I am a lesbian). I could have taken legal action, but I didn't have the time, energy or money to do so - see aforementioned family issues. I did talk to a few people about my experiences, however, and that has helped contribute to some codes of practice (starting at government level) about dealing with discrimination in sport generally, as well as in sailing. The Yachting Victoria document is at http://vic.yachting.org.au/get_file.cgi?id=3377463 On that, the 2nd last club I was a member of was the Royal Yachting Club of Victoria - they had Elliott 5.5s for hire, which were the closest we could get to the Elliott 6s to be use for the Gay Games in Sydney in 2002, and one of our team lived nearby. I had gone once before (about 30 years before) to a Royal club in Queensland, and was treated so snootily I swore I would have nothing to do with any club with Royal in its name, but there was no other choice. It became fairly clear at that time that the club was struggling (as a lot of clubs here are, compared to the hey days of the 70s), and they were opening their doors to a much wider circle - there were even tradies who became members when we did :) . All still white, however.When I have been talking to non-sailing people generally about getting involved in sailing, one of the biggest perceptions to overcome is that people have to be rich: I keep pointing out the need for crews, and have done so since I started as a skinny crew decades ago (my first skipper said my arms had the muscles of a chicken leg - I've done weight training since then, and a bit of middle age spread has given me more of a chicken wing effect, rather than a chicken leg).The survey also mentions concerns about feeling out of place as a barrier, and about the openness of the sport to newcomers and to females, particularly in what can be perceived as a male dominated sport, as barriers. My experience has been that expectations of stereotypes is more of an issue - women were expected to be in the kitchen, rather than out sailing, when I started in the 70s. (I've refused to do any more kitchen duty than men ever since then - and I don't make cuppas in any engineering situation.)One of the other issues limiting women's participation in a range of areas - and I am surprised this didn't come up in the survey - is lack of visibility. I've also had a fair bit to do with getting women into engineering (my day job), and the lack of clearly visible examples/role models is one of the major problems there. Lack of visible LGBT people is a barrier to addressing discrimination against LGBT people (discrimination has been shown to cause health problems, incidentally) and problems such as lack of confidence of LGBT people. Likewise, no doubt, for people of different races.I look forward to more women getting into sailing, so you can show more of us being active participants.
You yourself have mentioned the limited numbers of women you've seen in sailing. We seem to have more women actively involved in sailing here - 29%, according to the survey, and there have always been at least a few, throughout my sailing 'career', which has been good.
It helps enormously that there are now women in sailing who are very visible, such as the women you mentioned, or Dawn Riley (http://www.dawnriley.com/), or an Australian woman who is my sailing heroine: former female skipper of an 18 foot skiff, and navigator for the incredible Wild Oat XI and other yachts (including Volvo yachts), Adrienne Cahalan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrienne_Cahalan).
I was also impressed by the woman you showed tacking her way through anchored boats with two dinghies in tow.
Any increased visibility of women in sailing, or a reduction of the perception that women may not be welcome, will be good. On that, here are a couple more links about women in sailing:
From https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2016/01/post-no-811-search-for-community.html:
But it hasn't all been bad. From https://gnwmythr.blogspot.com/2011/04/meditation-and-interaction-of-souls.html:When I was a kid, I learned how to sail, and became involved in the sailing clubs of a couple of places we lived. The experience was novel to me and, with my enthusiasm for history, I became fascinated with the “traditions” of the sea –things like always going to help vessels in distress, and “the romance” of sail (no Internet links as everything seemed to be based around finding a relationship partner “romantic” cruises and the like).Now, although the traditions of the sea and romance of the sail do exist, I was a bit naïve about all this:
- there were economic drivers behind many of the situations that put people at risk, economic drivers (e.g., enabling the growth of empires) that I do not see very favourably now;
- there were “less admirable” traditions that I selectively didn’t acknowledge (although my adoptive father pointed me in the direction which led to me finding them out), things such as bullying crews, insurance claims that killed crews, and the appalling working conditions and life expectancy generally of crews from the era I was holding in such esteem – see here, here (and here), here;
- there was also the involvement of marine traffic in slavery, and things like gunboat diplomacy.
(Incidentally, real historical pirates were sadistic and violent criminals, doing things like rape, torture, murder and locking women and children in a burning church, although they did have some democratic aspects.)Closer to home, there was the aggressive behaviour of many competitive sailors (usually not the case with the best sailors, I have to say) – a fault I also exhibited at times, to my eternal shame, and which is a small part of the reason I am not rushing to get involved with sailing clubs again. (I avoid yacht clubs because, in my parlance, they’re the province of the upper class / elite, and involve expenditures of money that are, at times, truly obscene [if you don’t have money, most sailing dinghies need crews, so go to a sailing club, learn how to sail, make a commitment, and enjoy :) ]. And I have been treated shabbily by some of those four decades ago although I was welcomed and very well treated by two such clubs in Melbourne when we were training for the Gay Games in Sydney, so things have probably changed.)There is also endemic discrimination in most of the sailing clubs I’ve been to – even nominally LGBT sailing clubs have discrimination, and the vast majority are white people from the middle and working class. My experience of such discrimination is something I’ve contributed to those trying to stamp that out (e.g., see the AYF’s policy – which has a few key gaps and silences, particularly on the offence of misgendering and the vexed issue of access to changing rooms, but is a start in the right direction), but it has left me with a profound wariness of returning to those environs at any time soon. I also want to write about the discrimination against women and others I’ve come across in sailing clubs in a “how to” book on sailing that I’ve started (and may not finish this lifetime … SIGH). To quite an extent, this problem reflects the problems of society – hence, in the 70s, women were largely expected to run the canteen, whereas now, there is an increasing acceptance of women as active participants in a range of sports, not just sailing – although there is still a way to go . . .
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When I was younger, in my 20s (and getting frustrated with people thinking I wasn't yet even 18 ... ah, those were the days - in the last millenia!), I competed in a national sailing championships. I didn't do all that well for a whole range of reasons, but one incident occurred during one light weather race that is a good start to this post.Food for thought . . .
Basically, as we were sailing in a light wind, someone I knew a little, who was crewing in another boat, laughed. At that moment, a phrase from a book written by Richard Bach (possibly "Illusions"?), who also wrote Jonathon Livingston Seagull, came to mind. The phrase was, more or less, that we are the otters of the Universe - fun loving, playing creatures. As the phrase was comprehended by me, my eyes rolled up into my head, leaving only the whites showing, and I became aware of what I was led to believe was the soul of everyone in the boats - which I perceived as a large sphere of light around six feet (say ... two metres) in diameter.
Nowadays, I would probably describe this as having become aware of everyone at the level of their Soul Star chakra.
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Copyright © Kayleen White, 2020 (where this date is different to the year of publication, it is because I did the post some time ago and then used the scheduling feature to delay publication) I take these photographs and undertake these writings – and the sharing of them – for the sake of my self expression. I am under no particular illusions as to their literary or artistic merit, and ask only that any readers do not have any undue expectations. If you consider me wrong, then publish me – with full credit and due financial recompense, of course :)
