Well yes.
As the owner of MI OLA, female swimwear company, made for action sports, we work hard to show active, healthy women doing what they love. They can look sexy, but they won’t be sitting around while the boys surf. They are out there SUPing, surfing, doing yoga, cannonballing, driving to surf spots, etc.
While it may not seem revolutionary, having a woman in the driver’s seat driving to a surf spot is RARELY seen in photos. Usually the dude is driving and the woman is in the passenger seat with her legs out the window or she’s lounging in the back of a VW van with the door open (ready for action of a different kind, supposedly.)
When would you EVER see a male model gazing out to the ocean while women surfers were out there ripping? Why do we see that scene over and over in surf brands advertising?
I can’t begin to explain how we need to brief our photographers, and our models and our creative team. No arched backs. No boobs and butt sticking out. No barbie feet. No pouty mouth. No passive women there just for the male gaze. No disembodied butts or boobs. etc. That’s just the beginning.
(And even after all that, if we use a male photographer, we still need to edit out the duck dive muff shot. Always. )
We generally usually use “real women”, not models, for exactly those reasons. I say “real women” vs. “models,” not to say that models aren’t real, but they’ve been trained to “model” and we don’t want that.
With waterwomen, we have
- less coaching on not doing the traditional swimsuit modeling tricks.
- A body that shows that she is outside being active. That can mean muscles (MUSCLES, no!), tan lines, scars, etc.
- waterwomen who aren’t afraid to get in the water, swim, surf, SUP, walk on rocks, etc.
- the women we use smile and play.
It’s a challenge, because — we sell swimwear and everyone wants to look good in a bikini. We still need to sell bikinis to stay in business.
Luckily, our customers agree. When we use imagery in our ads of our ambassadors, real waterwomen doing cool shit, our customers buy.
(If you want to check out what we do, please go to www.MI-OLA.com. We’re working to make the best women’s swimwear. ever.)
