Having spent a number of years surfing in Australia and some other countries, I know that you have to be very fit to be able to surf well.

Anyone who becomes involved in drugs, an unhealthy lifestyle or gang fights is probably not a surfer at all.

So far as women being oppressed at the beach, the number of topless women or women laying around in tiny bikinis on beaches throughout Australia is testimony to just how oppressed women really are in this country.

What Crap...this has no substance, does not enlighten us on anything, and merely illustrates that you have a chip on your shoulder. You are not qualified to write on men or what they need or what they do, you are a spectator being a woman so how would you know, just like we men are not qualified to tell you why you do things and what you need.

Unfortunately, i feel you are a feminist and a classist rolled into one.

Why where there no women in the movie? because it is not about women.

and this

"is just another version of the identity blue-collar men have used for generations to make up for their modest status"

what is this? You have no idea your topic, and your skew towards your own feminist agenda. I would be very interested to hear your background and why you are so far away from the crux.

You have achieved nothing from this article, and i cannot see why OO hasd even thought it worthy of inclusion.

And so you know, i went to university with a bra boy, so you are far from corrent on some of your claims regarding too.

"Though Bra Boys, which was recently released on DVD, gives us no insight into how females living in Maroubra cope with their lot..."

How hilarious. Have you been to Maroubra? You seriously want us to contemplate how girls from Sydney's eastern suburbs "cope with their lot"...

After we have done that, maybe we could contemplate how girls from Palm Beach, North Curl Curl, Coogee or even the poor girls from Rose Bay cope with their lot also.

HRS
'So far as women being oppressed at the beach, the number of topless women or women laying around in tiny bikinis on beaches throughout Australia is testimony to just how oppressed women really are in this country.'

I fully agree, but without the irony. Societies that pressure women to wear as little as possible and societies that pressure women to cover themselves up are two sides of the one patriarchal coin.

SJF
I think there has been considerable amount of pressure on girls to cover up so they won’t get skin cancer, but most don’t.

It is ironic to see the male life guard with protective clothing from the sun, when nearby there are girls lying on the beach in next to nothing. In 20 years time, they will be having pieces of skin removed, almost guaranteed

There has also been women allowed into men’s surfing competitions, but no male has ever been allowed into women’s surfing events, so some patriarchy there is in surfing.

There has been talk of few girls surfing, and the reason is because so often the girls don’t develop enough strength in their arms to paddle out through the break. They keep getting washed back onto the beach, so they give up.

But most of the boys will keep trying and in a while they get enough strength in their arms to paddle out and catch some decent waves and learn how to surf.

The author doesn’t know what they are writing about, and obviously wants male surfers to feel guilty in some way. I'm a male, and after years of surfing, I don’t feel guilty.

What odd and rather angry responses.

I am heartened by the idea that if people respond with such enmity, one must have touched on a truth that people don’t want to concede.

I come from a working-class background, but that’s not even relevant.

Masculine tribes (like tribes of females) can have their positive aspects, but if you don’t want to admit that they can also have negative traits (e.g. violence against those who don’t fit the mould) well you are blinkered.

Being blinkered doesn’t change anything.