sharks – FIT IS A FEMINIST ISSUE

One of the way we get ideas about to blog about is that outraged readers send us some of the things that outrage them. This past weekend many of you sent us this. It’s been shared by many feminist groups on social media.

Tweet reads, “Last week, a 55 year old, 200 lb grandmother was the 1st to swim from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Farallon islands, a -30 mile journey. She swam in 43° water & it took ~17 hours. She was stung by jellyfish 20 times. It’s considered the toughest marathon swim in the world.” Comment below reads, “The fact that her weight is included but not her name is an interesting choice. Congrats to Amy Appelhans Gubser.”

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Most people were shocked that the tweet mentioned Amy Appelhans Gubser’s weight but not her name.

When I shared that tweet and the response on our Facebook page, many readers also pointed out that the “grandmother” identity is off-putting, too. We’re all pretty sure that men who achieve great things don’t get called “grandfather” in the headline even if they are, in fact, grandfathers.

The grandmother theme was pretty ubiquitous in the reporting of this incredible achievement.

I was impressed that in in my newsfeed at least Outside Magazine didn’t mention her grandmotherly status or her weight in the headline. She even got her full name in the title. Nice!

See here:

But then I clicked through and got this:

ARGH!!!

In some ways, it seems worse than the “mother” designation. At least in my case becoming a parent, is something that’s about me. “Grandmother” just means my kids decided to have kids. Is the emphasis on the age part of being a grandmother? Or do you think there’s something special about grandmother in particular that makes her accomplishment so remarkable? It’s like age + gender + parental status all bundled into one identity.

I used to wonder if it got used in headlines because the women themselves talked about it a lot in the interview. But no, there’s no talk of how thoughts of her grandchildren kept her going through the night, no discussion of how she worried about sharks and not being there for her grandchildren. It’s just there in the headline. Otherwise, it’s all the terrifying details of marathon swimming that we talked about in our Saturday night with Nyad blog post. You know, the cold and timing the swim, and the support crew and the jellyfish.

Anyway, what an incredible accomplishment. I’m in awe.

Three photos of Susan and me in the sun and wind

As Tracy blogged earlier today not all travel is alike when comes to fitness opportunities.

This week thanks to the world’s best sister in law I’m in the South Pacific on a cruise. Specifically we’re on this boat cruising around French Polynesia. We’re having a wonderful time.

Here’s the view from our balcony as I write this:

One of my goals for this holiday, since it’s long and it’s warm, is to stay active. I’m also itching to get moving now I’m no longer in constant knee pain. On day 1 that just meant carrying suitcases, flying 14 hours, and doing physio for my knee once we’re ensconced in our cabin.

Day 2 had us anchored off the atoll of Fakarava. What’s an atoll? Don’t worry. I had to look this up too. An atoll is “a ring-shaped reef, island, or chain of islands formed of coral.”

Fakarava is known to be one of the best diving destinations in the world. We weren’t there to dive though and we only had an afternoon to spend on the island. If you have more time here is a handy guide. It’s a fun read.

So what did we do instead? We rented bikes and biked along the paved road the runs along the windward side of the atoll. The bikes were basic cruiser style bikes with baskets. But that didn’t matter. The bikes fit the mood of the place.

We went out with the wind behind us and turned about after about 10 km.

Most people just stuck to the beach-y side of the island but the bikes allowed us to explore a bit more. The two sides of the island looked pretty different.

I was also very excited since this was my first time on a bike since before I knew about my knee injury. I stopped riding outside early this year. Needless to say, there was a very big smile on my face.