Comment
I love doing opinion pieces. Over the years I’ve written on topics including: being a football-loving girl in the 1980s, cycling while pregnant, rushing our kids through their childhoods, why more bike builders aren’t women, the forgotten mums of snowboarding, the punkness of the women’s skate scene, body-shaming and bikini-wearing, and why sex shouldn’t be used to sell surfing. Here are some of those articles.
“It’s 1986. I’m dressed head to toe in Liverpool kit…”
Guardian Comment – Being A Girl Who Loved Football
I wrote about the heroics of Steph Houghton’s Lionesses in the last World Cup and how that seemed light years away from my experience of growing up as a football-loving girl in the 1980s.
"You shouldn't be on your bike in your condition love!"
Guardian Comment – Cycling While Pregnant
This is a piece about riding your bike while pregnant and what the world makes of women that do. It was the third most-read article on the Guardian the week that it ran.
“What I hadn’t counted upon was his total apathy to the project…”
Guardian Comment – Wanting My Son To Ride A Bike
This piece is about wanting my son to learn to ride a bike. But it’s also a piece about not trying to rush your kids through their childhoods.
“We’re here to raise the bar, not just our kids…”
Mpora – Writing Mums Into Snowboarding’s Story
This is an extended opinion piece on snowboarding while pregnant and how it can feel like mums are an invisible force in snowboarding.
“The DIY ethos powering women’s skateboarding forwards…”
Mpora – Why Women’s Skate Is More Punk Than Men’s
This is an extended opinion piece about the DIY ethos powering women’s skateboarding, and how the women’s scene is more punk than the men’s.
“Are men biologically designed to wield a lathe better?”
Guardian Comment – Why Is Bike-Building So Male?
In this piece I ask why so few bike builders are women, and look at what can be done about it.
“If you want to wear a bikini, wear a bikini…”
Cooler Magazine – Body Shaming & Bikini Bodies
It’s easy to forget how prevalent body shaming was back in 2013, especially in summer when it felt like every magazine and website was banging on about getting a perfect bikini body. I wrote this piece as a hopeful counterpoint to that noise.
“Sex doesn’t sell surfing, it just sells sex…”
Cooler Magazine – Does Sex Sell Surfing?
In this piece, also written back in 2013, I ask whether sex actually sells surfing, and how I wish brands would ditch the blonde sexy surf girl stereotype and represent female surfers as athletes. I was widely criticised for this viewpoint at the time, especially from advertisers! That same summer I’d called out a surf brand for using a shower scene starring a world class surfer to advertise a women’s surf contest.