MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Winter / Spring 2018

52 MLCM WINTER/SPRING 2018 words :: Taylor Godber Sex sells. I overheard a couple of middle- school girls on lunch break outside a local café the other day talking about thigh gaps and how they didn't want to be in the sun because of wrinkles. What words can really encompass how f*cked up that is? I wanted to knock the smartphones from their hands, pick them up and shake out whatever marketing schemes had infiltrated their sweet little souls. I wanted to expel all the “more boobs, more ass, more Botox” concepts from their minds. I wanted to scream, ‘that is not what makes you beautiful!’ I wanted to tow them up to the mountains with me, to experience what it feels like to be outside, to be in a place of true beauty. I wanted to show them what overcoming the deep burn in your legs feels like on those final steps to the summit of a mountain. Have them feel the flow state of dropping into a line that scares you shitless, but you commit and go anyhow. To introduce them to a life where thigh gaps are not measured and where wrinkles and sunspots come from real connections to the elements and adventures with friends in places few people ever see. Where bruises and scars tell stories of failures and victories and learning to overcome mental hurdles. I wanted to show them a life that would catalyze them to question and create dreams beyond embodying the life of an unrealistic, insta-famous model. The marketing model created by the fashion and beauty industry has found its place in sport. Their ethos is commandeering our eyeballs by way of our fingertips via advertisements, lifestyle branding, and social media. While action and “gnar” still sell all kinds of men’s products from baselayers to boogie boards, many outdoor brands are marketing women’s lines with lifestyle photos featuring airbrushed models holding gear, rather than strong women using it. This decline of authenticity and the objectification of women is creating a messed-up psyche for the next generation and could even hurt the reason for it all, sales. “As a general rule, media highlights one body type as beautiful, consequently leaving everyone who doesn’t fit the mold feeling less than perfect,” says Erin Treloar, founder of Raw Beauty Talks, an organization that aims to cultivate self love and positive body image in women through media-literacy education. “The glamourization of these women creates a beauty ideal that young women strive to achieve and this is the foundation for the billion-dollar beauty in-dustry.” The average customer sponges it up, but until recently the outdoor sports world had existed in its own bubble (perhaps because the number of products geared towards women was so tiny for so long). Times are changing however, and as women exert more buying power, some outdoor brands are relying on the tried-and-tested marketing strategies like “sex sells” or “lessen the customer’s sense of self-worth” to sell products. The only hope is that the impact of these strategies comes from a place of complete prejudice blindness. Women are highly influenced by how the media portrays them,” says Katherine Weed, a registered counsellor and 17-year veteran of the mountain adventure lifestyle. “When we see images of ourselves in the media, much of it registers unconsciously, but there is always a message being communicated and nothing sells without us believing that that product is going to give us something we ‘need.’” And isn’t that business? To sell a shirt that will make us feel more beautiful, a jacket that will make us a better skier, a five-day heli trip to change our lives? (Ok, maybe the heli trip would be life changing.) But when print and ad campaigns replace female athletes with professional models who do not participate in the sport, what message is being conveyed to the consumer? To our kids? No Filters Athletes Versus Models: Why Keeping It Real Is Better for Everyone C U L T U R E DAVE BARNES ILLUSTRATION