{"id":20787,"date":"2024-02-08T15:35:12","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T20:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=20787"},"modified":"2024-02-08T15:35:12","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T20:35:12","slug":"popular-surf-brand-faces-backlash-after-featuring-trans-athlete-dropping-bethany-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/02\/popular-surf-brand-faces-backlash-after-featuring-trans-athlete-dropping-bethany-hamilton","title":{"rendered":"Popular Surf Brand Faces Backlash After Featuring Trans Athlete, Dropping Bethany Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"
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@ripcurl \/ Instagram | Inset: Kanaka Rastamon \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Popular surf brand Rip Curl is doing damage control after a now-deleted Instagram post featuring a trans surfer received major blowback from fans and a call for a boycott. The brand featured an image of 44-year-old Sasha Lowerson on its Instagram as part of its \u201cMeet The Local Heroes of Western Australia\u201d campaign. Lowerson competed in the men\u2019s division as Ryan Egan until transitioning in 2021<\/a>. Several commenters on X pointed out the brand\u2019s hypocrisy for promoting a biological male in female sports, just months after it dropped biological female Bethany Hamilton. \u201cImagine, dropping a phenomenal professional surfer, who survived a shark biting her arm off, only to replace her with a man who pretends to be a woman. Guess what my followers and I will be doing? We will all #BoycottRipCurl\u201d one person commented on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hamilton famously lost her arm<\/a> during a shark attack when she was thirteen years old in 2003. Despite the devastating injury, Hamilton would go on to become a professional surfer at age 17 and has credited her Christian faith for helping her succeed. Her story was featured in the Christian film \u201cSoul Surfer.\u201d Hamilton had served as a brand ambassador with Rip Curl for years but was dropped in recent months after she opposed the World Surf League\u2019s adoption of new rules that allowed biological men to compete against women. \u201cThis concerns me as a professional athlete that has been competing in the World Surf League events for the past 15-plus years. I think many of the girls currently on tour are not in support with this new rule and they fear being ostracized if they speak up,\u201d she said in a video<\/a> at the time of the decision. She stated she would not compete against biological men. She recommended the league create a separate division for trans athletes.<\/p>\n

After removing its post featuring Lowerson, Rip Curl issued an apology on Instagram<\/a>. \u201cOur recent post has landed us in the divisive space around transgender participation in competitive sport,\u201d the post began. \u201cWe want to promote surfing for everyone in a respectful way but recognise we upset a lot of people with our post and for that, we are sorry.\u201d The post also clarified that Lowerson is not sponsored by Rip Curl. Surf magazine \u201cShop, Eat, Surf<\/a>\u201d (SES) stated that the brand did not respond to its attempts at comment. \u201cThe company declined to make Rip Curl CEO Brooke Farris available for an interview to discuss the marketing campaign and subsequent reaction. It also declined to answer any further questions beyond the statement,\u201d wrote SES. Hamilton responded to the controversy with her own post on X, writing<\/a>, \u201cMale-bodied athletes should not be competing in female sports. Period.\u201d Riley Gaines, an outspoken advocate for protecting women\u2019s sports, mocked the company\u2019s reversal on X<\/a>. \u201cHahahaha Ripcurl suddenly knows what a woman is,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThey’ve also since deleted all posts promoting a male surfer posing as a woman after dropping Bethany Hamilton. They want you to forget about their contempt for women. Don’t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Popular surf brand Rip Curl is doing damage control after a now-deleted Instagram post featuring a trans surfer received major blowback from fans and a call for a boycott. The brand featured an image of 44-year-old Sasha Lowerson on its Instagram as part of its \u201cMeet The Local Heroes of Western Australia\u201d campaign. Lowerson competed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":20790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPopular Surf Brand Faces Backlash After Featuring Trans Athlete, Dropping Bethany Hamilton<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Popular surf brand Rip Curl is doing damage control after a now-deleted Instagram post featuring a trans surfer received major blowback from fans and a call for a boycott.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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