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PAUL SOUZA
Trad climber
Central Valley, CA
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I think the most interesting thing still is what people tell themselves when they look at that and other pics like it. The pic doesn't speak. It's all projection.
JL
Precisely
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nevahpopsoff
Boulder climber
the woods
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I always liked the way the little blond hairs on her leg caught the light.
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Blakey
Trad climber
Newcastle UK
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There was a poll amongst American males that revealed 1/3 would swap their intellect for a dic (tionary).
It's Britain by the way ;-)
Steve
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Tahoe climber
climber
Davis these days
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I always thought it was a beautiful photo.
No projection here - just like the way it looks.
Captured the scene well, she's focused.
Lots of women climb now and back then in just as skimpy attire, and no one comments.
I've climbed with topless women too - deep water soloing is good summer fun. NBD
The only thing that confuses me, even now, is why she was chalking up on a boulder problem?
TC
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FeelioBabar
Trad climber
One drink ahead of my past.
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Oh the pointless shitstorm a few nipples can cause.
Political correctness is turning us into a nation of thin skinned pussies.
Say what you think. We will all be better off for it.
Rikkie is an attractive female. Her nipples look awesome in that shot.
ah...the truth feels so good.
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Magic Ed
Trad climber
Nuevo Leon, Mexico
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Rikke spent a lot of time in the Potrero Chico before that photo was taken--in fact, that is where she met Cory--so we got to know her well.
At the time, the only shower for the climbers was in one of the bedrooms at Homero's and there was always a large group hanging out in the bedroom waiting their turn. Whenever it was Rikke's turn to use the shower we would turn off the lights in the bedroom so we could appreciate her awesome silhouette through the frosted glass in the door.
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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why the lust over a skinny girl? not my dose.
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gonzo chemist
climber
Fort Collins, CO
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I always liked this photo better. Better shot of the route Ms. Ishoy is climbing.
credit: Corey Rich
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Resolved: In order to avoid future heartburn amongst sexually militant, confused, insecure, repressed, and otherwise half-witted climbers (of both sexes): henceforth, all women should take pains to garb themselves in traditional Islamic couture, including Burkas, while climbing. Freedom of movement, practicality, comfort, and simple common sense should remain secondary considerations.
Men, of course, should feel free to strip down to next-to-nothing on even the most bitterly cold, yet sunny, 35-degree days at the Buttermilks and Happies. Retaining the Prana skullbeanies is optional, although strongly recommended.
Carry on.
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Mick Ryan
Trad climber
The Peaks
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> Remember what a sh#t storm that shot caused? Just a fit girl with a string bikini top pulling a boulder problem
I remember that and have a pristine copy..... what a great cover. Iconic. I wrote something about it..
extract from: **Climb Like a Girl - Part 3
by Mick Ryan**
n 1997 Climbing magazine, under the editorship of Duane Raleigh, ran a front cover of the climber Rikki Ishoy. The photo had no relation to any content in the magazine, it wasn't a photograph of a significant ascent, you couldn't really see the rock, she was two inches off the ground and it was captioned wrong.
It was a close-up picture of a pouting half-naked woman in a bikini top, basically a picture of her breasts and her right inner thigh, of obvious appeal to the majority of testosterone-fuelled climbers to buy the magazine, and of course they did. It was a photograph of a woman whose body conformed to the stereotypical images you see in glamour magazines, even if that wasn't what the photographer intended - visual images are almost always pre-meditated and the photographer Corey Rich is a pro - and even though the climber was an intelligent “real” climber.
The editorial team voting on whether to use the image was male with one dissenting female voice.
Am I complaining? No. The symbolic significance of this image and its planned message did resonate in me somewhere. I'm male, my blood flows with testosterone and I like seeing half-naked females, it makes me feel good.
There again I did feel a little uneasy about it, but not that uneasy not to put seven photos of women and no men on the cover of the Happy Boulders guide in the hope that climbers would think that Bishop, California was some kind of girl's bouldering camp.
Such is the dilemma of women images where at some level they exploit, on another give pleasure, on another celebrate, on all levels sell, and on another darker side feed the myth that women are the tools of men which can ultimately lead to violence and in some cases lead to death.
Ishoy instantly became climbing's "it" girl of the late 90s and more of the same soon followed. The editorial team at Climbing magazine who chose the picture soon defected almost en-mass to Rock and Ice magazine, when Duane Raleigh bought it off the investors of the previous editor Dougald Macdonald.
Rock and Ice continued this sex-sells trend almost immediately with a special bouldering issue that featured on the cover a climbing model, who didn't climb outside much, and was posed alluringly and artificially on a boulder problem that she didn't climb.
Inside the same issue was a full-page image of the climbing-playboy-celebrity Ivan Greene posed in his signature wife-beater top with an adoring bevy of half-naked studio models surrounding him. No guesses there as to the message being transmitted to the masses.
In the same issue they had a fantasy written-piece about a climber at Hueco who stumbles upon a Penthouse mag photo-shoot. Where Rock and Ice magazine trying a tad too hard to pull the urban climber demographic away from the web and new print mags like Urban Climber magazine?
Can the climbing media be blamed for using racy images of women to sell to men? They are in business and are they not only following the mainstream media where in an increasingly competitive and fragmented market-place thighs and breasts are exposed, and ethics are thrown aside in pursuit of the holy grail of magazine publishing, the almighty advertising dollar.
As Jeff Achey the new editor of Climbing said to me, "although we wouldn't go down the route that some have chosen, 85% of our readers are male". In his recent tenure at Climbing magazine, Achey has been careful to choose female covers that are primarily newsworthy and sexy second, not just unauthentic covers that only appeal to the primal instincts of the male of the species. The difference may appear subtle to some, but it is significant.
http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=112
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Paging LEB.
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Excellent analysis Mick.
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plund
Social climber
OD, MN
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John Sherman made the comment that he thought it a hideous tease because they didn't show the rest of the boulder.....
Gotta love Verm!
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jstan
climber
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^^^^^^^
Thank you, plund. I needed that.
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phylp
Trad climber
Millbrae, CA
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Resolved: In order to avoid future heartburn amongst sexually militant, confused, insecure, repressed, and otherwise half-witted climbers (of both sexes): henceforth, all women should take pains to garb themselves in traditional Islamic couture, including Burkas, while climbing. Freedom of movement, practicality, comfort, and simple common sense should remain secondary considerations.
Men, of course, should feel free to strip down to next-to-nothing on even the most bitterly cold, yet sunny, 35-degree days at the Buttermilks and Happies. Retaining the Prana skullbeanies is optional, although strongly recommended.
Carry on.
Thanks for the morning belly laugh, BVB! But it's not too far from the truth for me - I am always cold. Witness photo evidence:
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Largo
Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
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Topic Author's Reply - Mar 6, 2012 - 02:20pm PT
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After reading Ryan's rant from 1998 (??), I wonde where his wife or GF stood on the issues back then? I don't honestly believe that a male would have those values or would think like that.
JL
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fear
Ice climber
hartford, ct
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She wasn't (gasp) naked for Christ's sake! Who really cares? I have never understood why everyone gets all worked up over boobies.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Really fear? you think That'swhat the fuss was about?
And
Worse yet, boobies don't, get you worked up?
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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The whole thing felt like a ginned-up, fake controversy from the get go. You could have looked a foot to the left at the magazine stand and seen twenty mags with more revealing pics that weren't even pretending to be anything but a skin show...all the hotrod/car and motorcycle mags for example.
The year before the Rikke cover, we got this from Rolling Stone:
Didn't hear any whining and crying about that one.
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