In 1946 the United States initiated its first peacetime nuclear weapons test at the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. A few days later a similar explosion took place in the fashion world: the women's two-piece swimsuit. It took on slowly due to its indecency and the strong reaction from the public, but with the help of Brigitte Bardot and Ursula Andress, the Bikini eventually gained full acceptance in the Western hemisphere. Over the years it has become a one billion dollar business and branched out to include bikini waxing, sun tanning, and bodybuilding. For years it defined the new norm of what was acceptable.
For those of you unfamiliar with the skydiving world it is a hippie-like community that projects a miniature society. To be accepted as a citizen you only need one skydive. Many are intrigued, not only by the skydiving but also by the welcoming atmosphere. It doesn't matter if you are male, female, gay, straight, trans, rich, poor, educated, disabled or ugly. Any bikini is tolerable, and if you choose not to wear one, that is ok too.
You can be a complete beginner and sit next to a world champion and feel the same anticipation before a skydive and share the same joy as you land. There is basically only one rule you need to live by, adequately put into words by a female cornerstone in the sport: try not to be a mean selfish c**t!
Several women have told me over the years that the skydiving community is the one place where they feel equal. Once you exit the plane and enter freefall nothing matters except the skills you bring with you. The opportunities are the same for everyone. It is a wondrous feeling to belong to a community where everyone is considered to be part of a family and you are accepted just the way you are.
Sounds too good to be true? Well, unfortunately, when you scratch beneath the surface, it soon becomes evident that despite all the rainbows and unicorns it is not the Nirvana it appeared to be at first glance. Like in any paradise, the imperfection of Homo Sapiens eventually ruins everything. The skydiving world is no exception. There is sexual harassment, gender inequality, liers, criminals, violence, murder, gold diggers, cheaters, and maybe worse of all: belly fliers. For the non-skydivers, this might need a quick explanation. Imagine that lazy old uncle that is always around during holidays. He is adorable in his own kind of way, and you love him. He looks a bit funny, takes forever at the door and is just always in the way. In the skydiving world, we call these uncles belly fliers.
Next summer (2020) the female elite of the sport will gather in Chicago to celebrate women´s suffrage and attempt to break the Female Vertical Record. A symbolic event and a beautiful way to honor the strong, talented and dedicated women in a male-dominated sport. Many of whom I love and respect dearly. Ironically, at the same time as the marketing for this event started, one of the more prominent companies in the industry decided to market their brand with a picture of a female model that could easily have been published in the Playboy magazine.
The image was provocative as the company unquestionably intended. What created a big reaction was that one-tenth of the nipple was visible. To be more precise it was one-tenth of the areola which is the pigmented area on the breast around the nipple. For some it was a big disappointment; why use sexual inflicted methods in marketing and why use one's sexuality as a purpose to stand out as a woman in the sport?
The skydiving world brilliantly illustrates the social behavior in our society. Skydiving per se is often used to look a bit cooler. The social media is filled with pictures and videos of people doing tandem jumps. But once you are a citizen, you need more to stand out. For some, it is just a matter of social status within the community and beyond. For others, it becomes a valuable marketing tool to brand yourself in a competitive industry. It becomes a battle of likes, shares, and sponsorships.
Because one's status in the community so strongly correlates to one specific, meaningless skill, the one element that drives our social behavior is more visible. That element is of course sex. Nine out of ten times when you observe the choice of sexual partners among the skydiving primates the male has a higher status than the female. Here is a typical scenario:
A beautiful young female arrives as a beginner to the drop zone. The competing alpha males quickly surround her, offering their devoted assistants everything from packing her parachute to an endless amount of free coaching. Pretty soon she will make her pick; her beauty often compares with the amount of skydiving skill of the male. Obviously, there are outliers, and with age, other priorities start to play a more significant role. But the pattern is so well documented that I would claim it to be a scientific fact.
A few years ago we put this scientific theory to the test. A beautiful female skydiver had suddenly become single. What made her different from the example above was that she was not a beginner; she was already a prominent skydiver. She was not the kind of person that liked to remain single, so we knew that it was just a matter of time before a new man would be by her side. The problem was that there were no suitable alpha males in the club, none were good enough. In fact, there were no suitable alpha males in the country. Therefore, we had to broaden the possible mating grounds to include the whole continent. The male had to be decently available, fulfill some appearance criteria and most importantly be a high-level skydiver. After a careful examination and some rigorous Facebook stalking, we found our match. Only a few weeks later our assumptions were proven correct. And no, men don´t gossip, men exchange information based on spreadsheets and algorithms.
In the time of social media, it has become easy and often very lucrative for women to market themselves with the help of sexually suggestive images. The trick is to find that fine line between an acceptable bikini that reviles enough but not too much. Don´t get me wrong a lot of the women are incredibly dedicated, they have worked hard for years, and are very skill full; the sex appeal is A method not necessarily THE method. What is also true is that when you reach a certain level, you don't have to use gimmicks to get attention. If you are good, you don't have to wear pink socks to come out as something special.
Men, more often, need other methods to get the likes, followers, and sponsorships. Based on the death count in the sport men tend to do more dangerous and demanding stunts. They jump out of planes without parachutes, try to draw paintings while flying next to a mountain wall and swoop through hangar doors. If you follow the comment section after a typical male post on social media, there will be a lot of Epic bro! Insane man! Respect! Whereas on a standard female post you will find: Beautiful! So hot! You look amazing! If a woman crosses the line, she might be "slut-shamed" if a man crosses the line he will be seriously injured or dead.
Years ago as I landed in my student jumpsuit from my sixth skydive ever, my darling wife greeted me at the landing area. As she approached me, the top dog in the club swooped by with lines whistling and his Optimas screaming after making a 1080 degree turn. For those of you not familiar with skydiving it would be like parking your Toyota Corolla, and as you step out to greet your wife in your dirty sweat pants, Brad Pitt arrives in his Lamborghini.
My wife looked at me with the face of a meat-eater who has just tried his first tofu-burger. She then asked: "why don´t you land like that?" That moment I understood that for me to remain married, I had to downsize as quickly as possible and start doing hook turns. In laymen's terms; sell your kidney and start risking your life to get a Lamborghini!
In a perfect world, individuals would be able to choose freely how they wish to market themselves without being judged. Those who would object with a company´s marketing strategy would vote with their feet and buy a Deem suit instead. (You really should!) Those who would have the opportunity and courage to emphasize their sexuality could do so without having anyone tell them that the bikini of choice is shameful. And most importantly whatever an individual would end up doing, it would not put a strain on the rest of the representatives of that specific gender.
When we fail, we tend to blame it on issues like; gender, inadequate judges, or our short legs. And when we are successful, it is all us, our hard work, and superior work ethic that gets the credit. We easily forget which methods we used and what help we got during our journey to the podium.
It requires an adequate marketing foresight and survival skills to be able to balance on that knife´s edge; pushing the boundaries enough to be relevant, but not too far to burn. It seems that for some, the acceptable bikini needs to cover up that one-tenth of the areola. Time will tell how the model in question will cope with the backlash of disappointed women and if the company will be punished for its vulgarity and sexism. I have a feeling that a lot of men will grab more popcorn.
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