Burton Love Snowboards - a letter to Donna Carpenter

This is a letter I'm sending to Donna Carpenter, wife of Jake Burton Carpenter, along with a copy of Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy.

Dear Donna,

I’m writing to you based on our shared experiences as women, business owners, mothers and athletes, to share my concerns about the use of women’s bodies to sell snowboards. I also direct the 24 hour crisis and advocacy program for victims of domestic and sexual violence in the three counties of the Northeast Kingdom, so I spend my days dealing with the consequences of a society where women are treated as less-than. But I want to appeal to you on a much more personal level.

I am a mother of two young girls who are assaulted on a daily basis with unrealistic imagery of female bodies and dangerous depictions of sexuality which portray women and girls as sexual commodities. We’ve gotten rid of cable and are selective about the toys and games our girls have. But knowing that we need to prepare our girls for the rest of the world, we have conversations about cultural context: who creates these images and why? Who benefits and who suffers?

My girls are active and athletic, in addition to their many other gifts. I was also athletic growing up – as a taller than average girl I reveled in the sense of strength and empowerment that sports gave me. And, like many girls and women, I dealt with coaches who used their positions of power and proximity to engage in unwanted contact and innuendo. Two years ago, when I took up running again to reclaim my strength and well-being after childbirth, I fell right back into this feeling of exposure and vulnerability. I am routinely stared at, occasionally “hooted” or honked at, but more serious things have happened, too. Like the time an entire road crew came to a halt and lined up along the road to silently watch me run by.

I’ve been involved in the protests and other activism against the LOVE snowboards, and time after time people who know you or know of your history of backing women’s causes are left scratching their heads. Where is your voice in this? It’s so inconsistent with all you’ve been building at Burton with your women’s initiatives. I will continue to speak out about this – and other examples of porn making its way into places and media that parents used to think were not only safe, but positive alternatives to support their children’s healthy physical, social and emotional development. I don’t expect that Burton will change its position on the Love and Primo lines – it’s clear from the lack of engagement and dismissive email statements that the corporate heels are dug in deep. But I offer the enclosed book as a resource for you as a woman leader, in the hopes that future decisions at one of Vermont’s great success stories don’t leave so many of us feeling disheartened and ashamed.

I wish you and your family well.