Australian snowsports: Gendered and contested spaces?

In seeking to understand the level of women’s participation in snowsports, this article analyses Australian snowsports tourism images through a scale for measuring sexism in tourism images and explores the impact of the historically gendered, contested and fluid nature of the space in which the activities occur. The results of the analysis highlight the dominance of stereotypical images which convey men as active and competent participants, while women are often conveyed as inactive ‘eye candy’. Further reflections and questions are raised about the application of the scale and the impact of the researchers’ prior snowsports and life experiences upon what is ‘seen’ in the images and thus the lack of objectivity of the scale