Surfing, sex/es, gender/s and sexuality/ies

Sex, gender and sexuality (sgs) are three concepts that are shaped historically and culturally, in how they are defined, in how they are constituted, and in how they constitute each other, or not. How each are constituted and constituting in cultures, bodies and practices is the topic of much scholarship spearheaded by feminism, gender studies, Lesbian and Gay studies, critical theory, cultural studies and queer studies. Scholars such as Joan Scott, Judith Butler and Michel Foucault suggest there is a futility in trying to hold the meanings of the concepts in place, but meaning is also what makes each significant in interrogating their meanings and effects in place and over time. Gender, as an historical object and category, includes not only regimes of truth about sex and sexuality production and mobilization but also fantasies and transgressions that refuse regulation or categorization (Scott, 2011). In 1986, Joan Scott attempted to ask questions about the usefulness of ‘gender’, later stating ‘I want to insist that the term gender is useful only as a question’ (2008a, p. 1422); these questions being important in understanding the taken-for-granted assumptions inherent in concepts and in offering new thinking and analysis. Configurations are contingent, making space for new, unthought possibilities and futures.