High-five for women
Mass swims were banned, but some still marked International Women’s Day with a dip,
“YOU think cold swimming is crazy? Women work two-thirds of the world’s hours for one-tenth of its income,” read a large placard held up out of the water by Holly Farquhar as she took her morning International Women’s Day swim.
Farquhar was just one of the dippers to take part, yesterday, in Swimrise, a mass International Women’s Day swim in aid of women’s charities that was first staged in Edinburgh in 2019 and spread across the UK last year.
In this pandemic year, the swim was very different from previously.
On March 8 last year, just before lockdown started, more than 300 swimmers turned out on Portobello beach, Edinburgh, to plunge into the bracing North Sea, and were joined by 1,500 swimmers in other parts of the UK and globally, in the second annual IWD swim.
This year participants took their dips in pairs, or singly, dedicating their swim to fundraising for a chosen women’s charity.
The International Women’s Day Swimrise was chiefly the brainchild of Anna Deacon, author of the wild swimming book Taking The Plunge, and body positivity ambassador Danni
Gordon, with a little help from myself. Some 83 swims took place in 2020, some of them as far afield as the United States.
Though there were no 100-strong dooks this year, and no mass post-swim Zumba warm-ups or gatherings round campfires on beaches, as there had been on that day, this year there was still fancy dress, and very cold water. Costumes worn by swimmers included, a mermaid, sea nymph, feminist icon, flamingoes, lobsters and jellyfish.
IWD swimmers took to the water in Falmouth, Broughty Ferry,
Surrey, Newquay, Lossiemouth, Greystones (Ireland), Nairn.
At Wardie Bay, Anna Deacon and I plunged into the water at her local Wardie Bay, both dressed as the iconic poster-figure Rosie The Riveter. “We appreciate the need for restrictions,” said Deacon, “but we were so sad that we couldn’t be swimming as a big group as we did last year and some of us still wanted to do mini swims ourselves.
“It’s been thrilling to see so many other people, all around the country, inspired to do it too. There’s a sense of solidarity we can have with one
another in spite of the distance between us.”
Charities receiving donations from the Edinburgh swimmers included Rape Crisis Scotland, Edinburgh Women’s Aid and Social, Health & Education Scotland and Multi Cultural Family Base.
Hazel Spiers, who swam dressed as a mermaid at Wardie Bay said: “My friend and I actually donated to all four of the Edinburgh charities as we could not choose between them.
“They all do such worthwhile work and I also think it’s so important for women to support other women. The swim this morning had such a community feel from both the women that were there and those I knew would be doing throughout the day and the country. That’s more important than ever this year with everything that is going on.”
Among the dippers on Portobello beach this year, was a group who leapt through the waves with transparent umbrellas decorated to resemble jellyfish. They were swimming to fundraise for local charity Multi Cultural Family Base.
Anne Spiers, chief executive of the charity said: “Many of the women we support are newly arrived in Scotland. Having little or no English contributes to them feeling socially isolated and excluded from support systems that might otherwise be able to help.
“If we can support women to talk to us and make that first move easier by removing any language barrier then we have a better chance of effective intervention to listen, understand and offer appropriate support. Interpreting services are vital in these situations.”
Farquhar observed: “For me, openwater swimming has been vital to surviving through this pandemic. The nature of the sport makes it inclusive and accessible to people from all walks of life, regardless of gender, ethnicity, ability, body shape and so on.
“On this International Women’s
Day I felt that open water swimming would be the perfect medium for highlighting the ongoing inequalities facing women in the world today.”
Many of those dipping were people who had swum throughout winter, at a time when swimming pools have been closed due to Covid restrictions.
I felt it would be the perfect medium for highlighting the ongoing inequalities facing women in the world