Diver Jane Doe: a much needed conversation in ecotourism

Just to set the scene, this started with an account that was created on Instagram called Karma Is Around The Corner, and they posted on the 4th of October, so like 10 days ago now.

And it's basically an account that was made to out a instructor who was convicted of, um, of rape, sexual assault.

And it was made because he's a big deal in the industry, where he owns a dive operator business, and diving associations have done nothing to revoke his status as an instructor or as somebody with power.

Um, and so these women, whoever they are, said, "Enough's enough.

Let's take it to the internet, and let's talk about it."

Yeah, so this has sparked kind of a industry-wide conversation, a much wider conversation that goes beyond just this one person, about sexual misconduct, misogyny, that goes on very commonly in the diving industry.

So something that women have to face constantly, whether or not you're working in the profession, whether or not you're doing it recreationally.

It is kind of a constant thing that women are faced in this industry, and it's very much a problem that needs to be fixed.

Yes.

If you follow any kind of ecotourism accounts, any ocean or conservation-based accounts at the moment, you're probably seeing this a lot.

Um, and yeah, we thought, "Hey, this is definitely something that we need to address.

It's definitely something that has been part of all of our dive journeys as individuals and as women, and it's something that, like...

What was it, Jodi? What you, what did you say when you saw this?

It's something that when you see it, it was like, "Oh, really?" And then within the like split second, you're like, "Oh, you're right.

No, that makes sense."

100%.

Like, as soon as you kind of start thinking about it for more than one second, you're like, "Okay, yeah, this is bad." And that's part of the issue, is that we've normalized it so much in this industry.

So that's just kind of like an introduction as to what's happening in this space.

The really cool thing is, of course, the response by so many people in diving, like so much support that's being shown online for this anonymous woman, and then all of the other people who have come forward with their stories.

And everyone's kind of standing up and saying, "We're not standing with it." And that's, that's always the flip side, and that's always the cool thing about, about women, is that they're like, "Fuck this."

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like, we very much commend and are very much proud of the women that have come forward and that have said something, 'cause that takes a lot of bravery, especially against someone who is big in the industry.

Exactly.

So before we actually dive into the topic, I think it's important to just say this is our opinions, this is our discourse, this is our lived experiences.