Fictional character from the 1950s novel Gidget who helped bring surfing to more mainstream and encouraged girls to participate in surfing.

• A. Caster Semenya
• B. Gidget
• C. Len Bias
• D. Tommie Smith

Answer: (B)

The idea being tested is how media representations can expand who participates in a sport and push a activity into the mainstream. Gidget, a fictional teenage girl from the 1950s novel Gidget, becomes a symbol of surfing and helps bring the sport into the mainstream for young women. The story and its film adaptations popularized surfing among girls, encouraging them to try it and view it as a viable activity, which contributed to greater female participation in surf culture. The other names are real athletes from different sports and contexts, not connected to this cultural moment in surfing, so they don’t fit the scenario.