Skirts and Inverts

I apologize for missing Monday's update: this post was a bit of a doozie, and required a week's worth of attention. Hopefully you agree that the extra time spent was worth it.

So, my girlfriend skateboards. She didn't always, and as a matter of fact it was not until about a year and a half back, when she casually decided to play around with one of my spare setups, that the thought of riding a skateboard had occurred to her at all.

She loves skating, and she has a blast doing it, though despite her frankly uncanny sense of balance, she rarely skates, and never without me there. I really can't blame her; putting oneself out there on a skateboard, especially in front of other skaters, can be intimidating until you feel comfortable enough. I had the good fortune of picking up skateboarding at a relatively young age, and having a big unfinished basement in which to hone my skills before really ever skating at parks with any kind of frequency, whereas my girlfriend is twenty-three, and really has nowhere private where she can increase her comfort level and boost her confidence. Further, and as much as it pains me to say it, it doesn't help that my girlfriend is, you know, a girl.

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venice, amirite guys?

I touched very briefly on the issue of the role of women within skateboarding back in my video games post, but I think the issue goes far beyond the existence of Hubba Wheels ads. I can't really blame my girlfriend for not wanting to go to skateparks to skate; as it stands, skateparks are intimidating places for the average twelve-year-old boy who hasn't mustered the skill set required to ollie down some stairs or rock fakie a quarter pipe. At the very worst, this kid is shot the odd look of annoyance for getting in the way. Put a young adult woman in the same scenario, and the intimidation factor is amplified three-fold, and worries of being secretly judged as "just some dude's girlfriend getting in the way" can result in crippling self-consciousness.

Occasionally, my girlfriend and I will watch a skate video together. After doing last week's review of the Element video, we decided to watch it together because 1) She read the post and was interested, and 2) I thought she might get excited watching Vanessa Torres' part in the video.

I don't want to sound chauvinistic, but I always think that girls might get as, if not more excited watching a good part with a female skater than a good part with a male skater, that it might help boost a female skater's confidence by watching another female skater rip it up. If I'm wrong in this assumption, than it really only adds more fuel to the point of this post. My girlfriend has watched plenty of videos, and has seen plenty of female skaters, and while she appreciates the skating in general, there is often one point that she brings up when the female skaters take the screen:

"Why do they always dress like frumpy dudes?"

In writing about this, I am aware that I am walking on a dangerously slippery slope of thin ice. I had never really considered the implications of how female skaters dress until it had been brought up by another female skater.  While I don't wish to generalize here, I think it is safe to say that the majority of female skaters dress rather masculine. If this is how they choose to dress, far be it from me to point fingers and dissuade; comfortable jeans a t-shirt and a trucker cap are what I like to wear when I skate, too. What worries me is not that some girls choose not to dress "girly", but that they may not feel like they have a choice in the matter.

Let's be honest: Elissa Steamer's Madonnas are better than mine.

As mentioned above, a skatepark can be an intimidating place for any skater, and more so for a girl. Skateboarding is an inherently rough and tumble activity, and the girls who skate may very well be nervous enough about being judged on their skating, much less about being seen as some frou-frou ditzy twit who doesn't want to ruin her new manicure. I can understand that oftentimes these girls are just trying to fit in and be "one of the guys", and anyone in any social atmosphere has experienced the same. The ironic part of it is that as of late I have seen more eyeliner and tight pants on male skaters than female ones.

Blogger's representation of half of all current skatepark patrons

I think the real solution here, if I may be so bold, is greater female participation. If the vilification of femininity in skateboarding stems from puerile adolescent stereotyping, than bring in some more girls to kill that stereotype dead. I, for one, welcome the notion.