Picture in your head what it means to do something ‘Like a Girl’? Be it skating or surfing or snowboarding, the style probably looked pretty slapstick and crappy hey?
Girls surf waves the size of mountains, huck off icy kickers as high as trees and slam on concrete just as hard as every dude skater does, so why does the term to ride or skate ‘Like a Girl’ have such damn negative connotations?
Why does the term to ride or skate ‘Like a Girl’ have such damn negative connotations?
Sure it’s mostly from dudes. I’ve lost count of the number of conversations I’ve had with guys about which pro surfer or snowboarder or skater has the best style.
It will always be the one that apes a guy’s style the most, even if they don’t always make the point in such blatant terms. But even girls are guilty of it at times too.
While we need to skate, surf or ride like a guy to get style cred and be deemed to have talent, we sure as hell shouldn’t look like one as we discussed in this ‘what should a skater girl look like’ piece the other week.
Our buddies at Total Women’s Cycling just posted this ‘Like a Girl’ vid. It features young women, a young boy and an older guy acting out what it means to run, throw and hit ‘Like a Girl’, and you don’t have to have been a drama student to imagine the results.
Then they ask young girls the same question and the result made our eyes water a little bit.
It’s a rad ad campaign from Always. Though it’s going to take a massive tectonic shift of society’s fault lines to change things I’d say.
What do you think? Any smart ideas on how we can change the phrase and the symbolism that lies beneath it?
