Why should a girl skater look like? When Lacey Baker won X Games Street Gold earlier this month we were stoked. As were most of the congrats messages on facebook, but then we saw these:
Hey Congratulation!!!! But wow you look like a boy
Why do the girls look like guy in order to be good. Leticia is a Girl who looks like a Girl & Shes Awesome
There’s of course nothing new in social media being cruel or random, but it’s interesting to me that people feel like they know what a pro skater girl should look like.
Lacey Baker skates super well but she doesn’t skate for Nike, Leticia Bufoni skates super well but she does. And let’s be clear Leticia Bufoni really does skate well so this isn’t about brands signing a pretty (in the traditionally defined, some might say dude-lead sense, that is) girl who can’t skate to model stuff as she fully rips, but the fact remains in skateboarding brands do seem increasingly keener to help out female skaters who look like models. [Leticia Bufoni for example did this Men’s Health shoot earlier this year]
This is nothing new in the world of surf, Alana Blanchard now has over a 1 million facebook followers, her main sponsor Rip Curl only has a million and a half, or to a lesser extent the world of snow, but skateboarding has been blissfully free from the whole pressure to pretty up, until now at least. Aside from a cringe Vice makeover piece with Marisa Dal Santo that won’t bother to link to, that is. Just enjoy watching Marisa skate in Strange World instead.
So what do we think about all this? Can there not be any sports or pastimes left in the world where you can dress and style yourself how you please? Do we not have a responsibility to scruffy tomboys in providing role models that make them feel skateboarding is a scene for them?
I asked the awesomeness that is top UK skater Lucy Adams [GET DOWN TO BRIGHTON BEACHFRONT THIS SATURDAY TO JOIN LUCY AND FRIENDS PUSH THE PROM FOR GO SKATEBOARDING DAY] what she thought and she said:
