‘Chicks dig scars’

Abstract

In September of 2000, I visited San Diego to continue my research on skateboarding. I attended the All-Girls-Skate-Jam, an interesting and revealing venue for investigating my ongoing interest in how gender was being constructed and contested in the skating culture and its industry. Because southern California is the Mecca of the ‘action sports’2 industry, it wasn’t surprising to discover that another event, the Action Sports Convention, was taking place close by. Many of the industry representatives from the Action Sports Convention found their way to the Skate-Jam, a skate competition for female skateboarders. I talked with two industry representatives who said they were looking for women to sponsor. Their goal was to expand their lines explicitly to target a female market which is part of an emerging trend in skateboarding. The venue was littered with stickers, posters and merchandise, and with the marketing hype came the promotional t-shirts. One proclaimed that ‘Chicks dig scars’. The shirt was worn by a male in the crowd who was there to watch the women skate. Although the event was designed to celebrate the accomplishments of women in a male dominated sport, the t-shirt illustrated how much skateboarding was still being held to masculine standards. The statement reminded me that the industry still positions women as being interested in the risk-taking, daring man who gets hurt and lives to tell about it. The women are not being rewarded for their athleticism, but still remain the trophies for the men. This is just one of the contradictions I encounter as I continue to investigate the production of skateboarding identities. In this chapter I (re)examine skating in the twenty-first century, exploring the continuities and shifts in the ways in which skaters construct their identities, particularly in the context of increasing popularity and extensive commercialisation.

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