After a bit of a rushed presentation we received some feedback from our talented and successful panel of experts in a documentary/film type field. The main thing the panel passed onto us was that we should, rather than focusing on skateboarding culture altogether in Melbourne, focus on females skateboard and how girls are making themselves present and equal in such a previously male dominated culture.
Before receiving this advice I’d not thought to much about just focusing in on females in skating as I wanted to look at the whole picture of the misrepresentation and the stereotype that skaters face everyday. However I realise that a 3-5 minute documentary would not allow the capacity to unpack this topic sufficiently.
After walking away from that class and then going to the Riverslide Skatepark to film that evening I realised that females in skating would be the obvious story that we would have to choose. Watching those girls skating but unreal, they were so confident and graceful, and most certainly determined, persistent and courageous.
Despite that evening supposedly being a ‘girls night’ there were only around a total of 12 girls skating there, and they were definitely outnumbered by the male population present. What I watched pleased me though. The girls were accepted by the male skateboarders and I was strangely surprised by this. I talked to some of the girls there and tried to get some idea of how they felt and they were all beyond comfortable being female and skating. I also spoke to some of the men there. One man I met was a skateboarding teacher in Shanghai and he expressed his interest in my film’s idea, he also said that the girls in shanghai were very accepted and interested in skateboarding, he said that recently most of the classes he takes are around 50% female and 50% male.

I went home and researched females in skating to get some information on just how female skateboarding is seen across the world. I found that (as I had expected ) female skating has recently received more attention and popularity as a sport, in fact, female skateboarding has been announced to make its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2020.
I literally typed ‘Female Skateboarding’ into google and received lots of relevant articles and websites (21,700,000 results to be exacts). Straight away I came across the name Cindy Whitehead, I didn’t pay too much attention to her until her name came up in the next 3 articles I read too. I discovered that she is a leader in demanding equality for females in skateboarding as well as other things. She is an entrepreneur and has recently designed a board named ‘GIRL is NOT a 4 Letter Word (GN4LW)’. GN4LW ‘acknowledges and encourages all female skaters because for Whitehead the word “girl” should never be used as a slur’ (Forbes 2014).
Overall I found that many girls around the world want to be more involved in skateboarding and I definitely think that the panel were correct in advising my group to take this perspective on our documentary.

I’ve combined a few quotes from a few different websites to summarise how people are beginning to feel about women in skateboarding.

“Female skateboarding has long been unfairly overshadowed by the sport’s male counterparts but things are gradually changing, thanks to the badass women inspiring the next generation of girls to get on boards.” – Marie Claire June 1 2017

“Female skaters have long fought for gender equality in everything from contest availability and sponsorship opportunities to prize money and travel allowances. Nevertheless, men still dominate magazine covers, videos, and mainstream media, fueling the perception that men still rule the industry and making brands less likely to give women a shot. That perception trickles down to affect all female skaters, regardless of age.” – Vice Sports April 6 2017

“The female skate scene is on the rise, with many girls staking their claim at suburban parks and city streets across the world. In fact, in 2013, US women’s sports channel Mahfia TV claimed that skateboarding is the fastest growing sport for female participation worldwide.” – SBS 13 March 2018

“The lack of women in skateboarding is starkly visible at every park and street spot. In fact, if there’s a woman in sight of these places, it’s often assumed that she’s someone’s girlfriend or mum. While skate culture boasts a reputation for bringing people of all ages, nationalities and classes together, almost all of these people are men and boys. The scarcity of females has always existed in skateboarding, which makes you wonder how inclusive our subculture really is.” – skateboarding.com 20 April 2017