I’ve got to say that the representation of all types of skateboarding/skateboarders in the UK mags is pretty great. It feels like what was said was without any real research and as if they haven’t actually opened a mag in 2023.
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It’s a tough one because people will always feel underrepresented but there are more normal reasons for that than the nefarious reasons the people who get triggered with these things assume. I always thought Skate mags, especially UK skate mags did a great job of covering a wide variety of scenes and people while still keeping a good level of quality. You have to have a bar of quality otherwise you’ll open it way more up to scrutiny. You can’t lower it because you’ll have everyone questioning why such and such has been featured when they can do what they have or better. Media has to have a level of unobtainability for the average skater to wow and strive for.
The main thing is proportionality, The majority of skaters are white males so the amount of people getting to the level of being represented in the media is going to be heavily congregated by them.
I don’t believe in filling quotas to represent diversity in skilled areas, that has to be run by a meritocracy. If minorities in that field are not getting represented we have to look at the reasons why they are minorities in that field. There are way less people from that minority interested in that field, the opportunities might be against them, due to many reasons and some could be nefarious from historical points of view.
I don’t want to say anything bad about Stefani Nurding but I think her reasons for saying these things are possibly not rooted in a way that will look at the reasons pragmatically. Some people are looking to be offended and will be offended on many peoples behalf. This is one reason why we are in such a pickle in the world. The ‘right’ have a point with “wokeness” in this regard but that’s as far as the right have. They are using the far left’s easily triggers as an excuse to be the worst Michael Fabricants ever so normal people that are normal left find themselves in turmoil over the impossibility of things ever getting better.
I’m not a big fan of Samsung phones.
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I would be if I was paid 
.
I think the current mags in the UK are more inclusive than ever. Can’t speak for the American ones as I’ve not read any in years,but they tend to cover the top tier stuff.
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Nurding clearly got a platform and just making shit up for social media attention that she’s been lacking . what utter bollocks coming out that mouth .
She looks like she’s fallen down that influencer hole on her insta page , utter cringe .
Just seems like pure shit stirring from her and she’s certainly gonna get the attention.
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Also that post was very ‘click bait’
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ha, well yeah, there are areas and anomalies. But overall quality is what should be lauded. That’s not saying that less can’t be lauded for other reasons. Some of the parts that stoke me out the most are obtainable, like the edits Spanky’s mate puts out. That’s the best but also it’s not trying to be the pinnacle of skateboarding.
Skate mags have always done great in representing everyone with scene articles, and even things like Working class hero.
In his defence, whilst GSD was clearly not as good as most of his peers, he was also massively important for doing Skate Fate zine and sort of helping to establish the editorial tone of many mags that followed, inventing the boneless, being from Ohio and working on early era TWS. Deffo more to him than him not being that good. See also Swank etc.
(I know you know all this @Barf )
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She probably does have a bit of a point.
Do all of the big mags have white, male editors? Thrasher - Burnett; Free - Will Harmon; Vague - Guy Jones(?); The Skateboarder’s Companion - Ryan Gray; Grey - Henry Kingsford. And their contributors tend to be from the same perspective.
That has probably meant they have been slow to reflect skateboarding’s changing demographics. Although I will say the Skateboarder’s Companion has embraced diversity from its outset, and is an outlier in that sense. But other publications are changing too, no doubt prompted by the big rise in standard in female skating and key advertisers sponsoring more women.
However, to truly reflect skateboarding in the era of diversity, don’t we need skateboarding to be written from more perspectives? More female and non-white journalists would be great, but there is undoubtedly massive barriers to this (the fact that it is impossible to really have a career doing this).
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First street pro model too…
(As @Barf and @anonymity and pretty much everyone else knows).
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Yeah I know you weren’t. I just wanted to big up
GSD
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To be fair there are now at least 3 mags run and edited by women/minorities/queer people/ formerly unrepresented groups
You’ve got Dolores in Spain, Girl Skate Mag in the Uk and Mess mag out of SF iirc.
There is deffo a movement for self representation from the people that Stef et al are talking about but, like you say, there’s no money in it any more in terms of making it a viable career.
See also video projects both here and overseas.
Much more female led stuff happening.
Does that detract from some of what was said, no. Instagram and nuanced, trenchant debate are hardly happy bed fellows.
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Kinda odd timing to release that clip considering the latest issue of Vague dropped on Saturday with a Jechu Corvalan cover and full interview as well as a Lola Pendlebury interview as well 
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If anything the UK mags should be celebrated for how inclusive they are. Of course, they can always be better but it’s evident that they’re trying.
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Vague definitely does things well.
I’ve found SC quite dull in terms of editorial content personally, but it’s great that they’re in the mix and making obvious efforts to interview outside of the industry mainstream.
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Hasn’t this been happening anyway? One of the reasons we love skateboarding and live skating . We’ve always embraced anyone who picks up a board. I think the problem for some is that it’s not instant enough for them and this progression can’t be sped up over night to fulfill their needs .
I mean you can , you can just start throwing people at the situation to tick boxes but we’ve seen how that’s turned into a disaster for some industries. Disney being one of them.
We don’t need skating falling down that hole because the last thing we need is us going against each other . We’re better than that .
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I’m really trying hard not to be a Fabricant but theres some serious mental gymnastics going on in that post
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“…no Black people at all and there’s just one girl”???
Wildly off.
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We love saying shit like this about ourselves but it’s just not true
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That’s how I feel about the UK scene.
There are genuine dickheads who skate and people won’t like, but it’s not like we go round telling learners to stop skating cos they don’t fit the scene .
Am I missing something or are us as skater not stoked when we see people learning to skate ?
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