What if they shop at Route One, wear permanent earpods, and and only try lazer flips?
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āI feel often - and I think we would all agree with this - the the core skate media doesnāt actually reflect the reality of the skate community anymoreā
āLike, you open a skate magazine [and] often thereās no black people at all and one girl. like, and thatās the reality of it.
Itās still very, very heavily the white man, I thinkā
I do know that female representation (and non-binary representation) within skate media has improved.
It was never great before and still has a way to go. But it is far better than āone girlā.
That comment feels out of date by half a decade at least, to me.
I sort of wanted to ignore the āno black peopleā representation comment because from where I sit, I feel like it would be hard to find a single magazine without a person of colour in there over the past 30 years.
ā¦but I canāt ignore it because I feel like thats the line which reveals true intent here. And that is - as @sk8arrog8 pointed out - that this is just clickbait.
It is what Stef has become, sadly.
And maybe me linking that post or even writing this is just playing into the airing of a view which possibly never needed airing because it just seems based on nothing at all.
Stef has 180,000 followers on Instagram
She has 133,000 followers on TikTok.
She has the same amount of Insta followers as Grey, Vague, North and TSC (So, ALL of the UK mags) combined.
All of the people who started those mags (and, fuck itā¦the people who started Free, Document and Sidewalk and every other mag out there too) did so as they felt they had something to contribute which was being missed within their scene.
I think that is fair to say, right?
And they started these mags with nothing more than a bit of a skillset and a few contacts.
From where Stef is right now, she has a headstart over Dolores or Vague or Exposure or whatever inclusive (or non-inclusive) start up you can name and could really make a differenceā¦
She has this massive platform with as much reach as every UK mag combined - and her own brand - where she could represent the right people she deems fit to be represented. But instead, all I can see is cash grabs from Samsung, Heelys and anyone else who will write a cheque and endless ācontentā like this:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cz1uNags3GZ/
Where is her inclusion of what is good and right? Her representation of under-represented skaters?
That is what all those editors, photographers and writers did.
They got on and supplied their vision and worked their arses off to make a continual positive point month in, month out.
Iād love to be corrected here but seeing her nowadays just feels like she does a lot of taking from skateboarding and not a lot of actual proper giving back.
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Itās not that suprising that someone best known for kickflipping in stillies thinks sheās being overlooked by ācoreā skate media.
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Nothing is perfect
Summed that up so damn well .
Just look at that insta post , Look at the negativity itās sparked in the comments , didnāt need any of it , got skaters going at each other over it .
She really needed to come to that table with actual solid evidence rather than that statement.
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But thatās called āengagementā, and thatās her business.
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āOmg guys so much negativity, just off to Saudi Arabia to decompress, brb, slay queen yaaaaaaasā
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The joys of the modern age
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Are they those new Docs? The ones that are good for frontside 5050s?
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Eloquently put @Londonskater
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Paraphrasing a certain forumer, but for the most part, skate media is selling shoes to knobheadsā¦ not a public service, meaning it will appeal to the lowest common denominator in a way, which is the knobhead who buys the shoes.
Alsoā¦ talking about skate magazines/media (they reference magazines specifically in the next post) not doing the right thing feels like shouting at an empty stable. The horse has bolted and the whole reason we have a more diverse skate scene is because of all the people doing it for themselves and not trying to sell shoes to knobheads (or in this case Heelys)
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The ātalking pointā highlighted in the video is bound to cause a bit of āengagerageā, because of the way it has been cherrypicked from a much longer panel. Would love to see it in context, because thereās definitely an interesting conversation that could be had, but thatās not going to happen on instagram around a 30 second clip thatās bookended by disclaimersā¦ āI feel, and I think youāll all agreeā¦ā and āā¦I thinkā.
Thereās an interesting comment on the post from her:
Are there many/any female skateboard photographers getting published? or have been published much in the past?
Iām struggling to think of any. Which might be my failing, but Iām curious now.
I know thereās a few filmers putting things out there, but filming is more accessibly shareable through youtube etc. So photography representation does rely a bit more on the magazines etc.
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My friend Erin had this photo of Izzy Almond printed in Vague last summer:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChEpMjIscrd/?igshid=N2ViNmM2MDRjNw==
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Jenna Selby. She shoots skate photos and has for years. Not sure how active she is with mags, but she deffo still shoots skate photos. Had a few in a gallery show last year, shot in the same year.
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And thereās Hilda Quick putting out content this year .
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Windy Osborn shot some really nice stuff in the 80s, she mostly shot BMX, but some skateboarding too. Sarah Meurle from Sweden shot a couple of photos in the gallery section of the next Free but honestly, weāre running these because they are great photos, not because she is a girl. Having said that I would love to be sent more skate photos shot by girls.
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To be fair, this was posted from the Girl Skate UK account and not Stefās personal account (although she clearly is loving ruffling feathers in the comments).
Anything like this is ALWAYS based in bitterness and the feeling of losing out and not understanding why.
Why didnāt I get that, Why canāt I be doing this, Why donāt I get seen???
These people donāt understand how they project themselves and how people see them otherwise theyād realise, like many of usā¦ that the world (skate industry) do not owe us anything.
Work out who you are Stef and then youāll see that the people getting represented are the people that deserve it.
Of course, iām talking albout skateboarding media, there ARE many real issues of under representation in so many areas and fields but crying about it when you have the wrong attitude isnāt going to solve anything.
I got to be honest, I am surprised at how much blowback a fairly uncontroversial statement has caused.
Historically, women clearly have been excluded from skating so you can understand Stefaniās perspective. Representation has changed massively, but we shouldnāt get complacent because mags have now started featuring one or two women every other issue.
As people have pointed out, there are lots of non-male voices, photographers and videographers out there. But are they being invited to contribute to the core media? Sometimes but it does feel like itās done via who knows who. It must feel hard from a womanās perspective to get wider recognition.
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As you sub-editor was told at the Pushing Boarders event a few years ago, you Probably need to reach out to them. There might be barriers preventing women from sending you photos (feelings like Free is a male space, not being good enough etc.).
Not having a go - love Free and your work!
