I don’t see how that changes a thing. It all channels back to her social accounts as that is the only thing which is tagged.
I sort of feel like you are saying exactly what a few of us have said earlier. I don’t think anyone disagrees that non-male skateboarding hasn’t historically been done well.
The issue I believe is that Stefani is stating quite clearly that currently “you open a skate magazine [and] often there’s no black people at all and one girl.”
This isn’t a statement about the past. This is a claim as to right now.
And it just isn’t true.
There’s not one single comment on here or on that awful insta comment section to back up this claim that ‘often there are no black people at all’
It’s a weird ‘panel’ talk anyway. Kinda feels like judge, jury and executioner.
Where was the representation of the media in this debate? Did they invite anyone from any publication to have an open debate and rebut these daft claims? Or is this just a soapbox for a singular voice under the pretence that it is an actual balanced discussion backed with fact?
I dunno…I just find it a bit sad.
I think there are some really, really great things happening in skateboarding.
I am proud that we didn’t have to wait for some premier league footballer to come out to okay being gay in our little realm.
I’m proud that when I go skate I always see people from different walks of life skating.
I’m so stoked to see all sorts of people on covers of magazine and in adverts.
I think that Shari White, Exposure…all of these things are amazing. And more. People just making, creating and putting their scene or vision forward is golden. It has always been on of my favourite things about skateboarding and I am glad that no amount of Olympic exposure is changing that at its core.
Not all of the work has been done and I don’t think it will ever be done but we are moving in a good direction.
I just dislike the hijacking of all of this amazing progressive shit we have going on for what looks like to me is just personal gain.
Sure but it’s uncontroversial in the sense that it’s a familiar form of whinging. Every scene does that! ‘They don’t cover transition’ ‘they only care about ‘London’.
As Londonskater has already stated it’s the fact that she’s making it into a them and us situation and using made up evidence to justify her position that sucks. It’s just lame and it sounds like sour grapes because she isn’t getting coverage…but to be honest, she’s not at all interesting to the majority of skateboarders.
I’m way more interested in the female skaters that HAVE been featured recently and none of them have loads of followers or big sponsorships so to be honest I’d be turning the lens back on Stef and asking ‘Is your version of skateboarding really deserving of so much exposure’?
My point was that it may not have been Nurding’s decision to amplify this comment beyond the event itself. And this comment has been made in the context of a Girl Skate UK event about representation.
And yeah, everyone here broadly has the same view. It’s just nuances in how we’re articulating it.
I’m just trying to view it from a woman’s perspective. LA and Alice Smith are both expressing agreement with some of Stef’s points in the comments. We should probably listen rather than react so badly.
It’s a shame this forum is 95% male - it would be interesting to know what actual women and girls think with regards to gender representation.
From my pov, as someone who sees skate media every day but isn’t involved in any scene, representation seems so much more varied than at probably any point ever (referring to gender and age here) - both within mainstream skate media but also DIY and self initiated avenues. The parks round me, city mill and Hackney bumps, have been noticeably not just white dudes in their early 20s whenever I’ve been. Not saying things are equal, realistically they won’t ever be, but things seem good?
But then again, Slap has a 100 page thread about a prominent women pro, and not in a good way, so who knows…
You let things come out of your mouth that are controversial and aimed to cause offence then you should expect that these things will be “amplified”
She knows what she is doing and it’s down to her not getting recognised herself, nothing to do with other minorities. She is only being recognised by certain outlets because she has put herself there and not being recognised by the core media because of this.
Accountability is a good quality and not enough people own it.
The core point is fair, mags should continue to do more to include diverse and interesting parts of the skate scene. Everyone wants to see that and it will improve the scene and it will bring new audiences to the mags and encourage more skaters.
But this sounds like she is bashing mags that are already doing it, proclaiming herself as the voice of all women, and doing what exactly with her own profile? Cashing in on sponsorships, promoting Heely’s, and churning out embarassing trash. It’s just all a bit cynical.
You can put the shoe on the other foot and say that because the pool of white male skateboarders is so vast that it’s harder for people to come up because there are always darlings of the time and by the time there is a window your peak is gone and you no longer have it to get in. Whereas the pool of girls is so much smaller that you have a better chance of being seen when you get to a level deemed for publishing.
All I am putting forward is ‘what if a goal here is personal gain’?
What she is saying in that clip doesn’t sound like any of the other groups out there I listen to. By which I mean that it sounds far harder edged and without any evidence anyone can show to back it up.
And unlike those groups, she also doesn’t seem to be using her platform to empower any of those overlooked groups which makes it feel all a bit hollow.
Just doing it for the fame would be incredibly damaging and I hope I have totally misread the situation.
I don’t think anyone is or has reacted badly. We have all just seen holes in her statement and seen it for what it is morelike.
It’s easy for us white males to call her out for it and this will probably be the argument to discredit any opposing opinion.
Like LS said, it’s a shame as she has such a reach, she could easily turn that into good and help represent herself, her peers and other minorities in the way she feels is lacking but no, she decides to call out people working hard to represent skateboarding with their vision. Stirring hate and division rather than looking for a solution.
Edit: answered wrong person, aimed at Dent Face suggesting people reacted badly.
I like lurking Slap, but yer that thread is rank. It’s not her fault she is marketable and Vans gave her a shoe.
I understand everyones comments on here. Stef’s skating, (to me) isn’t worth coverage, but thats to me a white man. So what the fuck do I know. It’s her opinion on whether she feels represented or not. But is she talking about influencer level, or girls that actually shred?
As mentioned, she has a huge social media following, and a brand. Has Salon ever put anything out? what a platform to change things if you wanted to.
I’m in a similar place to @BvS - not really part of a scene anymore, but the skate media I do watch and see it seems like a much better gender split than say 5-10 years ago.
yeah? I guess I cannot comment on that as I don’t see it.
I can only say what I see here and I guess we are a sort of echo chamber.
I can only imagine though, skateboarders are not saints and there are some very silly people skateboarding.
Yeah, the IG comments get very ranty and are by and large pretty lame towards her for reasons which often have fuck all to do with the actual topic of the content shared. Not cool.
Yeah her whole Saudi thing was weird. She got paid by a skate park builder to go to SA to teach girls to skate. On the surface that seems really wholesome but the whole thing was tone deaf in that she didn’t have the faintest idea of the social issues and human rights abuses of the country.
Saudi promoting women in sport by boosting women’s football and paying for the “celebrities” like Nurding to go to teach girls to skate just seems so fucked when women are still second class citizens (if that).
Nurding had no clue what she was a part of and I don’t like that
Loads of people called her out for the blatant hypocrisy of her going out and yaaaas queening her way on a fully comped trip in bikinis doing mobbed halfcab flips on desert roads when women are literally second class citizens and her response was “its not my fault, Im too busy to look into it, i dont know anything about that I didnt read up on it and i only saw happy people” then stopped tagging all the #visitsaudi hashtags when people claimed sportwashing
