Carving in and “Carving Out” Space: Gender in the Halifax Skateboarding Subculture

Abstract

Skateboarding was made without rules, confinement, or regulation; it is a subculture (Beal, 1996) with an ideology that counters normative authority and, more specifically, standards of masculinity. Yet skateboarding continues to have persistent misogynistic perspectives and gender discrepancies in participation (Beal, 1996). Therefore, it is critical to understand the experiences of marginalized genders in the skateboarding subculture to discover how ideas of authenticity are formed and upheld in the skate subculture and how these standards impact skateboarders of marginalized genders. This study uses insights from Judith Butler, Erving Goffman, and Pierre Bourdieu to frame understandings of gender, subcultural identity, and power dynamics. It examines the unexplored skateboard subculture in Halifax, N.S. through an analysis of its symbolic membership and physical and social space. Through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, this study identifies a disassociation from ‘typical’ masculinity and outwardly favourable attitudes towards gender diversity within the Halifax skateboard community; however, there are gender barriers within this still hyper-masculine setting disguised through support. Nevertheless, the historically resistant and rebellious attitudes that coincide with skateboarding may provide a space for fem and nonbinary skaters to counter the gender norms in the larger society and the skateboarding subculture.

Keywords: Skateboarding Subculture, Gender norms, Marginalized Genders, Authenticity, Entitlement to Space, “Strategic Entitlement”, Resistance.