i knew some really cool cats who wore the boots. same with bmx. far more of them are still doing it than the dudes i grew up skating with too. that might be a socioeconomic piece though. I always found dudes who booted and bmxed came from more intact families and had more $$ and subsequently more parental supervision, leading to less addiction and street crime...
Another reason why I love SLAP! There's actual substantive analysis here. I nerd out on critically thinking about why people do the things they do, where they do them, and how prevalent is the trend of people doing that in a g iven area, etc. etc. Not just within skating, but other areas of life, too.
My $0.02 is I've never gotten to know any actual bladers but I'm sure they're a mix of good people and bad people just like skaters. That said, I probably vibed them at my local if they were waxing QP coping and ledges that already had wax on them 🙄 That's my only qualm with them and I rarely seem them nowadays, actually. I've probably been unsavory either to them or when talking shit about them to friends and I regret any homophobic slurs or comments that were insensitive that I made when I was younger. Before the whole LGBTQA+ movement took storm, there was this piece from this short lived show, 'Human Giant' that became its "legacy" long after it was cancelled. Can't find the video, must have been scrubbed from the internet (and for good reason if so). Will link a video here if I do find it.
The scene had Aziz Ansari (comedian) rolling up on blades to a pedestrian and asking them "You know what the hardest part about rollerblading is? ...Telling your parents you're gay" and then he skates off I think.
Needless to say, those that saw this likely subconsciously or consciously associated this label to bladers because they thought it was funny, regardless if they knew that it was insensitive or not.
Topic: Does the skateboard community owe the rollerblade community an apology for bias? (Read 7502 times)